Finally on celluloid... something that has fascinated me for long; the story of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine and their 'Everest' expeditions. They disappeared close to the Everest summit in 1924 but the mystery and debate hasn't rested. Did the duo finally make it to the top before falling to their deaths? They were last seen making a final dash for the summit by a fellow climber.

A good portion of the movie will be shot in Darjeeling; the place from it all began. Will reserve comments on the yet to be made movie (Newspapers say, its being produced by Paul Heller of 'Enter the Dragon' fame)....but for now the choice of subject itself is touching.

With their deaths comes to life the whole mystery of Everest that it was in the 1920's... when mountain tourism had not arrived and mountaineering in true sense was 'exploration'.

Along with Mallory and Irvine, another name that bears recall is 'Sir Francis Younghusband', considered to be the last 'great gamer'. President of the Royal Geographic Society during the Mallory-Irvine expeditions... Younghusband was keen that the expedition went ahead...and funded it despite Mallory's two failed Everest expeditions in the past.

Younghusband himself was a great explorer... he lived in India...crossed over to China... limped to Gobi... and ... hobnobbed with unruly tribes of central Asian plains and in 1905 led the first British expedition to Tibet. Official versions will always claim that he was there to extend the influence of the crown beyond the empire. But do such adventures happen on sheer official diktat? It is perhaps sheer madness that pushes human limits and stands vindicated mostly or else create tragic heroes like Mallory- Irvine.

The museum in Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling has a lot of mountaineering memorabilia. The kind of equipments that Mallory and Irvine used to scale Everest rightly appear outdated but in their faded pictures they refuse to fade with time....I particularly liked the one where Mallory poses nude for the arrogance and simplicity bit of it. (He was clicked while crossing a stream probably) with a knapsack on and a cigar for company. Quite the man, who when asked about the purpose of his Everest expedition said, "Because it is there".

Mallory's body was found in the icy slopes of Everest in 1999, someday they will find Irvine too.... probably... I (and others) hope they find Mallory's camera too....That 'one' picture on the Everest summit can settle the debate...between them and Edmund Hillary - Tenzing Norgay.

I shall wait for the movie.