Swami Vivekananda | Who also inspires the Indian Cinema

Swami Vivekananda was a dynamic and dedicated patriot, a devoted social reformer and above all, an “Orator by Divine right”. He also introduced the world to the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga.

On the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, India celebrates National Youth Day across the country. A mighty spiritual personality, Swami Vivekananda became popular in the western world after his famous speech at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893.

Born as Narendranath Datta on January 12, 1863, Swami Vivekananda’s span of earthly life, was hardly forty years. He breathed his last on July 4, 1902. Within this short period he lived an intense life.

Vivekananda who was the chief disciple of the 19th-century mystic Ramakrishna Paramhansa, was the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur in erstwhile Bengal.

Indian Cinema had tried to portrayed  Swami Vivekananda in Movies. Here you will know about the all films based on Swami Vivekananda.

Swami Vivekananda (1955)

Swami Vivekananda is a 1955 Hindi language Indian feature film produced and directed by Amar Mullick, starring Ajit Prakash, Bharati Devi, Anubha Gupta Manoranjan Bhattachary etc. The film was based on the biography of Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda. The film is considered a “faithful and memorable documentation feature” on Vivekananda.

The film was produced and directed by Amar Mallick Productions and directed by Amar Mallick). The music of the film was composed by Rai Chand Boral (known as R.C. Boral) of the New Theatres and Salil Choudhury.

The movie cast was Ajit Prakash, Bharati Devi, Anubha Gupta and Manoranjan Bhattacharya. The film was released in 1955 and received mainly positive reviews from critics. According to The Indian Express, the film is a “faithful and memorable documentation feature” on Swami Vivekananda. T. M. Ramachandran, wrote in his book 70 years of Indian cinema, 1913-1983, that the film “will ever remain enshrined in the memories of the viewers. The film brought to graphic view the exploits of this cyclonic sage of India”.

Bireswar Vivekananda (1964)

Bireswar Vivekananda is a 1964 Bengali film. The film was directed by Madhu Bose. The film was made under the banner of Sebak Chitra Pratisthan. Anil Bagchi was music composer of this film. Amaresh Das played the main character Swami Vivekananda and Gurudas Bandyopadhyay played the character Ramakrishna.

The film cast was Amaresh Das as Swami Vivekananda, Gurudas Bandyopadhyay as Ramakrishna, Molina Debi, Mihir Bhattacharya, Bipin Gupta, Jahar Ganguly, Gangapada Basu , Jiben Bose, Premangshu Bose, Priti Majumdar and Swapan Kumar.

Swami Vivekananda (1998)

Swami Vivekananda is a 1998 Indian biographical film directed by G. V. Iyer and produced by T. Subbarami Reddy. It took Iyer 11 years to finish the research work required for the film and to write the screenplay.

The film starred Sarvadaman D. Banerjee as Swami Vivekananda, the 19th-century Hindu monk, and Mithun Chakraborty as Ramakrishna, his guru. Even though the film was completed and was considered for 1995 national awards, the film got released on 12 June 1998. The film was premiered on India’s public service broadcaster Doordarshan on 15 August 1998, the country’s Independence Day.

The film received mixed, mainly negative, reviews from critics. Mithun Chakraborty’s acting in this film was widely appreciated and he won his third National Film Award.

Sarvadaman D. Banerjee played the role of Vivekananda in this film. Banerjee was a regular actor in Iyer’s films and portrayed the role of Adi Shankara in his film Adi Shankaracharya (1983) too. Bengali film actor Mithun Chakraborty portrayed Ramakrishna’s character. The film won Mithun Chakraborty his third National Film Award, this time for Best Supporting Actor category.

This was his first film with Iyer. After receiving “Lifetime achievement award” in 2012 Chakraborty told, he tried to follow the teachings of Swami Vivekananda throughout his acting career. Chakraborty cast in the role of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, lends credence to the film by his sterling acting histrionics which earned him the accolade as an “intuitive and mysticalin a tour de force rendering”.

Debashree Roy was choiced to play Sarada Devi, the consort of Ramakrishna. Roy told in an interview that the acting in the film as Sarada Devi was a special blessing for her and she felt “strange emotions” during the shooting. Apart from the lead roles the film has a galaxy of famous stars in different small roles resulting in its production budget touching Rs 30 million.

Hema Malini has acted in the role of overdressed Bhavatarini, Rakhee is cast as Rajasthani tribal woman, Jaya Prada is in a dancing girl role. Many famous male actors like Mammooty, Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor and Anupam Kher also have small roles.

The Light: Swami Vivekananda (2013)

The Light: Swami Vivekananda (2013) is a bilingual (Bengali and Hindi) film directed by Utpal (Tutu) Sinha and produced by Tri Colour productions private limited. The film is based on the life and teaching of Swami Vivekananda. The film was a tribute to Vivekananda on the 150th anniversary of his birth. The film was dubbed in 18 languages.

Deep Bhattacharya played the role of Swami Vivekananda whom director Tutu Sinha first saw in a Bengali drama. Premankur Chattopadhyay and Gargi Roy Chowdhury played the characters of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Sarada Devi respectively. Sayak Chakraborty played the role of vivekananda’s child hood. This was Sayak’s debut film. California based actress Courtney Stephens played the character of Sister Nivedita.

Next film on Swami Vivekananda is in pipeline

After producing films such as The Accidental Prime Minister, Gangs of Wasseypur and Shahid, producer Sunil Bohra has acquired the rights of historian Hindol Sengupta’s ‘The Modern Monk: What Vivekananda Means To Us Today’. The book is published by Penguin India.The producer will soon be making a film on the same.

Talking about the thought process behind the inception of the project, Sunil says, “India has a great heritage and I want to make films on some of the people like Swami Vivekananda and Sardar Patel who have built this heritage. It’s my tribute to our country and Sri Narendra Modi.”The work on the project has begun and the writing is in process.

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