Sardar Udham, another biopic based on the life of Indian revolutionary freedom warrior Shaheed Udham Singh, stands apart in terms of narrative and storytelling from the other biopics, possibly three films released throughout the decades. The film is directed by Shoojit Sircar (or Sarkar), an Indian director best known for his work on various films, including the wonderful and critically praised Vicky Donor, Piku, and Pink. The film was supposed to be released in theatres on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, 2020, however, it had to be postponed indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, Amazon purchased the distribution rights and premiered it on Prime Video on October 16, 2021. The film has received a lot of positive feedback in the previous few days, as well as some divided reviews. The fact that the audience enjoyed the film is a very positive trend because it is free of today's noisy patriotism with exaggerated high-sounding words, jingoism, and animosity for any one group.
Instead, the director wants to delve into the character of Udham Singh, who is played with great sincerity by actor Vickey Kaushal of Raman Raghav 2.0, Sanju, and Uri fame, and creates a very human character who laments the waste of his lovely youth but continues to fight to free his country from the shackles of British imperialism, which he considers an evil that must be destroyed, but without spreading hatred or even hating the British themselves. The film is structured in a non-linear fashion, with occasional flashbacks or parallel narrative, which may detract from the narration in the eyes of the audience. However, we'll come back to his point later. The horrors of the extraordinarily savage Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, were presented for the first time on the screen, at least for this writer personally, for over thirty minutes, which, shockingly, came only in the last hour of the two hours and forty-minute long film. Although some may object to such a long depiction of gore, the enormity of the tragedy that occurred during the Indian freedom movement deserves it—both for a realistic presentation and for the fact that it forged a strong determination in the mind of a young Udham and altered his life. This massacre was organized by Michael O'Dwyer (Shaun Scott), the then Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, who believed in his own 'fear is the key' mentality to put an end to the struggle by creating mortal terror in the hearts of all Indian freedom fighters. To put this into action, he assigned Reginald Dyer, a like-minded commander (played by Andrew Havill). On that terrible day, between 6000 and 20000 people, including women and children, assembled in the Jallianwala Bagh area in a peaceful democratic protest, unaware of the British Raj's devilish intentions.
General Dyer chose the most loyal British military regiments and entered the garden around 5.30 p.m. through the main gate, with soldiers armed with loaded firearms. He allegedly wanted to bring in armored trucks with machine guns, but the tiny gate prevented him from doing so. The Jallianwala garden was encircled on all sides by houses and walls, and the other four gates were continuously shut, leaving only the main gate open for a possible escape, which Dyer's soldiers had blocked. In the city of Amritsar, a curfew had already been imposed. The individuals gathered there stood up and murmured to one other as they glanced at this unexpected entrance. General Dyer ordered the men to open fire without giving them any warning to disperse. The hail of gunfire lasted for ten minutes, according to reports, until the ammunition was depleted. People hurried here and there is a desperate attempt to flee, but there was no way out. Even those attempting to scale the walls in order to escape were shot down. Many of them plunged into the nearby well now known as Martyrs' Well, to escape the continuous hail, and it was later reported that more than 120 bodies had been recovered from the well's bottom. Because there was a curfew in place and no medical facilities, the savagely merciless General and his forces fled the premises, leaving the injured to die as well.
Young Udham had planned to sleep that day, as he had told his beloved Reshma the day before, but Reshma confirmed that she would be attending the demonstration. He had spent the entire day napping when fleeing persons informed him of the awful incident. He sprung to his feet and dashed to the scene of the catastrophe, shouting out for Reshma at first. Then he heard the horrible sounds of groaning and pained screams emanating from the injured among the blood-soaked laying bodies, and he immediately went to work on the rescue: first, he took the injured on his shoulders and ran to the hospital, then he returned. To speed up the rescue, he organized a hand-pulled wooden cart to transport the bodies and enlisted the help of a couple of his friends. Their frequent calls of 'koyi zinda hain?' ('anyone alive out there?') in search of still-living persons were heartbreaking. The rescue operation went on until Udham was completely exhausted, and some of the injured survived while others died in the hospital. One of the most dramatic renderings of a historical event in the global film is this 30-minute scene. During that time, a subordinate inquired of a relaxed, stern-faced Dyer about the lifting of the curfew. Dyer told him that he could only remove it after 8 a.m. so that the dead could be burned or buried. This shows that both O'Dwyer and Dyer intended everyone present to be killed in order to enforce the 'fear is the key ideology.
Udham never found his Reshma, and the tragedy inspired him to join Shaheed Bhagat Singh, a revolutionary who profoundly influenced his thinking and life. The story begins in 1931, with Udham being freed from prison and the local police keeping a close eye on him afterward. A determined Udham, on the other hand, flees to a secluded village and then travels via the Soviet Union and Germany under the names of Sher Singh, Frank Brazil, Udham Singh, and others, using false passports to get in London. He was driven by a single goal: to put an end to the vile imperialism of Michael O'Dwyer. The plot is delivered in the style of a contemporary thriller, and we won't give anything away by saying more.
As previously said, the film's framework is non-linear, frequently shunting between the past and the present, and while this is successful in delivering a tale in an exciting manner, it may sometimes make it difficult for viewers to follow what is going on. For example, his adventures are never detailed—only showing him suffering through jungles and snow supers, where the super of the 'USSR' appears, and then a Russian lady treating him of tiredness in a secluded location. It's possible that the specifics of his travels aren't available. He comes to London with a passport bearing the name Sher Singh and is allowed to cross immigration, which is puzzling given that the film depicts a scenario in which a wire was sent from Punjab to Scotland Yard about a suspicious freedom fighter bearing the same name.
The assassination of Michael O'Dwyer occurs in the first 30 minutes of the film, and we learn about Udham's character-his goal, obsession, and determination-only during the Scotland Yard investigation, which includes barbaric physical torture, about his operational strategy in London with some Indian and even British associates. We also learn only after a sympathetic detective's investigation and a conversation with a symbolic defense lawyer that he became acquainted with Michael O'Dwyer and even worked in his household as a domestic cum drive, where he had numerous opportunities to kill him after learning that the old officer still did not regret the massacre and justified the actions of both Dyer and himself in carrying out his policy of 'fear is the key' to crush the movement. I believe the narrative should have followed a logical path at least following his arrival in London, generating a suspenseful build-up to the eventual assassination on March 13, 1940, in Caxton Hall, London. Furthermore, there is no explanation for his multiple journeys to England. Except for a few random sequences with Bhagat Singh, the Indian liberation movement and its leaders are not depicted in depth. Some of the brutal images of torture, which were only to be anticipated in their own kingdom of England when a foreigner killed a key British commander, may have been cut from the film.
The Hunter Commission, which truly condemned Dyer's acts and declared him unfit for subsequent postings in India, was mentioned briefly at the end of the film. Dyer became ill shortly afterward and died in 1927; early in the film, Udham stares regretfully at Dyer's tomb. Overall, despite its length, the picture is quite absorbing, and viewers can easily stomach the non-linear treatment, and the reproduction of the locales in those days, notably Punjab and London, was flawless, with powerful performances all around. That quick, dramatic statement clinched the case, and his execution was ordered. As previously said, this is quite important in today's world. Only then did the sight of the Jallianwala Bagh slaughter emerge, as told by Udham Singh to the sympathetic investigator in his death cell. After being questioned repeatedly about his true identity, Udham Singh ultimately gave the name 'Ram Mohammed Singh Azad,' which is and is immensely significant. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which murdered over 1500 people, including women and children, and injured hundreds more, is still a raw sore for India since the United Kingdom has yet to issue an official apology for the barbaric atrocity after more than a century. Furthermore, despite the justified policy of 'fear is the key,' the heinous episode merely fueled India's freedom movement, resulting in the non-cooperation campaign led by Gandhiji in 1921-22, and many otherwise appreciative or loyal Indian citizens of the time turned against the British. Finally, as we all know, the British Empire was forced to leave India on August 15, 1947, to assure India's independence.
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