Reviews

This is an excellent tribute to the great martyr Bhagat Singh who was hanged by the British in 1931. If I am not mistaken, one of the story writers (BK Dutt) was Bhagat's comrade in the freedom struggle, and was sentenced to life for 'waging war against the King'in the trial that sent Bhagat, Rajguru and Sukhdev to the gallows. Manoj Kumar a.k.a. Bharat Kumar managed to play Bhagat without excessive melodrama. The music and lyrics are awesome. The song, "Sarfaroshii Ki tamanna" (penned by another martyr Ramprasad 'Bismil') has been sung by Rafi , and he has poured all his heart into it. If you understand the song, and the emotions behind it, you will be touched and awed. The measure of Bhagat Singh's grip on Indian people's perception and imagination can be ascertained by the fact that two more movies were made about him recently. IMHO, the one with Ajay Devgan did greater justice to the man, and his ideas.

This movie is a beautiful love story and portrays the feudal life style of the landed aristocracy in North India, particularly in the Awadh region (around Lucknow), a major centre of the 1857 war of independence. Also, IMHO, Javed Khan (Shashi Kapoor)has already seen Ruth, even before the Church massacre (remember the first scene- Ruth notices someone standing outside the house).

Interesting trivia from the movie:

Ruth's grandma is played by Ismat Chughtai, one of the foremost progressive Urdu writers of the last century.

Ruth was played by Nafisa Ali, who had been crowned Miss India in 1977 or 1978 (?). This was her last movie till she appeared in the 2000 movie 'Major Saab' with Amitabh Bacchan (Amitabh's wife).