Now, the uprising of the kin

It's controversy again for the movie Mangal Pandey ��� The Rising. This time, acting on a petition filed by Mangal Pandey's descendants, including Omkar Pandey, great great-grandson of the sepoy's brother Lalit, the Delhi High Court has issued notices to Aamir, Rani, Bobby Bedi, Ketan Mehta and Farrukh Dhondy to stop the screening of the movie.
What is the objection to the film? "Mangal Pandey was a real hero, but the movie is purely fictional and distorts historical facts.Ours is a protest against Mangal Pandey's character assassination," says 29-year-old Omkar, a student of financial marketing in England. "I have come to India to protect my ancestor's reputation. My father and relatives are very upset with the movie, which shows Mangal Pandey visiting a kotha and having a relationship with Rani Mukherjee, who plays a prostitute. Then, while bathing in the Ganga, Mangal Pandey is shown applying sindoor on Rani's forehead. All this is unacceptable. In real life, Mangal Pandey was a devout Brahmin who never went to a kotha or married."
At the same time, a recent book by Amaresh Misra on the sepoy claims that Mangal Pandey was physically involved with a married Bengali woman. "I don't know about the book, but our family is not aware of Mangal Pandey being involved with a married woman," says Omkar, while insisting that his ancestor was "India's first freedom fighter and not an accidental hero" as portrayed by Rudrangshu Mukherjee in his book. "Mangal Pandey never had bhang, he was moved to do what he did by love for his country."