Focus on Udham Singh's sacrifice

By Prabhjot Singh


CHANDIGARH, Dec 1 — For Raj Babbar, a Bollywood star-turned politician, release of feature film "Shaheed Udham Singh", first in Punjabi and then in Hindi later this month, will be a dream come true.

With this film, he not only hopes to take Punjabi cinema to the "international level" but also succeeds in bringing to focus the great sacrifices made by Punjabis in the freedom struggle.

"Frankly speaking, Punjabi films have lagged behind both in quality and in content. See what respect Malyali, Bengali or Tamil films command. Why not Punjabi films. With this objective in mind, I have been working in at least one Punjabi film a year ever since I entered Bollywood. I have worked in Chan Pardesi, Long da Lishkara, Asra Piar Da, Marri Da Diva and now Shaheed Udham Singh. At times I have not charged a penny from the producer of these Punjabi films.

"My latest film is a humble way of paying my tribute to great martyr Udham Singh. This film is with total conviction. Though we may not have spent as much money as was spent on Gandhi, but this film is certainly as intense as Gandhi was. Udham Singh had been a very colourful character. He was a tabla player, a great singer of Heer, very fond of motor vehicles, and above all a very well- informed man and very fond of travelling.

"Incidentally, 1999 is the year of the birth centenary of Udham Singh. He was born on December 26,1899. Though the Punjab Government is doing a great deal to perpetuate his memory and his sacrifices, it is our humble tribute to him. Ironically, though Punjabis made numerous sacrifices, none of them figure in the gallery of Parliament. As a member of the Rajya Sabha, I had raised this issue. Now when I am in the Lok Sabha, I am going to raise it there. Out of 59 martyrs who were hanged, 47 were Punjabis. But neither a picture nor a statue of any of these martyrs from Punjab has found a place in Parliament's gallery," adds Raj Babbar.

Besides Raj Babbar, others who have worked in this film are Gurdas Mann, Amrish Puri, Juhi Chawla, Shatrughan Sinha, Tom Alter and Barry John. It has been directed by Chitrath Singh, the man who produced Chan Pardesi.

In the film, says Raj Babbar, both the ideologies — of non violence and also of hardliners — have been depicted but nowhere they cross each other. Shaheed Udham Singh was more secular in his role as Ram Mohammad Singh Azad than even Mahatma Gandhi. He was a man with total conviction.

It was in April,1998, that his friend, Iqbal Dhillon, suggested the film on Shaheed Udham Singh, which Raj Babbar says, he grabbed immediately and put three researchers on the job.

The period — 1919 to 1922 — was the time when the revolutionaries or hardliners were getting stronger especially after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and roadside hangings in Peshawar.

"We have tried to stay close to history but without missing drama. After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Udham had gone to Sri Harmandar Sahib, taken a pledge there, got himself in the Army and went to Uganda. There he also worked in Railways before returning to India with a red motor cycle and a red coat. He had spent some time in Mumbai where he had dysentery and some eye infection before he came back to Sunam.

"When he went to England, he had worked for British Intelligence. It is why all 13 files on him are still banned for 100 years against the normal practice of 40 years," adds Raj Babbar saying they could lay their hands only on five files.

"This time I have been elected from Agra where nearly 8 lakh of 13.5 lakh electorate are politically opposed to my party. But still I have won," says the cine star.

What next? He says he will wait.

Today, there was a special screening of "Shaheed Udham Singh" here where both the Chief Ministers, Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Om Parkash Chautala, were in the audience. Also present was Mr Hari Jaisingh, Editor, The Tribune .

The film, he said, would be exempt from entertainment tax both in Punjab and Haryana. On December 17 it will be released in Punjab and Chandigarh in Punjabi and subsequently in Hindi all over the country.

Source: Tribune News Service