22 June 1897

22 June 1897 (1979)

Due to a plague epidemic in Pune, the British Government deputes C.W. Rand as Chairman of the Special Plague Committee, empowering him to do whatever is necessary to control the menace. Rand's heavy handed measures deeply offend local sensibilities, driving a group of angry youngsters to assassinate him and Lt. Charles Ayerst- the first outbreak of revolutionary activities in British India.

Date of release
1979-01-01
TMDB
8.0 / 10 (2)
Genres
Drama, History
Director
Jayoo Patwardhan, Nachiket Patwardhan

Casting

Interesting facts

22 June 1897 is a 1979 Marathi film co-written by Shankar Nag and Nachiket Patwardhan and directed by the husband and wife team of Jayoo Patwardhan and Nachiket Patwardhan. The duo are also practising architects. It is based on the true life story of the assassination of British Government officers Walter Charles Rand ICS and Lt. Charles Egerton Ayerst by the Chapekar brothers. The film has been included in the book One Hundred Indian Feature Films: An Annotated Filmography, a representative selection from the first Indian talkies to the then-present date (1988). The title of the film is the date of the assassination, 22 June 1897.

Production

The film is based on true life events leading up to, and the consequences of, the assassination of Charles Walter Rand, Assistant Collector of Pune and Chairman of the Special Plague Committee, Pune, and British Army officer Lt Charles Egerton Ayerst.

Ayerst was Rand's military escort on 22 June 1897 by the Chapekar brothers – Damodar Hari, Vasudev Hari, and Balkrishna Hari and Mahadeo Vinayak Ranade, Khando Vishnu Sathe a schoolboy was charged as a co-conspirator and sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment.

The film was the directorial debut of Jayoo and Nachiket Patwardhan, commissioned by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) on a shoestring Rupees 350,000 budget. Jayoo Patwardhan scouted for locations in Wai and Pune for the period look, poring over scores of photographs obtained by her grandfather, and spending months researching the details. Most of the performers in the film belonged to Theater Academy, Pune.

Damodar Hari's narration of the shooting differs from the events as shown in the film. In his autobiography, Damodar Hari writes that he believed the jubilee celebrations would cause Europeans of all ranks to go to the Government House, and this would give them the opportunity to kill Rand. The brothers Damodar Hari and Balkrishna Hari selected a spot of Ganeshkhind road, by the side of a yellow bungalow to shoot at Rand.

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