Yet another biopic about the life of revolutionary Indian freedom fighter Shaheed Udham Singh, Sardar Udham, which differs refreshingly from the other biopics, perhaps three movies already made over the decades, in terms of storytelling and storytelling. The film is directed by Shoojit Sircar (or Sarkar), an Indian filmmaker who is well known for several films, particularly the critically acclaimed and enchanting. Vicky Donor (2012), Piku (2015) and Pink (2016). The film was scheduled to be released in theaters on Gandhi Jayanti Day, October 2, 2020, but had to be postponed indefinitely due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, Amazon bought the distribution rights and released it on Prime Video on October 16, 2021. In the past few days, the movie has garnered great acclaim from viewers and, of course, mixed reviews. The fact that the audience licks the film is a very healthy trend, because it is made without today’s strident patriotism with bombastic dramatized dialogue, jingoism, and hatred of any particular community. The director, instead, wants to delve into the personality of Udham Singh, played very sincerely by actress Vickey Kaushal from Raman Raghava 2.0 (2016), Sanju (2018) and uri (2019) fame, and builds a very human character who regrets the waste of his beautiful youth, but continues the fight to free his country from the chains of British imperialism which he considers evil and has to be destroyed, but without spread hate or even hate the British themselves. Structurally, the film has a non-linear format, with intermittent flashbacks or parallel narratives perhaps hurting the narrative a bit for viewers. But we’ll come back to his point later.
For the first time on screen, at least for this writer personally, the horrors of the incredibly barbaric Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, were shown mercilessly, brutally, and in graphic detail for nearly thirty minutes that, astonishingly They come only in the last hour of the two hour and forty minute film. Although some critics object to such a lengthy display of gore, the immensity of the tragedy that occurred during India’s freedom movement justifies it, both for its realistic treatment and because it shaped the determined determination in the mind of a young Udham and changed his life. This massacre was masterminded by Michael O’Dwyer (played by Shaun Scott), the then Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, who believed in his own philosophy of ‘fear is the key’ to crush the movement by instilling deadly fear in everyone’s minds. freedom fighters in India. To give effect to this, he assigned a like-minded commander, Reginald Dyer (played by Andrew Havill). Between 6,000 and 20,000 people, including women and children, gathered in the garden of Jallianwala Bagh on that fateful day in a form of peaceful democratic protest, unaware of the demonic plans of the British Raj.
General Dyer selected the military regiments, considered the most loyal to the British, and entered the garden at around 5.30pm through the front gate with soldiers at the ready with loaded rifles. It was said that he wanted to bring in the armored vehicles with machine guns, but due to the narrowness of the gate it was not possible. The Jallianwala Garden was surrounded by buildings and walls on all sides and the other four gates were permanently closed, leaving only the main gate for possible escape which was blocked by Dyer’s forces. The curfew has already sounded in the city of Amritsar. The people gathered there stared at this unexpected intrusion while standing muttering to each other. General Dyer, without giving any warning to disperse, ordered the forces to open fire. The hail of bullets continued for ten minutes until the ammunition reportedly ran out. People were running around desperately trying to escape, but there was no way out. Even people who were climbing the walls to get out were shot down. Many of them jumped into the pit there, now called the Pit of Martyrs, in an attempt to avoid the unrelenting hail, and it was later reported that more than 120 corpses had been recovered from the bottom of the pit. The ruthlessly inhumane general and his forces abandoned the facility leaving the wounded to die as well, as there was a curfew in effect and no medical facilities were organized.
The younger Udham planned to sleep in that day and told his girlfriend Reshma the day before, but Reshma said that she would definitely take part in the protest. In fact, he had been sleeping all day when the fleeing people told him about the horrible incident. He immediately jumped up and ran to the scene of the tragedy, initially calling for Reshma. He then heard the pitiful sounds of groans and painful screams coming from the wounded in the vast array of blood-soaked recumbent bodies, and was instantly engaged in the rescue work: first he carried the wounded on his shoulders running to the hospital and back. again. To speed up the rescue work, he arranged a hand-drawn wooden cart to transport the bodies and asked some of his friends to join. The constant calls of him’koyi zinda hain?’ (‘Is there anyone alive out there?’) finding out people still alive was heartbreaking. Rescue work continued until Udham nearly collapsed from exhaustion and some of the injured survived while others succumbed in hospital. This 30 minute long scene is one of the most powerful portrayals of a historic event in world cinema. During that time, a subordinate asked Dyer, who was relaxed and serious, if the curfew would be lifted. Dyer ordered him to raise it only after 8 a.m. so that the dead could be cremated or buried. This makes it clear that both O’Dwyer and Dyer wanted everyone gathered there killed in furtherance of the ‘fear is the key’ policy.
Udham never found his Reshma, and the tragedy made him a revolutionary who joined Shaheed Bhagat Singh, who profoundly influenced his thought and life. The film opens with a scene in 1931 when Udham was released from jail and was constantly watched by the local police. However, a determined Udham escapes to a remote village and then through a series of trips covering the USSR and Germany under various aliases of Sher Singh or Frank Brasil or Udham Singh or the like and with forged passports, finally arriving in London. . He was possessed by a single goal: to take down evil imperialism in the form of Michael O’Dwyer. The story is told like a modern thriller and we shouldn’t spoil it by saying more.
As we said, the format of the film is non-linear, alternating between the past and the present very often, and this, while effective in telling a story in an engaging treatment style, in some places hurts viewers in terms of clearly understand the events. For example, his travels are never explained in detail, they just show his walking, sometimes through the jungle and other times through the super snow where the ‘USSR’ super appears and then a Russian lady curing him of exhaustion in a private place. The actual details of his travels may not be available. He arrives in London, his passport shows the name of sher singh and is allowed to clear immigration, which is a bit unnerving since the film shows a scene where a cable was sent from Punjab to Scotland Yard about a suspected freedom fighter with the same name.
The murder of Michael O’Dwyer occurs in the first 30 minutes of the film, and of Udham’s character -his aim, his obsession and his determination- we only know about the Scotland Yard investigation with barbaric physical torture, about his operational character. strategy in London with some Indian and even British partners. We also only came to know during investigation by a rather sympathetic detective and a conversation with a token defense attorney who became acquainted with Michael O’Dwyer and even worked in his household as a domestic cum unit where he had numerous opportunities to to kill. him after learning that the old officer still did not regret the massacre and justified the action of both Dyer and himself in the realization of his policy of “fear is the key” to crush the movement. I feel the narrative should have been linear at least after his arrival in London, creating a tense build-up to the final murder on March 13, 1940 at Caxton Hall, London. Furthermore, the reference to his various visits to England is not explained. The freedom movement in India and the leaders are not shown in detail except for some missing scenes with Bhagat Singh. The film could also have been trimmed down a bit by avoiding some of the graphic scenes of torture only expected in its own kingdom of England when a top British commander is killed by an outsider.
The film made a brief reference at the end to the Hunter Commission which actually condemned Dyer’s action making him ineligible for further publication in India. Dyer fell ill soon after and died in 1927; the film has an earlier scene in which Udham looks remorsefully at Dyer’s grave. In its entirety, the film is very engrossing despite its length, even when viewers can bear the treatment in a non-linear fashion, and the recreation of the places in those days, particularly Punjab and London, was flawless and powerful. In the very brief court scene, Udham Singh delivered a speech highlighting his fight against the unjust imperialist domination of his country and his fight, according to Bhagat Singh’s ideals, is free of hate, not directed at any community, caste or religion. , including the British people: he is just a freedom fighter trying to liberate his country and people. That brief speech, without drama, sealed the case with the order to hang him. As we said earlier, this is very relevant to current times. And only after that came the scene of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, as described by Udham Singh in his death cell to the sympathetic detective. During the investigations to the repeated questions about his real name, finally Udham Singh gives the name ‘Ram Mohammed Singh Azad’, which is and remains extremely significant.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre which killed some 1500 people including women and children and injured hundreds remains an open wound for India as after more than a hundred years the UK has yet to officially apologize for the barbaric act. Furthermore, despite the justified policy of ‘fear is the key’, the gruesome incident only strengthened the Indian freedom movement leading to the non-cooperation movement in 1921-22 led by Gandhji and even loyal Indian citizens o Appreciatives of that time turned against the British. Finally, as we all know, the British Empire had to leave India to secure the freedom of India on August 15, 1947.