Today's much anticipated release PAAN SINGH TOMAR has been co-written by the renowned Sanjay Chouhan, who has been associated with quite a few critically acclaimed Hindi films. Topping the list are the critically acclaimed films like I AM KALAM (for which he won the Filmfare award) and MAINE GANDHI KO NAHIN MARA, but he also has commercially viable films like TEREE SANG and SAHEB, BIWI AUR GANGSTER etc. to his credit.
A pertinent question on everyone's lips regarding PAAN SINGH TOMAR and its story is whether any cinematic liberties have been taken while writing the film or is it an exact account of the athlete-turned-dacoit's life.
To seek the answer we talked to the person who is most conversant with the screenplay of PST, and that is none other than the writer Sanjay Chouhan. He explained, 'We have to take cinematic liberties and we have.'
When we asked him to cite an example he said, 'See, when we talked to late Paan Singh's wife (who used to cook rotis for him) about his eating habits she told us to ask his mother, and the reason she gave was that she used to have a long 'ghunghat' (veil) and hardly conversed with him, and his mother used to feed him. Despite that they had many children, but we cannot exactly highlight/show that in the film. In PAAN SINGH TOMAR Mahie Gill plays a typical dominating wife (I think most husbands will understand!). Whenever a biopic is made, one must take the integrity of the family into account and we should not show things that may be embarrassing for the family.'
Very well explained indeed we have to admit, and we are sure that the efforts of director Tigmanshu Dhulia and writer Sanjay Chouhan are bound to be rewarded with rich dividends as well as critical acclaim.
