Satyajit Ray - Shatranj Ke Khilari aka The Chess Players (1977)

In the kingdom of Awadh, rich landowners Meer (Saeed Jaffrey) and Mirza (Sanjeev Kumar) pour every ounce of passion into a never-ending game of chess. At the same time, an ambitious British General (Sir Richard Attenborough) plots his own moves against Awadh's King (Amjad Khan) and Prime Minister (Victor Banerjee), in the hope of taking the region for his Queen. Heedless of their political and family responsibilities, Mirza and Meer keep playing. But as British soldiers march on their homeland, an innocent game escalates into deadly confrontation and catastrophic loss. Rich, poor, winner or loser, everyone is revealed to be history's pawn.





Written, composed, and directed by Indian master Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali), The Chess Players presents a stylized world in which the landed gentry lounge about, endlessly pulling on hookahs and engaging in the "king of games." Outside their gilded doors, the order that allows them this luxury--let alone their marriages--is crumbling. They couldn't be more oblivious. As the narrator notes, "Mr. Meer and Mr. Mirza are only playing at warfare. Their armies are pieces of ivory. Their battlefield: a piece of cloth." Set in 1856 Lucknow, the noblemen (Saeed Jaffrey and Sanjeev Kumar) are situated in one of the few Indian territories not ruled by Britain's East India Company. The British, meanwhile, are also playing a game of chess, and equally oblivious Oudh ruler Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (Amjad Khan) is the king they intend to capture.







Los jugadores de ajedrez
Mirza Sajjad Ali y Mir Roshan Ali se reúnen, como es habitual en ellos, para jugar interminables partidas de ajedrez. Es el año 1856 y se están produciendo los primeros levantamientos anticoloniales, sin embargo ellos no son hombres de política y permanecen ajenos a lo que sucede a su alrededor. El filme está hablado en hindi, la lengua más expandida del continente indio (pero que Ray no habla). Se reconstruye la civilización urdu de 1856, en el momento de la anexión británica y un año antes de una de las primeras revueltas contra el ocupante rapaz.

El film narra la historia de dos miembros de la clase alta en el noreste de la India a mediados del siglo XIX. Son dos terratenientes inútiles que se pasan los días jugando al ajedrez. Simultáneamente y con mucha sutileza, Ray nos cuenta la historia de la toma de poder por parte de los británicos en esta última "cereza por comer" del subcontinente asiático.







Les joueurs d’échecs
Au royaume musulman d'Oudh, le souverain Wajid Ali Shah occupe son temps entre la poésie et la musique. Non loin du palais royal, deux propriétaires terriens jouent d'interminables parties d'échecs. Plonges dans leurs passions, il ignorent les visées colonisatrices de la puissante Compagnie des Indes dont l'armée est aux portes du royaume.





lk