Shatranj Ke Khiladi, directed by Satyajit Ray, with Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, David Abraham and Tom Alter as main lead. Richard Attenborough plays the role General James Outram, and Amjad Khan as the king of Avadh, Wajid Ali Shah.

Based on a story by Munshi Premchand, The Chess Players was Ray’s most elaborate production. It was also his first in Hindi movie and its frames are filled with music, dance, opulent pageantry, and humorous banter--even a lively animated sequence. Behind the attractive façade, however, lies a cry for lost opportunities.
The story takes place in 1856 and illustrates the lives and customs of the nineteenth century in India on the eve of the Indian rebellion of 1857, especially the policy of colonial expansion led by the English East India Company and its divisions Indian monarchs abused.

The year is 1856, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, sits on the throne of Avadh, in his capital Lucknow.

As a patron of poetry and music, the Nawab is an indifferent ruler.

Also in Lucknow are his two friends, rich landowners Mirza Sajid Ali and Mir Roshan Ali, their only occupation is to play chess and they pour every ounce of passion into a never-ending game of chess.

At the same time, an ambitious British General (Sir Richard Attenborough) plots his own moves against Awadh's King (Amjad Khan) and Prime Minister (Victor Banerjee), in the hope of taking the region for his Queen.
Mir and Mirza learn about the British Company's troops marching towards Lucknow. Scared that they may be called to fight the British forces, they run off to a remote village to continue playing chess. Heedless of their political and family responsibilities, Mirza and Meer keep playing. But as British soldiers march on their homeland, an innocent game escalates into deadly confrontation and catastrophic loss. Rich, poor, winner or loser, everyone is revealed to be history's pawn.



Like Meer and Mirza, Wajid would prefer to relax--to write poetry, to fly kites--rather than to rule. Along the way, Awadh will fall, but the chess will continue...

Fearing blood shedding of his people in a hopelessly unequal battle, the king opts to hand over the kingdom to the British with out a fight, singing to himself a Thumari that he has composed -

(Roughly translated: As we leave our beloved city of Lucknow, see what we have to go through...)