Just a few days ago, Vicky Kaushal shared his first look from the biopic on? revolutionary Udham Singh. The film is being directed by Shoojit Sircar and Vicky Kaushal is more than excited to play a strong character yet again. Sharing the first look from the film, Kaushal had written,?
"Running my fingers through the bullet holes at Jallianwala Bagh, little did I realise that I would one day get a chance to relive and depict the anger and anguish of the lesser known martyr, revolutionary...Sardar Udham Singh."
As soon as Vicky shared the first look, his fans started pouring in lovely message again and most of them hinted at him nailing the look. The film that was earlier offered to Irrfan Khan went to Vicky Kaushal and it's one of Shoojit Sircar's most ambitious projects till date.
But before we get all excited for the film, let's know a little more about the iconic character.?
1. Udham Singh (26 December 1899 ¨C 31 July 1940). He was born on December 26, 1899, at the village of Sunam in Punjab¡¯s Sangrur district. After he lost both his parents at a very young age, he and his elder brother were taken in by an orphanage in Amritsar.? However, Punjab was witnessing a political turbulence during this time.?
2. On April 13, 1919, a crowd of more than 10,000 unarmed men, women, and children gathered at Amritsar¡¯s Jallianwala Bagh to celebrate Baisakhi festival. Singh and his friends from the orphanage were at Jallianwala Bagh and they were assigned the duty of serving water to the thirsty crowd. While they were still on-duty, Dyer arrived his troops, sealed off the only exit and opened fire on the crowd without any warning. This came as a big shocker for 20-year old Udham Singh who was deeply disturbed by the series of events. He later got involved with the armed resistance that was unfolding in and outside India. In the early 1920s, he travelled to East Africa, where he worked as a labourer for a while before he strategically shifted to USA. If historic facts are to be believed, Singh was deeply influenced by Bhagat Singh. In 1924, Udham Singh became involved with the Ghadar Party, organizing Indians overseas towards overthrowing colonial rule.
3. In 1927, he decided to pave his way back to India (on the orders of Bhagat Singh). So he started working as a carpenter on a ship travelling to India. However, in the very same year, he was arrested for the possession of illegal arms and for running the Ghadr Party¡¯s radical publication, Ghadr di Gunj. He was jailed for four years till 1931. During this period, Brigadier-General Dyer died after suffering a series of strokes. And all his fellow revolutionaries that included iconic names like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev (fellow revolutionaries whom Singh deeply admired) were hanged for their involvement in the Lahore conspiracy case.
4. In 1927, he had returned to India on orders from Bhagat Singh, bringing 25 associates as well as revolvers and ammunition. Soon after, he was arrested for possession of unlicensed arms. Revolvers, ammunition, and copies of a prohibited Ghadar Party paper called "Ghadr-i-Gunj" ("Voice of Revolt") were confiscated.?
5. He was prosecuted and sentenced to five years in prison. But after his release from the prison in 1931, his movements were under strict scrutiny of the Punjab police. He made his way to Kashmir, where he was able to evade the police and escape to Germany. In 1934, he reached London, where he found employment as an engineer.?
6. He secretly strategize a plan to assassinate Michael O'Dwyer. In Singh's diaries for 1939 and 1940, he occasionally misspells O'Dwyer's surname as "O'Dyer", leaving a possibility he may have confused O'Dwyer with General Dyer. He was also referred to as Shaheed-i-Azam Sardar Udham Singh (the expression "Shaheed-i-Azam", means "the great martyr").
7. A district (Udham Singh Nagar) of Uttarakhand was named after him to pay homage in October 1995 by the then Mayawati government.
8. He executed his plans and Udham Singh assassinated Michael O'Dwyer in 1940. In 1919, Michael O'Dwyer, then the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, sent troops to Jallianwala Bagh where they fired on a gathering of unarmed protestors.?
10. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre deeply impacted the young Udham Singh who shot Michael O'Dwyer and after twenty years, he was hanged for the murder. But later, in his statement, he said that he didn't regret anything. After the assassination, he said,
"I did it because I had a grudge against him. He deserved it. He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country. I have seen my people starving in India under the British rule. I have protested against this, it was my duty. What a greater honour could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland?"
11. In 1962, Jawaharlal Nehru who had earlier condemned Singh's actions backtracked from his earlier statement and said, "I salute Shaheed-i-Azam Udham Singh with reverence who had kissed the noose so that we may be free."?After his death, his remains were returned to India in 1974. He was later cremated in his birthplace of Sunam, Punjab. His ashes were scattered in Sutlej river as martyrs Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev's ashes too were scattered in the same place.?
This is the brave story of an unsung hero who risked his life but avenged the death of several Indians who lost their life in the unfateful Jallianwala massacre.?