The Legend of Bhagat Singh

<p>was born in in 1907. From childhood, he witnesses numerous atrocities committed on fellow Indians by the British, who came to trade under the guise of the and ended up controlling most of the nation. Bhagat takes a solemn vow to free India from British rule after witnessing the aftermath of the . Soon after the massacre, he learns of ‘s policies, and is especially impressed by his call to launch the , which saw thousands of people burning British-made clothing and giving up school, college studies, and government jobs. In 1922, Gandhi calls off the movement after the . Undaunted, Bhagat decides to be a revolutionary, and, as an adult, joins the in its struggle for India’s independence, ending up in prison for it. Bhagat’s father, Kishen, bails him out so that he can get him to run a and marry a girl named Mannewali. Bhagat runs away from home leaving a note saying that his love for the country comes first. When is beaten to death by the police while protesting against the , Bhagat, along with , and , carry out the assassination of a police officer named Saunders. Later on in the year 1929, when the British propose the , Bhagat, along with , initiate a bombing at . He and Dutt throw the bombs on empty benches thereby not killing anyone. They are subsequently arrested and . Bhagat then launches his , stating that he wanted to tell the world know about the revolutionaries himself rather than let the British brand them as violent people, citing this as the reason for bombing the assembly. Bhagat soon becomes as popular as Gandhi among the masses, especially the younger generation, labourers and farmers. In , Bhagat and all of the other fellow prisoners, including Thapar and Rajguru, undertake a 63-day to improve the conditions of Indian political prisoners. However, the police try brutal methods to suppress the hunger strike by canings and forced feedings. Meanwhile, Azad, whom the British had repeatedly failed to capture, is ambushed at the in on 27 February 1931. The police surround the entire park leading to a shootout; refusing to be captured by the British, Azad commits suicide with the last remaining bullet in his . Fearing the growing popularity of the hunger strike amongst the people nationwide, orders the re-opening of the Saunders’ murder case, which leads to death sentences being imposed on Bhagat, Thapar and Rajguru. The Indians hope that Gandhi will use his as a bargaining chip to save Bhagat, Thapar and Rajguru’s lives. Irwin refuses Gandhi’s request for their release. Gandhi reluctantly agrees to sign a pact which includes the clause: “Release of political prisoners except for the ones involved in violence”. Bhagat, Thapar and Rajguru are hanged in secrecy on 23 March 1931. In 1998, the film director read several books on the socialist revolutionary, Bhagat Singh, and felt that a would help revive interest in him. Although S. Ram Sharma made a film about Bhagat in 1965, titled , Santoshi felt that despite being “a great source of inspiration on the lyrics and music front”, it did not “dwell on Bhagat Singh’s ideology and vision”. In August 2000, the screenwriter mentioned to Santoshi about his work on , whose revolutionary activities inspired (on whom a too had been released earlier that year). Santoshi then persuaded Rajabali to draft a script based on Bhagat’s life as he was inspired by Udham Singh. Santoshi gave Rajabali a copy of , Kuldeep Khullar’s biography of the revolutionary. Rajabali said that reading the book “created an intense curiosity in me about the mind of this man. I definitely wanted to know more about him.” His interest in Bhagat intensified after he read (2000) by journalist . The following month, Rajabali formally began his research on Bhagat while admitting to Santoshi that it was “a difficult task”. Gurpal Singh, a graduate, and internet blogger Sagar Pandya assisted him. Santoshi received input from Kultar Singh, Bhagat’s younger brother, who told the director he would have his full co-operation if the film accurately depicted Bhagat’s ideologies. Rajabali wanted to “recreate the world that Bhagat Singh lived in”, and his research required him to “not only understand the man, but also the influences on him, the politics of that era”. In an interview with Sharmila Taliculam of in the year 2000, Rajabali said that the film would “deal with Bhagat Singh, the man, rather than the freedom fighter”. Many aspects of Bhagat’s life, including his relationship with fiancée Mannewali, were derived from ‘s 1994 play ; Mishra was subsequently credited with writing the film’s dialogues. ‘s 1996 book, , provided the basis for the trial sequences. Gurpal obtained additional information from 750 newspaper clippings of dated from September 1928 to March 1931, and from Bhagat’s prison notebooks. These gave Rajabali “an idea of what had appealed to the man, the literary and intellectual influences that impacted him in that period”. By the end of the year 2000, Santoshi and Rajabali completed work on the script and showed it to Kumar and Ramesh Taurani of ; both were impressed by it. The Taurani brothers agreed to produce the film under their banner and commence filming after Santoshi had finished his work on (2001). was initially cast as Bhagat, but he left the project owing to schedule conflicts and differences with Santoshi over his remuneration. Santoshi then preferred to cast new faces instead of established actors but was not pleased with the performers who auditioned. was also offered the role, but he declined, saying he wasn’t young enough for the part. (then known as Ajay Devgan) was finally chosen for the lead character because Santoshi felt he had “the eyes of a revolutionary. His introvert nature conveys loud and clear signals that there is a volcano inside him ready to burst.” After Devgn performed a dressed as Bhagat, Santoshi was “pleasantly surprised” to see Devgn’s face closely resemble Singh’s and cast him in the part. marked Devgn’s second collaboration with Santoshi after . Devgn called the film “the most challenging assignment” in his career. He had not watched before signing up for the project. To prepare for the role, Devgn studied all the references Santoshi and Rajabali had procured to develop the film’s script. He also lost weight to more closely resemble Bhagat. Whatever we have read in school and learnt in history is not even 1% of the kind of person he [Bhagat] was. I don’t think he got his due … When Rajkumar Santoshi narrated the script to me, I was taken aback because this man had done so much and his motive was not just independence of India. He had predicted the challenges that we face in our country today. From riots to corruption, he had predicted that and he wanted to fight that. —  Devgn on his perception of Bhagat Santoshi chose to play Azad as he also resembled his character. In addition to reading Shiv Verma’s , Mishra read Bhagwan Das Mahore’s and Sadashiv Rao Malkapurkar’s accounts of the revolutionary. Because of his astrological beliefs, he even obtained Azad’s horoscope to determine his personality. In an interview with Rediff.com’s Lata Khubchandani, Mishra mentioned that while informing his father about his role of Azad, he revealed to him that they originally hailed from Kanpur, the same place where Azad’s ancestors were from. This piece of information encouraged Mishra to play Azad. and (in his cinematic debut) were cast as Bhagat’s friends and fellow members of the Hindustan Republican Association, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru. Santoshi believed their faces resembled those of the two revolutionaries. To learn about their characters, Sushant, like Mishra, read while Santosh visited Rajguru’s family members. The actors were also chosen according to their characters’ backgrounds. This was true in the case of Santosh and also , who played Jatin Das, the man who devised the bomb for Bhagat and Batukeshwar Dutt. Santosh and Bhattacharjee were from Maharashtra and West Bengal like Rajguru and Das. and were cast as Bhagat’s parents, Kishen Singh and Vidyawati Kaur, while played Mannewali, Bhagat’s fiancée. began in January 2002 and was completed in May. The first schedule of filming took place in and following which the unit moved to the studio in . According to the film’s cinematographer, , around 85 sets were constructed at Film City by who was in charge of the production design, and “99 percent of the background” featured in the film was sets. Desai used throughout the film to create a period feel. Additional scenes depicting the were filmed at a set constructed to look like the Bagh as it was 83 years ago; some of them were shot between 9 pm and 6 am. The scenes at the Bagh set and other surrounding locations of at the beginning of the film feature Nakshdeep Singh as the younger Bhagat. Santoshi selected Nakshdeep after receiving photographs of the boy from his father, Komal Singh, who played Mannewali’s father. Kultar stayed with the production unit for seven days during the outdoor location shooting in . Both Santoshi and Devgn appreciated the interactions they had with Kultar, noting that he provided “deep insights into his brother’s life”. Kultar was pleased with the sincerity of the cast and crew and shared private letters written by Bhagat with them. The song “Pagdi Sambhal Jatta” was the last part to be filmed. A sequence in the song featuring Devgn appearing between two factions of backup dancers took three to be completed. was made on a budget of 200 – 250 million (about US$4.15 – 5.18 million in 2002). composed the soundtrack and score for , marking his second collaboration with Santoshi after (2000). wrote the lyrics for the songs. Rahman recalled that Santhoshi had suggested him to compose slow-paced songs, unlike which had fast paced compositions and experimented with more than what he done in his previous films. The soundtrack was completed within two months, and was released on 8 May 2002 in . was released on 7 June 2002 coinciding with the release of ‘s , , and another film based on Bhagat, , which featured as the revolutionary. A week before the film’s release, Article 51 A Forum, a in Delhi, believed to be historically inaccurate, criticising the inclusion of Mannewali as Bhagat’s widow, and stating the films were made “without any research or devotion” and the filmmakers were just looking at the box-office prospects to “make spicy films based on imaginary episodes”. Kumar Taurani defended his film saying that he did not add Rao “for ornamental value”, noting he would have opted for an established actress instead if that were the case. A press statement issued by Tips Industries said: “This girl from Manawali village loved Bhagat Singh so totally that she remained unmarried till death and was known as Bhagat Singh’s widow.” The of Tips Industries, Raju Hingorani, pointed out that Kultar had authenticated the film, stating: “With his backing, why must we be afraid of other allegations?” On 29 May 2002, a 14-page petition was filed by Paramjit Kaur, the daughter of Bhagat’s youngest brother, Rajinder Singh, at the to stay the release of both and , alleging that they “contained distorted versions” of the freedom fighter’s life. Kaur’s lawyer, Sandeep Bhansal, argued that Bhagat singing a duet with Mannewali and wearing were “untrue and amounted to distortion of historical facts”. Two days later, the petition came up for hearing before the Judges and Justice Narinder Kumar Sud; both refused to stay the films’ release, observing that the petition was moved “too late and it would not be proper to stop the screening of the films”. received generally positive critical feedback, with praise for its direction, story, screenplay, cinematography, production design and the performances of Devgn and Sushant. Chitra Mahesh praised Santoshi’s direction, noting in her review for that he “shows some restraint in handling the narrative”. She appreciated the film’s technical aspects and Devgn’s rendition, calling his interpretation of Bhagat “powerful, without being strident”. Writing for , Dominic Ferrao commended Devgn, Sushant, Babbar and Mishra, saying that they all come “off with flying colours”. A review carried by Sify labelled the film “slick and commendable”; it also termed Devgn’s portrayal of Bhagat as “fabulous” but felt he “overrides” the character and that “the supporting characters make more impact than him.” In a comparative analysis of with , Ziya-Us-Salam of found the former to be a better film because of the “clearly etched out” supporting characters, while opining Devgn was more “restrained and credible” than Bobby Deol. Salam admired Sushant’s performance, opining that he has “a fine screen presence, good timing and an ability to hold his own in front of more celebrated actors”. In a more mixed comparison, Rediff.com’s Amberish K. Diwanji, despite finding and Devgn to be the better film and actor like Salam, criticised the “constant shouting and mouthing of dialogues”. He responded negatively to the inclusion of Bhagat’s fiancée, pointing out the film took liberties in using this “slim” piece of information “just to have a girl sing.” Diwanji, however, commended the narrative structure of , saying that the film captured the revolutionary’s life and journey well, thereby making it “worth watching and give[ing] it relevant historical background.” Among overseas reviewers, of complimented the placement of the film’s song sequences, especially that of “Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna” and “Mere Rang De Basanti”. Kehr called Devgn’s interpretation of Bhagat “glowering” while praising Sushant’s “urbane and unpredictable” rendition of Sukhdev. Although s found to be “drawn with more warmth” and approved of Devgn’s and Sushant’s performances, he was not pleased with the “choppy” screenplay in the film’s first half. He concluded his review by saying that the film “has a stronger lead [thespian] and richer gallery of characters that triumph over often unsubtle direction”. Some of the criticism was also directed towards the treatment of . Mahesh notes that he “appears in rather poor light” and was depicted as making “little effort” to secure a pardon for Bhagat, Sukhdev and Rajguru. Diwanji concurs with Mahesh while also saying that the as seen in the film would make the audience think that Gandhi “condemned the trio to be hanged by inking the agreement” while pointing out the agreement itself “had a different history and context.” Kehr believed the film’s depiction of Gandhi was its “most interesting aspect”. He described Surendra Rajan’s version of Gandhi as “a faintly ridiculous poseur, whose policies play directly into the hands of the British” and in that aspect, he was very different from “the serene sage” portrayed by in ‘s (1982). Like Diwanji, Elley also notes how the film denounces Gandhi by blaming him “for not trying very hard” to prevent Bhagat’s execution. had an average opening in its first week, grossing 57.1 million (US$1.18 million in 2002) worldwide, with 33 million (US$684,221 in 2002) in India alone. The film failed to cover its budget thus at the box office, collecting only 129.35 million (US$2.68 million in 2002) by the end of its theatrical run. Shubhra Gupta of attributed the film’s commercial failure to its release on the same day as , opining that “the two Bhagats ate into each other’s business”. Taurani acknowledged this as a reason for the film’s failure, along with the release of another Bhagat Singh film the week before. At the , won the and Devgn received the award. The film received three nominations at the and won three— (Rahman), (Kumar Taurani, Ramesh Taurani) and (Devgn). Since its release, has been considered one of Santoshi’s best works. Devgan said in December 2014 that along with (1998) were the best films he ever worked on in his career. He also revealed he had not seen such a good script since. In 2016, the film was included in s list of “Bollywood’s Top 5 Biopics”. was added in both the and lists of Bollywood films that can be watched to celebrate in 2018. The following year, and also listed it among the films to watch on . Punjabi Cinema</p>