The Legend of Bhagat Singh

About the film

The Legend of Bhagat Singh is a 2002 Indian biographical drama film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. The film is based on Bhagat Singh, a revolutionary who fought for Indian independence along with fellow members of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. It features Ajay Devgn as the titular character along with Sushant Singh, Akhilendra Mishra and D. Santosh as the other lead characters. Raj Babbar, Farida Jalal and Amrita Rao play supporting roles. The film chronicles Singh's life from his childhood where he witnesses the Jallianwala Bagh massacre until the day he was hanged to death before the official trial dated 24 March 1931.

The film was produced by Kumar and Ramesh Taurani's Tips Industries on a budget of ₹200–250 million (about US$4.2–5.2 million in 2002). The story and dialogue were written by Santoshi and Piyush Mishra respectively, while Anjum Rajabali drafted the screenplay. K. V. Anand, V. N. Mayekar and Nitin Chandrakant Desai were in charge of the cinematography, editing and production design respectively. Principal photography took place in Agra, Manali, Mumbai and Pune from January to May 2002. The soundtrack and film score were composed by A. R. Rahman, with the songs "Mera Rang De Basanti" and "Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna" being well received in particular.

Plot

In 1907, Bhagat Singh is born in British India. From childhood, he witnesses numerous atrocities committed against Indians by the British colonial regime. Following the horrific aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Bhagat takes a solemn vow to dedicate his life to freeing India from British rule. He initially supports Mahatma Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement, but when Gandhi abruptly calls off the campaign in 1922 following the Chauri Chaura incident, a disillusioned Bhagat chooses the path of armed revolution. As an adult, he joins the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which leads to his first imprisonment. To steer him toward a peaceful life, his father, Kishen, bails him out, establishes a dairy farm for him, and arranges his marriage with a woman named Mannewali. Rejecting a domestic life, Bhagat flees home, leaving a note stating that his country remains his ultimate love.

In 1928, nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai is beaten to death by police while leading a peaceful protest against the Simon Commission. In retaliation, Bhagat, alongside fellow revolutionaries Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar, and Chandra Shekhar Azad, assassinates Assistant Superintendent of Police John Saunders. In 1929, to protest the oppressive Trade Disputes and Public Safety Bills, Bhagat and Batukeshwar Dutt orchestrate a bombing inside the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi. They deliberately target empty benches to avoid casualties, using the subsequent public trial as a platform to propagate their revolutionary ideals and counter British propaganda that branded them as mere terrorists. Bhagat's popularity surges nationwide, rivaling Gandhi's influence among the youth, laborers, and farmers.

While incarcerated at Lahore Central Jail, Bhagat, Sukhdev, Rajguru, and their fellow inmates undertake a grueling 63-day hunger strike to demand equal rights and humane conditions for Indian political prisoners, resisting violent forced-feedings and canings by the authorities. Meanwhile, on February 27, 1931, the British police corner Azad at Alfred Park in Allahabad. Following a fierce shootout and refusing to be captured alive, Azad commits suicide with the final bullet in his pistol.

Production

In 1998, the film director Rajkumar Santoshi read several books on the socialist revolutionary, Bhagat Singh, and felt that a biopic would help revive interest in him. Although S. Ram Sharma made a film about Bhagat in 1965, titled Shaheed, 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 Anjum Rajabali mentioned to Santoshi about his work on Har Dayal, whose revolutionary activities inspired Udham Singh (on whom a Punjabi film 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 Shaheed Bhagat Singh, 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 The Martyr: Bhagat Singh's Experiments in Revolution (2000) by journalist Kuldip Nayar. The following month, Rajabali formally began his research on Bhagat while admitting to Santoshi that it was "a difficult task". Gurpal Singh, a Film and Television Institute of India 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 Rediff.com 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 Piyush Mishra's 1994 play Gagan Damama Bajyo; Mishra was subsequently credited with writing the film's dialogues.

Key details