To begin with, I must express what a great honor it is for me to be writing on the inspirational and great revolutionary, Bhagat Singh, on my 17th birthday. As a young man stepping one more step towards manhood, it is indeed essential that I look up to great heroes of his kind for inspiration: probably then I shall come a little distance in my quest for completion.
Vande mataram!
Call it our inborn sense of national pride and patriotism. Every single Indian, whoever he is and wherever he lives, will rise and listen intently when something is said about his country?s past. It is because so many of us are so proud of our ancestors that even today, circa sixty years after our independence, movies like The Legend of Bhagat Singh touch our heart and inspire us.
Every national calamity, every instance of their being a powerful common enemy of the entire people brings out the best and the bravest among them: and our long and heroic struggle against imperialism is no exception to that. However, it is an exception to all other struggles against imperialism. For it was only our struggle that was fought substantially, if not entirely, without weapons. We fought with thought. We fought with truth.
Ours was a struggle against the idea of imperialism; not against the imperialist alone. It was simply because of this that our struggle will always be glorified and revered forever.
Vande Mataram!
The Review
The Legend of Bhagat Singh came up with a number of other movies made on the same great man. Yet it was this movie alone that shook my heart completely. The story is known to all of us. I therefore do not think it is anywhere close to necessary to explain you what really happens in the movie: yet let?s briefly review that as well, as part of remembering the great soul.
The Story
Bhagat Singh, a young patriot from Punjab, joins hands with Chandrashekhar Azad and forms the Hindustan Socialist Republican Organization: a revolutionary outfit (to speak as a British) that fought the foreign rule by disrupting their activities in the country. In order to let the British know that the Indian anger against them is far more than they can imagine, Bhagat Singh and his comrade Batukeshwar Dutt hurl bombs in the parliament for which they are arrested.
From jail, however, Bhagat Singh and his comrades continue their fight. They begin by putting an end to the inhuman and unfair treatment of Indian prisoners. Then their struggle continues. The movie shows how Bhagat Singh?s ideals influence those of the Congress, changing their focus from the dominion status to complete independence.
On the 23rd of March, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru are hanged for having challenged the British authority. The British succeed in silencing his voice, but failed miserably in damping out his message. The country is now inspired by his idea: now armed and dangerous with thought. British rule was never more precariously positioned.
However, I noticed that, like all other movies on the great men who fought the British with arms, calls the Mahatma a lot of bad names. The movie almost tries to show the contempt, if not anything else, he has for the armed freedom fighters. And that angers me a little. The movie shows how the Mahatma did very little to save the lives of these three young men when it was him and him alone who could save them. Of course that was true, but he had a reason. Gandhiji was, like Bhagat Singh, a patriot and a freedom fighter. But he chose the path of nonviolence and peace.
He believed that the most important thing for him is to make it clear to the British that what the Indians want is freedom and not their blood and they?ll take what they want irrespective of everything else. Had he sided with Bhagat Singh, the little patience that the British had for Gandhiji?s demands and followers, would have gone and he would also have been branded a militant. It would have only brought more violence and killing which Gandhiji certainly did not intend.
Cast Performance
Ajay Devgan as Bhagat Singh was sublime. I have never seen a performance so surreal as his. He does look a lot like the Bhagat Singh I had imagine, which adds to his greatness. It is probably in this movie that Devgan has achieved something no actor can achieve very easily: it is that we identify his face with Bhagat Singh. I honestly never felt this was an actor playing Bhagat Singh. Devgan brought him to life once more, before our eyes, to inspire us and to enchant us with his divine and phenomenal spirit of patriotism.
Sushant Singh as Sukhdev was simply great. Sushant Singh has that natural expression of strength and young hot-headed arrogance that Sukhdev had. He was the best man for this job and easily he was the best among all others in the cast, sparing Bhagat and Rajguru. I can not compare these three with each other, for like their souls, their performance merge into a homogenous divinity. Sushant Singh plays the role very well, once more, bringing Sukhdev to life for us to witness what great a man he was!
D Santosh as Rajguru was a class act. I have never seen a more brilliant performance as that. Rajguru was one of those witty and jovial persons, something of the favourite joke-maker of the group, and he plays that role flawlessly. What touched me the greatest was his one line. Not only are the words so touching and heart-warming, but so was the way in which he said them:
?Ek baar main desh ke liye mar jaooon, phir zindagi bhar araam se reh loonga!?
Everybody else in the movie acted really well. Bhagat Singh?s family, his comrades, and the Indian jailer. Like in all other movies on the Freedom Struggle the British were made to look like buffoons and the actors were nothing less than that!
Peripherals
The music of this movie shook my heart completely. Every song in the movie was the composition of Bhagat Singh himself, which is probably why they touched my heart so deeply. Every song was written by him in such a situation that listening to those songs takes great mental strength!
Imagine, young men of twenty years, being thrashed and tortured all day, on hunger strike, hungry and in pain, almost loosing their patience, stand up on their feet and sing? Sarfaroshi ki tamanna, ab hamaare dil mein hain? dekhna hain zor kitna? bazu-e-katil mein hain! And three young men of twenty or so years, being taken to the final altar to be hanged, sing to each other with laughter and happiness? Mera rang de basanti chola?!
They were more than songs. They were the saga of the great spirit behind such great actions. I just can never find words for them!
Conclusion
Watch this movie, not for entertainment, but for inspiration. Watch this movie to know what great sacrifice has gifted you this land. Watch this movie to learn how insignificant we have made ourselves. Watch this movie to learn that one man can change the world.
And you are one full man!
