Revenge is usually taken in 1 or 2 years. But true patriots wait for the opportunity to take revenge for their nation even after many years. No matter how much time passes, their hopes are never dashed. Sardar Udham is the breathtaking story of such revenge.
The curiosity to watch the movie suddenly raised in my mind when I watched the movie trailer. Hence, a day before watching the film, as a history enthusiast, I deliberately read the chapter of Sardar Udham Singh in V S Joshi’s great historical Marathi book Pralayatil Pimpalpane and then immediately I saw the film.
The movie is a masterpiece. It has become a fashion today to make historical films. We often see the announcements of historical movies by some big production companies. But honestly, these movies show everything instead of history.
You will see kings and queens dancing, some filmy and typical dialogues, unreal scenes, irrelevant love stories of Kings and queens, unnecessary songs, and moreover the whole story that the writer and director portray turn out to be fiction.
But Sardar Udham is a big exception to such trends. It is an original and authentic historical movie with minute details and execution.
The meeting of the East India Association and Royal Asian Society in the Caxton Hall, the speech of Michel O’Dwyer, those words of Udham Singh when he killed Michel, his trial, statements like, “Is Zetland dead? It’s all over. Down with British Imperialism, Inquilab Zindabad,” the diary of Bhagat Singh; all these incidents and dialogues are literally true.
I mean, that’s how it all happened, and that’s how the director portrayed it. There is no exaggeration in the film. All the events are realistic. Udham Singh is a revolutionary who carries out his work with inspiration, the director did not try to make him a hero.
Another thing I really loved about the movie is its realism. Today the template of patriotic historical films is fixed. There will be our actor acting like a superhero, then his love story, four to five overdramatic patriotic dialogues, two or three songs where our actor is dancing with people, and many more stupid scenes.
Is there something like this in Sardar Udham? A big no. Every dialogue, every scene is realistic. Here, the protagonist is not a fictional character but a historical character who is just like us.
The film begins with several flashbacks. The events of the years 1931, 1933, 1939 and 1940 have been very well presented by the director. They have also been put to good use at the right time. The scene of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre is so effectively portrayed that the spectator sometimes enters with many feelings of sadness, anger, anxiety and contempt.
The director has literally brought that whole episode to life. It also sheds light on current political events of the same period like World War II and internal politics. It excels in all aspects of storytelling, acting, costumes, dialogue. Some people may think that the movie is slow, but if you look at it patiently and understand the events, you will realise that the movie is not slow or boring at all.
Vicky Kaushal has proved himself once again. He has played the challenging role of Udham Singh very well. Sujit Sarkar has hit sixes with his direction this time too. Excellent direction, screenplay, acting, historical facts; all these things make this movie a must-watch.
Even after watching the movie, many incidents remain in the mind and the mind becomes numb. And isn’t that the reason we watch movies? To see the unseen, to experience the unfelt, to face the truth, to connect with human emotions, to be intimate with the characters and to dive into a whole new world.