Twenty-one years separate the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 1919 from a killing in London on 13 March 1940, and Shoojit Sircar's Sardar Udham spends its long running time on the man who connected the two: Udham Singh, the Indian revolutionary who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer.
What is Sardar Udham about?
Udham Singh is a young man in Punjab when the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh takes place, and the event leaves him with a wound that does not close. Michael O'Dwyer was in charge of the administration of Punjab in April 1919, and in Udham's mind the lives lost that day are tied to him. The film tracks the long road that follows. Udham flees through the mountains of Afghanistan and eventually arrives in London around 1933 to 1934, where he lives with the memory of Punjab for years. The narrative builds toward March 1940, when he carries out the assassination of O'Dwyer as an act of revenge for the people killed in 1919.
About the cast
Vicky Kaushal heads the billing. The ensemble continues with Shaun Scott, Stephen Hogan, Amol Parashar, Kirsty Averton, Banita Sandhu, Andrew Havill and Sam Redford. Shoojit Sircar directs.
Context & significance
Sardar Udham is a 2021 release classified as a biography, crime drama and historical film, and it was made as a co-production between India, Russia and the United Kingdom. Its subject sits within the history of British rule in India. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 1919 in Punjab and the 1940 assassination of Michael O'Dwyer, the official who had headed the Punjab administration at the time, are both documented historical events, and the film treats them as the two fixed points of its biography. With a runtime of 164 minutes, it is a long-form period piece that gives space to Udham Singh's years in exile as well as to the events that bookend them. It ranks among the more highly rated historical dramas in the catalogue.
Watching Sardar Udham on Ktime
Sardar Udham is available on K-Time, the Persian-focused streaming service for the Iranian diaspora. The page is free to read; watching requires signing in with a K-Time account. A Persian-dubbed version and Persian subtitles are both available, so viewers can choose the audio and text that suit them within the Farsi interface.