Shoojit Sircar Sardar Udham The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919 and how it transforms young Udham Singh overnight, ends with the beginning of the story. We are given the famous act of a determined revolutionary of taking revenge on Michael O’Dwyer, the former governor of Punjab, in 27 minutes on March 13, 1940; Its remaining 135 minutes unfold in the slow motion of the two decades between Singh’s life – living in a string of fake identities and doing odd jobs across continents – a long preparation for that one moment of patriotic recognition.
Torture was also a necessary tool to get her story out in a London prison—we are not spared. Just as we are not spared from the horrific barbarism of Jallianwala Bagh: for 30 minutes, in fact, we are immersed in it. For those of us familiar with Attenborough Gandhi, the first 12 minutes of those 30 minutes are one of a kind, but where Attenborough ends the four-minute massacre sequence, with Gandhi surveying the bloodied ‘garden’, his face engraved with infinite pain , background outlined with a mournful shehnai (the same Ravi Shankar score would be used again in the split sequence later in the film), depicting the violence inflicted on a peaceful group of protesters by Government General Reginald Dyer (Andrew Havill) Relentless and forgiving. The tacit support of Michael O’Dwyer (Shawn Scott). It’s bloody and bloody, and that’s what we get. In good measure. But what’s even more important is the next 18 minutes out of those 30 minutes—Dhamm arrives very late at the scene of the massacre, but is trying to save as many survivors from the dead as possible with supernatural effort. , in the dead of night, storm in hand, and move them to the nearest house in random piles. It’s a sequence the audience will never forget… how on earth could the hustle be after experiencing it himself?
Just before he was hanged in July 1940, Udham told Detective Inspector John Swain (Stephen Hogan), “Us raat meine maut dekhi” (That night, I saw death). and continues: “Mein jab 18 saal ki huyi, meri granthi ji ne kaha, ‘Puttar, jawani raab ka diya huwa tohfa hain. Abhi yeh tere upar hain ki tu is tohfe ko zaya karta hain, ya isko koyi matlab deta hain’. …Puchhunga unse, ‘meri jawani ka koyi matlab bana, yah zaya kar di’?” (When I turned 18, my grantee told me: Son, puberty is nature’s gift. It’s up to you whether you choose to waste it or give it a meaning… I’ll ask him now: Have I Youth is wasted or given it means?)
Swain hears this sympathetically and asks: “Can I do something for you?” “Tell the people that I was a revolutionary,” replies Udham Singh. The subtle changes in their relationship—from a British intelligence officer to hell—intent on extracting information from a stubborn Indian prisoner who won’t give it to him leave two men standing on two sides of the colonial divide trying to understand each other. The attitude (a patriot ‘protesting’ against imperialism and dreaming of independence and a government and an empire doing their ‘duties’) – is one of the most memorable aspects of the film.
it reminds rang De Basanti– The (fictional) British officer in charge of Bhagat Singh and his colleagues in prison in India, and their moral dilemma when faced with the sheer heroism of the revolutionaries. But it was a fast-paced, dramatic film by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, a fusion of two eras in India’s history, aimed at highlighting the inevitable abuse of power (be it an oppressive colonial government) or a democratically elected answer. -colonial). This ‘contemporary take’ on the story of the revolutionaries of Punjab led by the charismatic Bhagat Singh was far more memorable than most biopics of Bhagat Singh – a subject that at one time captivated a fan of filmmakers (as varied as the lead). A set of actors as Ajay Devgn, Bobby Deol and Gurdas Maan).
Sarkar’s film features the defining friendship of Bhagat Singh (Amol Parashar) and Udham Singh (their scenes are, unsurprisingly, the only light moments in the film), but doesn’t give the former much screen space – as in not taking up any. Want the possibility to shift the spotlight from the latter. Some scenes of Udham are with British communist Eileen Palmer (Kirsty Everton) and her love interest (Banita Sandhu) in Punjab – representing solidarity, the second romance – somehow only increasing the loneliness of their life and mission. work.
Vicky Kaushal as Udham Singh shines in every frame. In an interview with Anupama Chopra, he says with utmost humility about playing the role in place of Irrfan Khan: “Whatever shot I give, whatever I take, it will be a dedication to Irrfan… Really hope I am at least one percent of what he could have done,” he said. I don’t have any expert commentary to compare him with Irrfan, but I found Vicky 100 percent in the character he portrayed. found credible, thereby adding an Indian revolutionary to his acting CV, after playing both a Pakistani (agree) and an Indian soldier (Hatred), admirably bringing out these roles in different shades of valor and heroism.
I may be in the minority in this, but I was reminded of the most while watching the movie Bose: The Forgotten Hero—Shyam Benegal’s sweeping epic of the last five years of Netaji’s life, when he tried to achieve the impossible feat of independence from British rule by collaborating/aligning with Britain’s enemies during World War II. The murder of a single British officer and the attempt to bring an empire to its knees are not the same things, granted – a matter of comparison, but rather, the winding path required to reach the intended goal and the splendid patience and courage required to accomplish it. are engaged. Both included a strategy to mobilize forces outside India to bring about change and to guarantee its political independence within it.
A century has passed since Jallianwala Bagh, but as the film’s end credits remind us, “India has yet to receive an official apology from the British government for … the massacre.” Jallianwala Bagh, however, continues to survive as event, metaphor, memory (to borrow historian Shahid Amin’s eloquent interpretation of the Chauri Chaura incident in February 1922, which abruptly stopped Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement) .
You can visit the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial in Amritsar, which is only a short walk from the Golden Temple; Read the latest books on the subject by Kim Wagner, Kishwer Desai, Nonika Dutta or Anita Anand; Hear family stories handed down over many generations; Or experience it through this film. take your pick.
(Rituparna Roy is an academic and writer based in Calcutta)
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