The true story of the first martyrs of India's Freedom Struggle

On the 22 nd of June in 1897, British officer Walter Rand was assassinated on the Ganeshkhind road, Poona , on his way back from a Government house party celebrating the Coronation anniversary of Queen Victoria . The film is based on the events leading up to, and the consequences of, this murder.

Walter Rand of the ICS was appointed to take charge of the Plague control measures and had successfully contained the epidemic; but his methods of evacuating the people, of fumigating their dwellings and burning the contaminated articles evoked tremendous hatred amongst certain sections of the society.

Damodar and Balkrishna Chapekar were the two elder sons of a Brahmin preacher-singer and had formed a club of idealistic youths who indulged in fanatical acts of terrorism in the name of religion and nationalism. Their youthful energies and their romantic idealism was further inspired by Tilak's militant views and resulted in an intense hatred for the British rule, their religion and their language. The excesses of the plague administration and the untimely death of a close friend drove Damodar into a conspiracy leading to the night of the 22nd of June. The murderers escaped without a trace. Inspector Brewin of the CID, with the help of the Dravid brothers, traced Damodar and was able to extract a complete confession of the crime. When the Sessions court passed a death sentence, Tilak assisted Damodar in an appeal claiming innocence but the verdict was confirmed by the High Court and Damodar was executed.

Balkrishna Chapekar was subsequently arrested in Hyderabad but he too claimed to be innocent. Finally, Inspector Brewin persuaded Vasudev Chapekar (the youngest brother) to testify against Balkrishna but in an outburst of violence there occurred two more murders, two attempted murders and finally the trials and executions of all the three assassins - Balkrishna, Vasudev and (his friend) Ranade.

The Chapekar brothers and Ranade created one of the most eventful periods in the history of Poona city and their executions enthused the spirit of freedom into a whole generation of Indians who considered these four to be the first martyrs of the nations freedom struggle.

All characters and events are real and based on available historical material. The film was shot entirely on locations in Poona , Wai and Bombay in March and April 1979.

"a remarkably successful first film; the period and characters convincingly portrayed. Historical films exploit one of cinema's greatest assets, the ability to create a convincing illusion of reality. It is possible to give an audience the sense that they have seen something of their past. 22 nd June 1897 is in that sense an honest attempt at liberating history from the printed page and restoring a sense of the actual human experience."