nOf all the freedom fighters, nobody has been an enigma bigger than Netaji Subhas Bose, in life or in death. A bright student, his claim to fame in his youth was slapping a professor on the steps of his college. Though he was a candidate for the colonial civil service exam, he cantered aside, literally, as a twinge of nationalist conscience prevented him from mounting the horse for the final test. As mayor, he pioneered Bengal?s trademark factionalism in Congress politics. Escaping from India, he sat for a while in the lap of Hitler when the air of Auschwitz was acrid with the smell of the gas chamber. He hated Gandhi and non-violence, but asked his countrymen to unite under Gandhi. He lost a clumsy war against the British. Did he die in an air-crash at Taihoku in 1945?

Filmmaker Shyam Benegal?s film on Bose (played by Sachin Khedekar in pic left) will release in a few weeks.