On the 123rd birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose – an emotion on which almost every Bengali harp upon, SVF shared the first poster of an upcoming Bengali film “Gumnami – The greatest story never told” by Srijit Mukherji. The poster of the movie has Gumnami Baba staring at a wall with a collage of newspaper cutouts on Netaji’s disappearance, surely intrigues the mystery some more.
Who is Gumnami Baba? He was a saint, who lived in Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh, and was initially known as Bhagwanji, and much later came to be known as Gumnami baba. Amongst the three commissions launched by the government of India to enquire Netaji’s death, the first two concluded that he died in a plane crash over Taiwan – but the third one, Mukherjee Commission, reportedly found out several similarities between Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Gumnami Baba.
Happy Birthday, #NetajiSubhasChandraBose . pic.twitter.com/JVWjEBaWpm
— SVF (@SVFsocial) January 23, 2019
The Mukherjee Commission also reported, that some members of the Azad Hind Fauj and politicians used to visit the baba Netaji’s birthday on 23rd January and during Durga Puja, which is the biggest festival of the Bengalis. However, the leader’s death still remains shrouded in mystery, as many believe he went on to live his life as Gumnami baba in Uttar Pradesh.
Veteran Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee will be playing the role of “Gumnami Baba” in the film, which will be produced by Shrikant Mohta’s SVF entertainment, one of the largest entertainment company in Eastern India, and is set to release in January 2020. The project was announced August 18, last year, the fateful day when Netaji’s plane reportedly crashed in Taiwan.
Netaji researcher and former journalist Anuj Dhar also tweeted that, the movie is based on his upcoming book on mystery, which he coauthored with Chandrachur Ghose.
Teaser poster of @srijitspeaketh“s mega venture on India’s best kept secret, based on @chandrachurg and mine upcoming book on Gumnami Baba/Netaji controversy. @SVFsocial #NetajiSubhasChandraBose pic.twitter.com/WlH3z1QX0w
— Anuj Dhar (@anujdhar) January 23, 2019
While, the official reports suggest something else, and after releasing 2,324 files on Netaji since 1997, the Government of India declared in 2016, that there is no more classified information left about him – many researchers, followers and even a part of his family believe that he lived long after the plane crash.
In a documentary named “Black Box of History” made by Amlan Kusum Ghosh, it has footage of retired Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee (of Mukherjee Commission) saying that he is a hundred per cent sure that the friar of Faizabad was Netaji – which only keeps the mystery alive.
