Indeed, Cinema and the Indian Freedom Struggle is the first book of its kind and could serve as a useful starting point for a film scholar who wishes to further the probe into the way political awareness and patriotism have imbued Indian cinema. It took Kaul six years of concerted effort to put the book together. But not all of it shines through the pages. The book is crammed with information, some well known, other not so well known, but most of it is presented in the form of fleeting fragments rather than a single structured storyline.
But overall, the book is a great read. Kaul's lively narrative reveals many unknown stories about filmmakers who got drawn into the independence movement as well as about freedom fighters who strayed into the industry. He devotes an entire chapter to the severe problems that the British censorship machinery posed to filmmakers who sought to transmit the message of freedom through their films.
But the most illuminating of all is the chapter that deals with how the leaders of the freedom struggle perceived the influence of cinema. Mahatma Gandhi made no bones about his aversion to cinema, while Jawaharlal Nehru, an avid film watcher, wasn't particularly enamoured of the fare that the industry generally churned out. Is it any wonder, then, that despite the plethora of films that dealt with the themes of subjugation and independence in the early decades of industry's existence, cinema at the national level never quite acquired the status of an 'official' mouthpiece of the freedom movement?
