''Shatranj'' () is a 1969 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

spy thriller Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelli ...

film co-produced and directed by

S. S. Vasan Subramaniam Srinivasan (4 January 1904 – 26 August 1969), popularly known by his screen name S. S. Vasan, was an Indian journalist, writer, advertiser, film producer, director and business tycoon. He is the founder of the Tamil-language maga ...

. His final directorial venture, it stars

Rajendra Kumar Rajendra Kumar (born as Rajendra Kumar Tuli; 20 July 1927 – 12 July 1999), was an Indian actor who starred in Bollywood films. Starting his career in 1949, he appeared in more than 80 films in a career spanning over four decades. Kumar was on ...

and

Waheeda Rehman Waheeda Rehman (born 3 February 1938) is an Indian actress. Regarded among the most accomplished actresses of Hindi cinema, she has worked in more than Waheeda Rehman filmography, 90 feature films, in a career spanning over five decades. Her ac ...

, with

Mehmood Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Given name Mahmood *Mahmood Ali (1928� ...

Madan Puri Madan Puri (30 September 1915 – 13 January 1985) was an Indian actor of Hindi and Punjabi films. His brothers were actors Chaman Puri and Amrish Puri. As a character actor mainly in negative roles (villain), he acted in about 430 films in ...

Shashikala Shashikala Saigal (née Jawalkar; 4 August 1932 – 4 April 2021), better known by her first name, was an Indian film and television actress, who played supporting roles in hundreds of Bollywood films beginning in the 1940s. Early years Shas ...

, Helen,

Achala Sachdev Achala Sachdev (3 May 1920 – 30 April 2012) was an Indian actress who appeared in classic films of Hindi language film industry, who started her career as a child actor. She later became known for mother and grandmother roles in Hindi films. ...

Manmohan Krishna Manmohan Krishna (26 February 1922 – 3 November 1990) was an Indian film actor and director, who worked in Hindi films for four decades, mostly as a character actor. He started his career as a professor in Physics and held master's degree i ...

and Agha in pivotal roles.

Plot

Sharda has been married to Thakur for several years, and both have a daughter: Meena. Sharda and Meena suddenly decide to leave India and settle down in a

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

country, without letting Thakur know. Concerned about them, Thakur hires Jai, a spy, to locate them, and bring them back if possible. Jai agrees and soon arrives in that country, which is ruled by a military general who has not shown his face to anyone. Jai assumes the identity of Shinraaz, goes around trying to locate the two women, and finds Meena, who works as a dancer in a hotel. Jai eventually learns what brought Meena and her mother to this country, and why they both are not willing to return to India.

Cast

as Jay / Vijay / Shinraz *

as Meena *

as Ameer *

as Comrade Chang *

as Suzy * Helen as Salma *

as Sharda *

as Thakur * Agha as Comrade Lee Jung

Production

''Shatranj'' was the final film directed by

. He co-produced the film with N. N. Sippy under

Gemini Studios Gemini Studios was an Indian film studio based in Madras, Tamil Nadu. It was launched when S. S. Vasan, a businessman of many ventures (including the ownership of Ananda Vikatan) bought Motion Picture Producers' Combines from Krishnaswamy Su ...

's character was modelled after the fictional character

Fu Manchu Dr. Fu Manchu ( zh, t=傅滿洲/福滿洲, p=Fú Mǎnzhōu) is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character f ...

. The film was colourised using

Eastmancolor Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was o ...

Soundtrack

The music was composed by the duo

Shankar–Jaikishan Shankar–Jaikishan (also known as S-J) were an Indian composer duo of the Hindi film industry, working together from 1949 to 1971. They are widely considered to be one of the greatest music composers of the Hindi film industry. After Jaikisha ...

Hasrat Jaipuri Hasrat Jaipuri, born Iqbal Hussain (15 April 1922 – 17 September 1999), was an Indian poet, who wrote in the Hindi and Urdu languages. He was also a renowned film lyricist in Hindi films, where he won the Filmfare Awards for Best Lyri ...

, S. H. Bihari,

Indeevar Shyamalal Babu Rai, known professionally as Indeevar (also credited as Indiwar and Indeewar), (1 January 1924 – 27 February 1997) was one of the leading Hindi film lyricists from the 1960s then through1990s Early life He was born and grew ...

and Kiran Kalyani were the lyricists.

Release and reception

''Shatranj'' was an "

anti-China Anti-Chinese sentiment (also referred to as Sinophobia) is the fear or dislike of Chinese people or Chinese culture. It is frequently directed at Chinese minorities which live outside Greater China and it involves immigration, nationalism, p ...

movie", and theatres screening the film in

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

were burnt down by

Communist revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between ...

aries. It was later forcibly removed from exhibition by the Government of that state. In

Bathinda Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda district. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth ...

Naxalites Naxalism is the communist ideology of the Naxalites or Naxals, a grouping of political and insurgent groups from India. It is influenced by Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Inspired by Maoism, Charu Majumdar wrote the Historic ...

tried to blow up the theatre where the film was being screened, but the police successfully removed the bomb before it could do any damage. In a review dated 29 March 1969, the magazine ''Thought'' wrote, "Watching a game of

shatranj Shatranj (, ; from Middle Persian ) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire. Its origins lie in the South Asian game of chaturanga. Modern chess gradually developed from this game, as it was introduced to Europe by contacts in ...

, one needs some intelligence and common sense to follow the opponents' moves and countermoves. Watching ''Shatranj'', the film, one has to suspend both intellect and udgement" The film was commercially successful but, according to Vasan's son Balan, "not to the extent expected by the maker".

References

External links

* 1960s Hindi-language films 1960s spy thriller films Films directed by S. S. Vasan Films scored by Shankar–Jaikishan Gemini Studios films Indian spy thriller films {{1960s-Hindi-film-stub