Sardar Udham movie review: Shoojit Sircar shows how a patriotic film can be made sans lies, loudness or hate

Language: Hindi with English Bollywood has given patriotism a bad name among serious cinephiles. This Hindi-English film by the director of Vicky Donor, Piku and October tells the story of how the Indian freedom fighter Udham Singh assassinated Michael O’Dwyer, the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, in 1940 to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April, 1919. In Sardar Udham, O’Dwyer is shown conveying this cold-hearted intent to Dyer: “I want to set a precedent. With the air of a reality show that had cameras following Udham, Sircar’s film goes back and forth in time and place through the protagonist’s association with the legendary Bhagat Singh, his direct personal link to Jallianwala Bagh, his decision to take the fight to Europe where he gets acquainted with workers’ movements and Irish rebellion, his friendship with the British activist Eileen Palmer and the years of precision planning that went into executing O’Dwyer. Sircar’s storytelling for Sardar Udham is so detailed, that it almost feels like he was standing beside Udham, watching him going about his business in early 20th century India and England.