***** On March 23, 1931, in the dead of the night, three bodies are smuggled out of Lahore Central Jail via the back gate. They are taken to an isolated place, chopped up into pieces and surreptitiously cremated by British officers. The next day, this incident creates a national uproar throughout India.
Who was this man who struck such fear in the powerful British government that they had to destroy his dead body in the darkness? Who was this man whose memory invokes such powerful emotions even 71 years after his death?
He was Bhagat Singh - India's most beloved son. An extraordinary young man who happily became a martyr for his country at the tender age of 23; a revolutionary who single-handedly shook up the powerful British government, exposing their true barbaric nature. A man for whom victory lay in his own death. This is his story, The Legend of Bhagat Singh.
This film takes us on the journey of Bhagat Singh's remarkable life. His searing anguish as a 12-year-old at the horrific Jallianwala massacre, his whole-hearted participation in Gandhi's non-cooperation movement of 1921, his disillusionment after Gandhi summarily calls it off, his obsessive search as a teenager for a strategy that would free his country from the inhuman yoke of British Rule....
<http://www.legendofbhagatsingh.com/story.htm> *****
***** "The Legend of Bhagat Singh" CHITRA MAHESH
THIS IS probably something for the youth, politicians of today and those who wish well for this country - more for its contents than for the quality of filmmaking. Forget the fact that there are too many films dealing with the same subject, that rhetoric and theatrics are something we have to live with in most Hindi films and that patriotism sells. Tips Films' "The Legend Of Bhagat Singh" reminds you (notwithstanding the cinematic licence) of all the sacrifices, losses, courage and selflessness that today seems a wasted exercise - considering how communal carnage, hate propaganda, fundamentalist ideals are making a mockery of what the freedom fighters fought for.
Who is Bhagat Singh, we may well ask. History does not seem to accord undue space to this martyr from Punjab other than the fact that he died at the age of 23 for the ideal of a free India. But it takes a well-marketed film to tell us in a dramatic fashion, about this revolutionary, whose ideals could turn a turbulent nation today towards true equality, secularism and rationality.
He was someone who had foreseen the dangers of fundamentalism, of allowing religion to be used as a political tool. He felt if it were brought into politics, it would tear a secular society to fragments! The film has its excellent moments. And some flaws which you may want to overlook considering the fact that it is not easy to hold the emotional interest of the audience for close to three hours.
The emotional upheaval for the audience begins when 12-year-old Bhagat visits Jalian Wallah Bagh and visualises the horror of the senseless murder of innocent people. It goes on to show how he grows up with hatred in his heart for the British, how he befriends Sukhdev Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) and Rajguru from Maharashtra; and how his ideals of a free country shaped his philosophy and work.
The detailing of the events that led to his eventual martyrdom is narrated rather interestingly with images and visuals that remain long in the memory.
The entire ambience of the era - the British Raj at its peak, the Congress Party led anti-British struggle, the joining of the Hindustan Republican Army by Bhagat Singh and its evolution into the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army, the spirit and motivation to defy the British at any cost, the use of the court room to propagate his fiery call to the nation, and the use of violence as self-defence, and of course his fast-unto-death (till jail inmates are given better food and hygienic conditions) which brings the British Government to its knees! You need to see it to feel its effectiveness.
Asks Anjum Rajabali, who writes the script and screenplay, ``Why do I need to participate in yet another film that could be dominated by filmy patriotism?'' But adds, ``when I started reading K. K. Khullar's biography of Bhagat Singh and the recent book by Kuldip Nayar, I was hooked. And I realised I was not the only one. When Bhagat went to jail for the Assembly bomb explosion on April 8, 1929, no one apart from his comrades and family knew of him. But just two and a half months later, Bhagat Singh Day was being observed throughout the country. The official history of the Indian National Congress by Pattabhi Seetaramiah admits, that there was a time (1929-30) when his popularity was equal to that of Mahatma Gandhi!'' An element the film shows with great glee.
In fact the Mahatma appears in rather poor light - a man who does not really agree with Bhagat Singh's methods of repelling the British, and makes little effort to secure pardon for the three condemned men - Bhagat, Sukhdev and Rajguru. And yes, a Britisher would hate to see the film for its depiction of their rulers and their policies then! Almost entirely in sepia and brown tones, the film to some extent has created the period feel (art direction by Nitin Chandrakant Desai) effectively. Raj Kumar Santoshi, the director, and K. V. Anand (camera) capture the essence of the locations to show the bleakness and the darkness of those times. Agra with the Taj Mahal in the background, Lahore and Calcutta are some of the places that figure....
<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2002/06/14/stories/2002061400930200.htm> *****
***** Ajay steals a march over Bobby The verdict on the two Bhagat Singh films Amberish K Diwanji
The life and death of Shaheed [martyr] Bhagat Singh is an amazing story. It is but natural that it should spawn a slew of movies. While three were made in the decades gone by, four more have been made this year (three already released), along with a teleserial.
Why this sudden interest in Bhagat Singh? Perhaps someone could explain this to me later. One reason could be because the character is romantic: hanged by the British at age 23, the young revolutionary died for his ideal of Free India.
Of the three films on Singh already released, keen interest is on those with two well-known Bollywood names, Ajay Devgan and Bobby Deol, in _The Legend Of Bhagat Singh_ and _23rd March 1931 -- Shaheed_, respectively.
Both movies have their good moments, and plenty of bad ones. And clearly, both directors --- Rajkumar Santoshi of _The Legend_ and Guddu Dhanoa of _23rd March_ --- have taken liberties with the script. Every artiste has the right to make his story easy to comprehend, after all.
Explaining Bhagat Singh's story, the circumstances and defining moments of the era --- the British Raj; the Jallianwala Bagh massacre; the Congress Party-led, anti-British struggle (it had not yet evolved into the freedom struggle), whose leadership had just been taken over by Mahatma Gandhi; why Bhagat Singh preferred to join Chandrashekhar Azad's Hindustan Republican Army (later renamed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army) --- is no easy task....
<http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2002/jun/07bhag.htm> *****
_The Legend of Bhagat Singh_, Reviewed by Ashley Gujadhur: <http://www.planetbollywood.com/Film/LegendofBhagatSingh/> -- Yoshie
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