Get ready to cross swords with Rani Lakshmibai - at museum!

LUCKNOW - Rani Lakshmibai, the fiery queen of Jhansi, had taken up arms against the mighty British in 1857 to free her country, and now she might cross swords with you - in an action-packed computerised game at a museum.

The game, with a virtual reality feature, will soon be introduced at the Rajkiya Sangrahalay owned by the Uttar Pradesh government in Jhansi, some 350 km from Lucknow.

The programming of the game, which can be enjoyed on a wide 10-ft screen from February 2010, is being developed by a team of software engineers and technicians from Kolkata at a cost of Rs.20 lakh (Rs.2 million).

“It’s an innovative step and its main objective is to attract visitors, particularly those who do not like coming to the museum only to enhance their knowledge,” museum director A.K. Pandey told IANS on telephone.

“Times are changing…Visitors coming to the museum also seek entertainment value. Taking this into account, we are coming up with the game that will serve as an infotainment medium, as it would be of informative and entertainment value for the visitors,” he added.

According to officials, for playing the game named ‘Fight with Manu’ (Manu being legendary freedom fighter Rani Lakshmibai’s childhood name), visitors will have to deposit just Rs.5.

“Only one person would be able to play at a time, but even those waiting for their turn can enjoy it by seeing the action-packed game on the large screen,” Pandey said.

Besides the computerised game, the museum would also come up with a series of quiz shows based on Rani Lakshmibai’s life.

According to officials, the museum, which for the last several years was witnessing only a handful of visitors, is now being thronged by people enquiring about the launch of the game.

“Every day we are entertaining 300-400 queries from people asking when they would be able to play the much-awaited game. It appears that much before its launch, the game has become an instant hit amongst the locals,” said Shailendra Vikram, associated with the public relations wing of the museum.

Residents of Jhansi have welcomed the initiative undertaken by the museum officials.

“The step is an innovative one and would definitely help people, particularly the younger generation, to know more about the freedom fighter whom they study about in textbooks,” Chandan Singh Negi, a Jhansi resident, told IANS.

Rani Lakshmibai, the queen of the princely state of Jhansi, was one of the leading figures of the Indian rebellion in 1857 against British rule.

(Asit Srivastava can be contacted at asit.s@ians.in)