This woman, left with no other option, feeds her child with opium, which was easily available and largely consumed during the British rule, to make him sleep. “Opium and its derivatives, as the most effective pain relievers then available, were socially acceptable in the earlier 19th century.” (Forster. Mangal Pandey: drug-crazed Fanatic Or canny revolutionary? University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Pg. 18). Paul Winther has written, “an important factor for the indifference [to anti opium-trade arguments] was massive opium consumption in the British Isles. There was no stigma associated with the habit so there was no problem linked to consumption elsewhere in the world.” In the later scenes in the film, the woman is shown being beaten up by her husband for arguing with him and coming back
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The movie begins with a very upfront disclaimer:
“This story is based on actual events. In certain cases, incidents, characters and timelines have been changed or fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Certain characters may be dramatic composites or entirely fictitious. Some names and locations have been changed. The scenes depicted may be a hybrid of fact and fiction which fairly represent the source materials for the film believed to be true by the filmmakers.”
It is up to the viewer to decide as to what the ‘intellectual’ takeaway should be from Mangal Pandey: The Rising, but in terms of a historical film, Director Ketan Mehta and his team did a phenomenal job at trying to balance facts with fiction and story with context to manufacture a fine product of art and recreation of the past. How accurate this film is in its historical realms is up to the historians to debate, but as Rosenstone has said “Film is out of the control of historians.” (Rosenstone, Historical Film as Real History 1995,
The movie begins with a very upfront disclaimer:
“This story is based on actual events. In certain cases, incidents, characters and timelines have been changed or fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Certain characters may be dramatic composites or entirely fictitious. Some names and locations have been changed. The scenes depicted may be a hybrid of fact and fiction which fairly represent the source materials for the film believed to be true by the filmmakers.”
It is up to the viewer to decide as to what the ‘intellectual’ takeaway should be from Mangal Pandey: The Rising, but in terms of a historical film, Director Ketan Mehta and his team did a phenomenal job at trying to balance facts with fiction and story with context to manufacture a fine product of art and recreation of the past. How accurate this film is in its historical realms is up to the historians to debate, but as Rosenstone has said “Film is out of the control of historians.” (Rosenstone, Historical Film as Real History 1995,