French honour for 'Gour Hari Dastan'

When quirky talent-storehouse of Bheja Fry, Khosla ka Ghosla and Dasvidaniya fame Vinay Pathak essayed the title role in Gour Hari Dastan (GHD), many already called it an award-grabber. That's come true for the eponymous biopic on the life and struggle of Odisha's octogenarian freedom fighter Gour Hari Das, who waged a three decade-long struggle to be recognised as a freedom fighter. GHD has beaten several festival circuit favourites like Chotoder Chobi, Court and even Vishal Bharadwaj's Haider, to get Pathak the best actor award at Paris' Extravagant India! International Indian Film Festival.

"I'm thrilled at this recognition," exulted Pathak, when dna spoke to him. "Though the title role gets all the attention in a biopic, one can't forget the efforts of Konkona Sen, Divya Dutta or Ranvir Shorey who worked really hard on their roles. The powerful script by CP Surendran and the way director Anant Mahadevan extracted performances from us was also equally important."

Anant Mahadevan too echoed Pathak's feelings. "That our film could reach out to an all-French jury and convey its core human element feels really special. This award in many ways underlines the importance of telling stories like these which strike a universal chord given their relevance across times," he said about GHD, which shows Das' struggle in two phases — against the British and against the Indian bureaucracy.

Remembering how a newspaper report moved him to go looking for Das and convince him to share his story, Mahadevan recounted, "Here was someone who had to fight for identity in the same country he helped free." Yet it wasn't easy. "Das would relate a new anecdote every time I met him. He once even told me of an incident which we worked into the script much after it had been bound. He talked of having a full head of hair in his youth and how right after a woman praised him for it, he began balding. It was the kind of moment that my film needed and showed a romantic side to Das that we didn't know of."

Both Mahadevan and Pathak, of course, hope the award will spark interest in the film among both the audience and distributors. "If the award generates enough interest for a theatrical release, it will be so much more special," said Pathak.

The 84-year-old freedom fighter, who was at a vegetable market in Dahisar, too expressed satisfaction about the award. "I hope the recognition gets more and more young people to see this film," said the man who would ferry messages, letters and publications of the freedom movement as a 14-year-old in the Vaanar Sena.

"In my village of Jhadpipal in Odisha, I volunteered in independence-related activities for five years," he remembers and laughs, "Once I hoisted the Indian flag against orders and was imprisoned in 1945." It was seeing his son struggle to get admission in engineering that began his battle for recognition. "Since the recognition didn't come, my son never got the engineering seat at Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute. On his own merit, he got admitted to IIT Bombay. But I decided to pursue this on matter of principle," he recounts.