Quick Telecast
Expect News First

Sardar Udham Movie Review: Shoojit Sircar’s Biopic, Starring Vicky Kaushal, Fails to Engage With Its Languorous Storytelling (LatestLY Exclusive)

0 70


Sardar Udham Movie Review: For a change, let me go straight into the third act of Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Udham and tell you that it is one of the most heartbreaking, the most painful sequences I have seen in a film this year. The 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre is one of the most condemned, tragic chapters of our freedom struggle, a searing example of British cruelties meted out on innocent citizens. The event plays an important part in the rise of the revolutionary in Udham Singh, played here by Vicky Kaushal, yet it is only explored (in unflinching brutality) in the last half an hour or so. Sardar Udham: Before Vicky Kaushal’s Film, Did You Know Hrishikesh Mukherjee Tried to Make a Movie on The Revolutionary?

Before that, we begin with Udham Singh being released from jail in 1931 for his involvement in the HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association) party activities. By then, his comrade Shaheed Bhagat Singh is no more and Udham, after shaving off his beard and cutting his hair, escapes to England, where he has only one aim – to assassinate Michael O’Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab, under whose command General Dyer carried out the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. If you know your history, you would know that Udham Singh managed to shoot O’Dwyer, though it took 21 years to achieve that mission. He was later hanged to death by the government for what they saw as a terrorist act, but he continued calling himself a revolutionary to the very end.

Watch the Trailer:

But Shoojit Sircar doesn’t play his story straightforward. Instead, the director of films like Piku and October takes a rather subtle, a quieter approach to telling Udham’s story, often going back and forth. The assassination is carried out within the first 10 minutes or so, and the first hour is spend in seeing how the government reacts to the cold-blooded murder, and the officials there trying to break Udham – whose real name is often in contention, is it Sher Singh, or Ram Mohammad Singh Azad –  brutally.

I feel that Shoojit was rather interested in the psyche, the resilience of the man. We know the story, the director wants us to see how it affected him. So instead of taking the usual bombastic routes – there are only two scenes where we see Udham shout – Shoojit takes a more reserved, colder approach where moments mattered. Like the conversation Udham has with O’Dwyer, while pretending to be his house help, where the latter justifies what happened in 1919. It is a truly anguishing scene, made even more disturbing to recollect when the film shows the massacre and its aftermath in agonising detail after some time. We see the act of revenge first, the anguish behind that only later. Whether it was a suitable approach here is something that depends on viewer to viewer.

At times, I saw influences of Steve McQueen’s underrated Hunger in the scenes where Udham languishes in the British jail or when he is being brought for questioning by Inspector John Swain (Stephen Hogan). While these portions excel in their technical brilliance – the production design is fantastic – and Vicky’s subtle performance is a plus, the slow pacing annoyingly distances you from the story. The moments that draw you into the film actually come in the flashes of Udham’s life back in India, especially the sequences involving Bhagat Singh, with Amol Parashar’s casting feeling so apt here.

So does this slow-burn approach work in the favour of the movie? The story is fascinating and hard-hitting, and the movie keeps reminding you of the unapologetic attitude of the British even after being called out for their cruelties. And yet, the offhand treatment doesn’t really engage the viewer for such an important story. At times, I also feel that Sircar’s target audience is more on a global level than the desi audience, with the manner he treats the premise. Shoojit Sircar on Sardar Udham: I Want the Film’s Message to Go Far and Wide Across the World.

But no matter how you feel about the rest of the movie, the third act drags you back in. We have seen the Jallianwala Bagh massacre enacted in several movies and series, but here Shoojit refuses to move away from showing us the visceral manner in which the protestors were killed, how each bullet tore away into the flesh of men, women and children who were attending the meeting there. And it doesn’t end there. The final hour is truly haunting, and makes us understand what made Udham Singh persistent and patient enough to wait for his revenge. Sardar Udham: Vicky Kaushal Shares a Reel vs Real Still From the Film, Applauds Shoojit Sircar for Recreating Scenes So Aptly.

And yet – and this is just my humble but heartfelt opinion – I find these ‘patriotic’ films to be shallow. You make a movie eulogising a hero who was against capitalism, who died protesting a brutal regime, and yet you are an industry that stay silent when similar brutalities happen in this country. You hear Bhagat Singh calling for a world that is about being equal and having free speech, and yet you do not respond to atrocities meted against minorities. You remind us again and again of the horrors of Jallianwala bagh massacre, and yet you turn your face away when the very same site is turned into a PR spectacle – a laser and sound show – earlier this year. Or for the matter, even when farmers were mowed down by a politician’s son. Do you think Bhagat Singh or Udham Singh would have approved of this silence? Does the final scene in the film – a haunting overhead shot of the many bodies stacked next to each other at the Bagh – not remind you of photos of bodies that were found on River Ganga? I know I should not turn political for a review, but an analysis of a film like this also begs me to reflect on the industry as a whole and be annoyed by their often obvious hypocrisy.

Shaheed Udham Singh deserves to immortalised in a movie, it is the intentions behind the industry backing this film is what I find to be vacuous.

Yay!

– Technically Brilliant

– Shoojit Sircar’s Direction

Nay!

– The Slow Pacing and the Distanced Approach

Final Thoughts

Sardar Udham has the makings of a masterpiece – be it in the treatment, the premise and Kaushal’s subtle performance. The fact that it doesn’t turn out to be so, is what is the most disappointing aspect about the movie. Sardar Udham is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 16, 2021 12:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).




Sardar Udham Movie Review: For a change, let me go straight into the third act of Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Udham and tell you that it is one of the most heartbreaking, the most painful sequences I have seen in a film this year. The 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre is one of the most condemned, tragic chapters of our freedom struggle, a searing example of British cruelties meted out on innocent citizens. The event plays an important part in the rise of the revolutionary in Udham Singh, played here by Vicky Kaushal, yet it is only explored (in unflinching brutality) in the last half an hour or so. Sardar Udham: Before Vicky Kaushal’s Film, Did You Know Hrishikesh Mukherjee Tried to Make a Movie on The Revolutionary?

Before that, we begin with Udham Singh being released from jail in 1931 for his involvement in the HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association) party activities. By then, his comrade Shaheed Bhagat Singh is no more and Udham, after shaving off his beard and cutting his hair, escapes to England, where he has only one aim – to assassinate Michael O’Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab, under whose command General Dyer carried out the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. If you know your history, you would know that Udham Singh managed to shoot O’Dwyer, though it took 21 years to achieve that mission. He was later hanged to death by the government for what they saw as a terrorist act, but he continued calling himself a revolutionary to the very end.

Watch the Trailer:

But Shoojit Sircar doesn’t play his story straightforward. Instead, the director of films like Piku and October takes a rather subtle, a quieter approach to telling Udham’s story, often going back and forth. The assassination is carried out within the first 10 minutes or so, and the first hour is spend in seeing how the government reacts to the cold-blooded murder, and the officials there trying to break Udham – whose real name is often in contention, is it Sher Singh, or Ram Mohammad Singh Azad –  brutally.

I feel that Shoojit was rather interested in the psyche, the resilience of the man. We know the story, the director wants us to see how it affected him. So instead of taking the usual bombastic routes – there are only two scenes where we see Udham shout – Shoojit takes a more reserved, colder approach where moments mattered. Like the conversation Udham has with O’Dwyer, while pretending to be his house help, where the latter justifies what happened in 1919. It is a truly anguishing scene, made even more disturbing to recollect when the film shows the massacre and its aftermath in agonising detail after some time. We see the act of revenge first, the anguish behind that only later. Whether it was a suitable approach here is something that depends on viewer to viewer.

At times, I saw influences of Steve McQueen’s underrated Hunger in the scenes where Udham languishes in the British jail or when he is being brought for questioning by Inspector John Swain (Stephen Hogan). While these portions excel in their technical brilliance – the production design is fantastic – and Vicky’s subtle performance is a plus, the slow pacing annoyingly distances you from the story. The moments that draw you into the film actually come in the flashes of Udham’s life back in India, especially the sequences involving Bhagat Singh, with Amol Parashar’s casting feeling so apt here.

So does this slow-burn approach work in the favour of the movie? The story is fascinating and hard-hitting, and the movie keeps reminding you of the unapologetic attitude of the British even after being called out for their cruelties. And yet, the offhand treatment doesn’t really engage the viewer for such an important story. At times, I also feel that Sircar’s target audience is more on a global level than the desi audience, with the manner he treats the premise. Shoojit Sircar on Sardar Udham: I Want the Film’s Message to Go Far and Wide Across the World.

But no matter how you feel about the rest of the movie, the third act drags you back in. We have seen the Jallianwala Bagh massacre enacted in several movies and series, but here Shoojit refuses to move away from showing us the visceral manner in which the protestors were killed, how each bullet tore away into the flesh of men, women and children who were attending the meeting there. And it doesn’t end there. The final hour is truly haunting, and makes us understand what made Udham Singh persistent and patient enough to wait for his revenge. Sardar Udham: Vicky Kaushal Shares a Reel vs Real Still From the Film, Applauds Shoojit Sircar for Recreating Scenes So Aptly.

And yet – and this is just my humble but heartfelt opinion – I find these ‘patriotic’ films to be shallow. You make a movie eulogising a hero who was against capitalism, who died protesting a brutal regime, and yet you are an industry that stay silent when similar brutalities happen in this country. You hear Bhagat Singh calling for a world that is about being equal and having free speech, and yet you do not respond to atrocities meted against minorities. You remind us again and again of the horrors of Jallianwala bagh massacre, and yet you turn your face away when the very same site is turned into a PR spectacle – a laser and sound show – earlier this year. Or for the matter, even when farmers were mowed down by a politician’s son. Do you think Bhagat Singh or Udham Singh would have approved of this silence? Does the final scene in the film – a haunting overhead shot of the many bodies stacked next to each other at the Bagh – not remind you of photos of bodies that were found on River Ganga? I know I should not turn political for a review, but an analysis of a film like this also begs me to reflect on the industry as a whole and be annoyed by their often obvious hypocrisy.

Shaheed Udham Singh deserves to immortalised in a movie, it is the intentions behind the industry backing this film is what I find to be vacuous.

Yay!

– Technically Brilliant

– Shoojit Sircar’s Direction

Nay!

– The Slow Pacing and the Distanced Approach

Final Thoughts

Sardar Udham has the makings of a masterpiece – be it in the treatment, the premise and Kaushal’s subtle performance. The fact that it doesn’t turn out to be so, is what is the most disappointing aspect about the movie. Sardar Udham is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 16, 2021 12:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).

FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE NEWS

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! Quick Telecast is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave a comment
Ads Blocker Image Powered by Code Help Pro

Ads Blocker Detected!!!

We have detected that you are using extensions to block ads. Please support us by disabling these ads blocker.

buy kamagra buy kamagra online