Page 47 - Seniors Today -April20

large chunk of the film looks more or less like performance, and made sure that at least Hindi
a picnic. The costumes were vaguely Chinese cinema recorded the heroism of an Indian
and everybody spoke Hindi; in a particularly doctor, and the reverence of the Chinese for Dr
tense period, while the Japanese were pursuing Kotnis (called Ke Dihua by them). The Chinese
a ragged Chinese army through the hills and built a statue, published books about him, and
forests, they found time to dance in coordinated released postage stamps. A Chinese biopic
clothes. Some of the lead actors were given titled Ke Di Hua Dai Fu was also made in 1982,
a rushed Chinese get-up—mainly raised though it does not seem to be available online.
eyebrows—but the extras were left loose with The Shantaram film is online in a shorter
their Indian appearance. Authenticity was two-hour version. There was also an English
not a big concern, technology was primitive, version, The Journey of Dr Kotnis, for the
but there was a great story to tell and it was foreign market, which is also inaccessible.
given the full Bollywood treatment with songs In real life, Qinglan remarried and lived to the
(Vasant Desai) and dances, ripe old age of 96 (she died in 2012); their son,
named Yinhua (meaning India and China),
Promise fulfilled however, died tragically young. She wrote
Over time, the other four doctors leave to a book, My Life with Kotnis, which could
go back home, but Dr Kotnis, fulfilling the actually be the beginning of a fresh biopic
promise made to his father, does not abandon should any filmmaker be so inclined.
his duty even when he gets a letter informing
him of the older man’s death.
He befriends an old Chinese man, ‘Kaka’
Wong (Dewan Sharar), and a Chinese General
Fong (Baburao Pendharkar), falls in love with
a Chinese nurse, Guo Qinglan (played by
Shantaram’s first wife, Jayashree) and marries
her. While on the move, with the Japanese in
pursuit, Qinglan gives birth to a son (the infant
played by Shantaram and Jayashree’s daughter
Rajshree). When faced with a terrible plague
epidemic, Dr Kotnis injects infected discharge
from lesions into his own body to study the
progression of the disease, finds a cure and
saves hundreds of lives. He also operates with
rudimentary facilities and saves wounded
soldiers. He dies just a few years later, at the
age of 32, of epilepsy, but possibly because of
exhaustion and his experiment during the
plague epidemic.

Recording heroism
Seen today, the film seems excessively
theatrical, but Shantaram gave a commendable Cutting a heroic figure

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #10 | APRIL 2020 47