Sardar Udham

We're a wait. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Bollywood Cinema Club, where we take a look at Indian cinema every other week. I am the host of the Culture Cast, Chris Stash. You and I am joined by my good friend. You have heard him here before, but you can hear him and I on a little show all about HBO's Last of Us and all about HBO's Game of Throne's House of the Dragon.

Your friends, d hot d what a terrible name, your friend in mine? Your shar parasta? What it do? Uh? Let's uh, let's go to Caxton Hall.

Yeah, let's get real depressing, real fast, because on this episode of the Bollywood Cinema Club, we're gonna be taking a look at twenty twenty ones biopic I guess kind of sort yeah, yeah, it's about a sure, we'll go to biopic. Uh Sardar Oudam the film by Shujit Sircar based all on the life of Udom, not really all on the life, but more on a time and place of the last couple of years. The life of Udam Singh. Yeah, the life of Udam Singh, who was a Indian revolutionary and freedom fighter who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer to get a little bit of revenge for the Jolly and Wallah Bog massacre, which is which as a Westerner, it's not something I knew about and we're gonna have to talk a lot about it. But that just out of the gate before we talk spoilers, before we talk about the movie.

This movie is a rough watch for anybody who wants to watch it. It is a very serious movie. This is probably the most serious movie I've watched Indian cinema wise. Just want to get this out of the way, like right now. It is like this movie is definitely serious to the point where there are no musical numbers, which I'm only I think.

You know this one is a nice uh mix this one with RR and your brain just smelts because you've just spent like six hours watching like a lot of movie back to back, a lot of freedom fighting as well, well, a lot of freedom fighting. One is more accurate than the other as we know, well, I mean when they had those lions jumping out of the cages fighting with people. That movie and I know we've talked about it on previous episode, Mike White and I did. That movie is without a doubt one of the most fun things I've had the opportunity to watch in a long time. I was, I was enraptured by that movie.

But we're not here to talk about that movie. You wanted to watch this movie not just because you're a prime an Amazon Prime employee badge number six four five, eight, one two three. Uh, but so, so why did you want to watch sardar Oudam. Neither one of us are Indian, by the way, so it's not like either one of us have a dog in the fight. But obviously I think we would both agree.

Uh, these movies don't hit the same way for us that they would for someone who's Indian. I think we could both agree. Like that's yeah, I don't know how it put you know, a generation of a generation above. It's like it's like watching a movie about like the Civil War, or like slavery or so or even like the Civil Rights movement. I think I think like although like we have a bit of a cultural connection in the sense of like we grew up learning the about these things, at least, you know, until it's it's newer for us as well, Like we're it's not only it's like we've we've heard about these horrible things happening, and now we're seeing it's like, actually we I mean, we know that the British occupied India and stuff, but I don't think we'd seen this extent of the horrors like this one.

It's really bad. And I'm like, definitely a pacifist. But I was like, you know, but you're a pacifist the same reason I am, because neither one of us have had to fight for our right to be free in our own country. And and that's the thing that's really hard, like you said, with the Civil War, like even then, like the only frame of reference that Americans really would have American as in someone who didn't come here in the last decade from another country. If you are someone who grew up here, the only kind of connection that many people have.

I don't, you probably don't, but there are plenty of people in this country who do. To the Revolutionary War, I mean, that's really what this is in a lot of ways, our country getting freedom from the the British. But obviously the Indian independence movement took from eighteen fifty seven to nineteen forty seven, so it's a it's a much more extended period of time. The British really just the British. Really they treated the Indians terribly because they didn't look like them, you know.

I mean they treated the Americans terribly too, but I'm not going to say that they didn't. But I'm not going to go as far as to say it wasn't. It's not as bad as what we saw in this movie. Yeah, yeah, I guess, because I mean they were British people that went just over to America, whereas these are like, yeah, Indian people. It's so yeah.

To your point, it's basically about this guy who you learn about this this the Gillian Walla bog massacre, and essentially the outcome of that has really left a strong impression on this character or character. It's a real person, Udom Sing, who basically becomes a revolt Indian revolutionary. He goes to jail for some sort of you know, revolutionary. We don't know the exact thing he did, but just seemed like he was in some sort of organization trying to rebel against the British. He gets out, go seeing for a very long time, I'm like a decade or something like that, and essentially plots to kill the guy Michael Dwyer who was the governor of Punjab, which he was the guy that essentially gave the ok for the massacre, And just for some context to what the massacre is, it was essentially they were protesting a law that I did some wikipediaing.

It's the Ratlet Act, the Ralet Act, which would have basically allowed due process to be skipped for like political dissidents and for them to be like expedited to jail and sentenced. And you know, it seems like a reasonable thing to protest against. And as a way of dwelling the protests, which was a non violent one, the Governor's like, make it basically not about this. I want them to fear protesting in the future, and like I want to send a message show. He sends a general with more of a backbone for it to do his bidding essentially, and the dude just opens him but he has his troops opened fire, and like just I think it's like thousands of protests and over over a thousand died, hundreds more hurt, and that was I think one of the big big sparks for the for to really like get a lot of support for the Indian independence from England, because I think, not that things were always great beforehand, but I think that one was especially bad in the context of like the British occupation of India, and it was something I hadn't really heard about before, and so well, I mean to the point of Winston Churchill denouncing it and the British Parliament denounced you know, Michael Michael o'dyer's or O'Dwyer's conduct.

I mean, it's it's not like the British government's stood by it. But the British government was already there. I mean they that couldn't have happened if they hadn't been there. Yeah, it's not like they were like, hey, do this thing, but like they enabled this person who did this horrible thing right and ostensibly against right. But I mean, at the same time, like the treatment of the Indians by the British, it was not lessen it was not positive.

And it's it's not you can say it's all it's fictionalized and in Triple Are it's you know, it's really over the top and there's guys getting whipped in the public square. But that was happening. And what you see in the final act of this movie is a essentially recreation of that massacre, and it is awful. I mean, it's like it is just I don't get emotional at movies all the time anymore, given how many I have to constantly watch. But I wanted to turn it off.

And not only did I want to turn it off, but it was so effective that I wanted to turn it off. I mean it was it was successful in what it was doing, so I didn't turn it off. But that was the intention of the creators, was to put you right in there to the point of feeling uncomfortable. And I appreciate that because again, like as a Westerner who did not have any frame of reference for this singular event to be essentially in the middle of it. Yeah, I'm not going to forget about this anytime soon, if ever.

No, it actually reminded me of do you watch the Watchman Ship show that lindelof dam Lindeloff created. Are you familiar with any of it at all? Because there's like a really uh the Tulta you know, do you know the Tulsa massacre. There's an episode that opens with like the Tulsa massacre, which I had never heard about before, and actually like it was a big deal when watching it came out, it was like the first time a lot of people in America had heard about it. And like the Tultsa massacre, basically, if you don't know, Black Wall Street essentially was this place in Oklahoma early nineteen hundreds were actually like black were really wealthy and doing well despite like segregation and all that stuff, and essentially there was a riot and a bunch of them were murdered by a bunch of white people who didn't like them.

I mean, there's there's there's slightly when I wants to them, but basically that's what happened, and it's not it's something that's essentially swept under the rug, like even in Tulsa, it's not really acknowledged right in modern days, and so it's like crazy to see these horrible things like happen and they're so visceral and and this like the Tulsa massacre, like, but actually this actually happened almost the same in years that like, it's in relatively recent history. These things are happening and in the last hundred years. Yeah, to the point where they mentioned at the end of the movie. And again, obviously the movie has a bias and rightfully so. It's made by an Indian filmmaker.

They make a point to mention that the British government still hasn't apologized because to apologize would admit guilt and who knows what it would open the British government up to. But it's to your point, it is so contemporary that they're still addressing it three years ago, four years ago. Now, yeah, like that's it's not yeah, it's not like seventeen seventy six, this is this is contemporary. Last hundred would have been the last hundred years four years ago. And you see how this thing like haunts this guy and it becomes like all he can think about do, like it's it's for him, it's getting revenge and justice are the same thing.

And I think the movie does ask a question like our revenge and just like is justice sir by his actions? And I think, like I have mixed feelings on it, like I'm like yes and no. At like Vicky Kashaw, I've never seen him before. I think he's relatively like newcomer and the Indian movie scene because he's like he's like he's like our age essentially. Yeah, he does look older, but I guess they played him up to he has like a really good performance where he's like he speaks like really broken English.

But it like it's very effective because this is a guy who who he's sort of trying to assimilate into British society, but only because he needs to do that just to get close to the Michael la Dwyer character, which they also have an interesting relationship, and I think they could have gone further with it. I mean again, I don't know if that's real. I assume that that's dramatized or the sense for the sake of the movie to kind of give us a back and forth between the two, to give them the conversation they never got to have in real life. But maybe, yeah, I mean again, like that didn't happen. I don't think like and even if it did happen, didn't happen that way.

But yeah, like it. I appreciate when a movie is you know, it's because this movie again is a biopic. But you know, I was reading some kind of information online and some reviews and some of the reviews out of India. We're talking about how the movie doesn't address Udam Singh's time in Africa. It doesn't really address the amount of stuff that he the amount of stuff that he did in Africa to help there, and it doesn't.

It kind of glosses over some stuff and it's really more about him killing Michael O'Dwyer and what it took for him to get there. It's not really about his life. I mean, even if you go read about him on Wikipedia or look into his life, it's not like people know a lot of what he was doing. He was underground intentionally because they were looking for him. They knew who he was and they wanted to find him.

The British government did yeah, yeah, like he was already even though they released him from prison. I think because he had been involved in revolution activity in the past, like he was kind of a high priority, like we gotta keep an eye on the sky. And then the movie he does it, it does say like he has some relationship with like the communist government of like the USSR, but they're not super involved because I guess it's also at the same time World War two is starting, right, is kind of when like his when he really starts upping hit, it's he gets there at between World or one. World War two, but like about halfway through his time in England, world War Two begins. So it's like even the revolutionaries, like the community of Indian people he's there with like, you know, now it's not the best time because there's obviously a huge war going on and the and he goes to the Russians for help, and the Russians are like, you know, now, it's not a good time.

Although win is a good time for a revolution. But so you have this backdrop of World War Two that it's it never really takes the foreground, but it's always there, and you remember, like there's this there is like a political unrest going on outside of what's going on in India, which has its own, you know, fight for independence at this time as well. And how do you feel about the non linear narrative structure of the film. I kind of I kind of liked it, but I'm also it feels really overused in Indian cinema, at least contemporary Indian cinema. They use a lot of this like flashbacking stuff.

And I've talked about it before on this show. Which is which lends to the length of the movies because it needs to tell two stories to get the full story right, But I liked it here, but it was very confusing at times. Yeah, it wasn't clear winds. It was similar to something we dealt with in Game of Thrones because it was jumping around. It felt like like I've mentioned things got glossed over, and even I can tell things we're getting glossed over, even not knowing Udom Singh's entire life history.

Yeah, to that point, it's like in the context the way when We was built. I think it works, but I also don't think I loved it. Like I think the movie was told a bit more linearly. It may have been better. The only thing that is maybe affective that's done effectively is the Jolly Wall of Bog flashback, because you kind of like I don't under like I understand his anger, but it's like I don't really understand it.

And if it started with that, maybe it makes it easier to follow him, but it's more impactful because then you're like, oh shit, like this dude's anger is justified. Now. I think that flashback was about twenty minute. It's too long, especially because of how long the movie was getting us to that point. Like maybe if they streamline some of the earlier stuff and then had that flashback really impactful, but I also was checking out a bit, like by like the tenth time of him dragging bodies, because it's like, I get it, you're not really telling me anything anymore.

You're not Like my emotions aren't getting any stronger, Like this is a horrible thing, but you've taken so long to get me to this point, Like I kind of want to see what happens next. And maybe I'm just a heartless bastard, but that was my reaction. Like the actual massacre scene, and like when he first saved the first couple of people, I was like, damn, this is intense, but I was starting to glaze a little bit well, And I actually I completely agree with you. You know that they they use this kind of nonlinear, disjointed narrative to jump between after he got arrested and before. But then at the end of the movie, you notice that he's been you know, he sentenced, he's gonna die.

There's like forty five minutes left in the movie, almost an hour, and you're like, Okay, I know that they're gonna have to do the jolly jolly and wallabag thing at some point. But like yourself, I did not expect it to be an hour, and it is an hour more or less. It takes you from the moment he starts talking to Swain until the end of the movie essentially, and it is just like you said, it's it wears you down in a way that it's got to be intentional. Obviously, shoo Jeet Cercar was going for exactly this to kind of wear you down emotionally as an audience member. But I don't feel like it's needed.

I feel like with that initial scene of watching people getting murdered, children being stepped on, people having their arms and legs shot off, and bullets being I mean, it's graphic in a way that like these kinds of things are not. I can't tell you the last time I saw a movie where I saw that many children being shot and like it being shown just clear as day Star Wars Episode three, Revenge of the Fifth, What about the younglings. It's just that in that vein of like shocking for shocking sake, it totally works. But to your point, I don't need to see him go back for the fifth or sixth time to drag those bodies out because it doesn't matter like, what does it matter? Now we have seen how bad this can get.

It can't get any worse, Like how much worse can it get? And and to your point, like I do think because of the disjointed storytelling, that's what hurts it. Like I said, if that, if this had happened at the beginning, I could have been like, Okay, this is following a straight narrative, so it makes sense why we keep seeing this thing. But that's when I'm like, I know the movie's near the end. There's it's not going to tell me anything new at this point, like I now understand his anger.

You need an editor, and it's it's and I read some people say, well, you know, I supposed to make it uncomfortable, and I'm like, it's not that I was, Oh I was too uncomfortable, Like, yes, it was, It's just I was just like it actually made it less impactful because then I was just waiting for to like go on, like when he's sentenced, I was like, oh, this is actually like this would be like a pretty good ent for the movie. But to your point, I looked like, shit, we have forty minutes left, and I think there's a great movie in here. Uh, just a bit too long, But I really like the performances. I think the lead's good. I think the guy that plays a dwyer Sean Scott is like just deliciously not not like mustache tually evil, but just pratically evil.

It's like it's like that high society bureaucrat evil, the old the old white man like sort of ethnocentric, almost imperialist. Yeah, imperialist, like we're doing this for their own good and he believes it. Uh. And it's that's just like a like an old kind of evil. It it's just so so wrong because like these people are so unwilling to consider anything else.

And uh yeah, like your hate for him does simmer a bit bit, and you're definitely not upset when he is assassinated. And and to your point from earlier, you know, it's it's a question of like does the you know, do the crimes fit the punishment right? Because obviously I mean Udom saying goes he makes it his life mission to kill Michael O'Dwyer. I mean the term singular. If you put the term singular focus in a dictionary and look it up, you'd find a picture of Udom Singh because his singular focus is to again in this movie mind you're not in real life.

He was doing other things in real life. That's why it's like kind of people were getting a little disappointed that they kind of glossed over the other things that he did do. It's just his singular focus is. So they had to make Michael O'Dwyer as terrible as he probably was in real life, but you had to really get a sense of that. I felt like they could have done more.

I felt like there could have been more interactions between Udam Singh and Michael O'Dwyer, given that they put it in there already, they could have had more interactions between the two of them. Well, and to your point, like the same division. It's like, but he was an Eland for like a decade. He'd found the guy way beforehand, Like why did he spends along? And the movie kind of uses its disjointed timeline to be like, we're just gonna skip these times because we just we don't really know what why he wouldn't do it here for three years and he does, He kind of friends him, works for him, has so many chances to skill, doesn't kill him, and then the movie does sort of explain it.

He says, well, you know, if I murdered him as a employee, I just come up as a disgruntled employee and I dilute my message, and kind of it makes it also seems like he wanted to give him a chance to say, like maybe he repents or feels bad about it, so then at least I could be like, you know, you did a horrible thing, but you don't deserve to die. And what is that a weird messaging? Though, like for the movie, that's kind of let's let this fucking guy go by. Here's the question. So Michael O'Dwyer in real life was part and parcel to the jollywan Bog massacre, right, do you think he felt any remorse because the movie giving him something like giving him the opportunity to be remorseful, and he's not.

I appreciate it. I just I wonder like that weird story beat doesn't kind of work if you think about it, him meeting like Udom Singh meeting Michael O'Dwyer and then like going and like spending some time together. It doesn't make a lot of sense the way that they do it, right, Yeah, I mean, well, I guess the thing is when he first meets him, I'm like, why isn't he just shoot him right there? Right? Like why do you think Udom Singh gave Michael O'Dwyer an opportunity to repent?

Is my question because that's what the movie is kind of But like why that's a weird thing to kind of get at, right, because I don't know if I assume Michael O'Dwyer believe that what he did was right until the day that he was he does, Yeah, why even pretend like Udom Saying would have given him the Like, I don't believe the real Udom sing gave the guy an opportunity to repent, do you? Like? I mean, it is a bit confusing because I feel like if you think about that whole like I said, that whole series of interactions they have, it kind of like you're like, well, I don't understand why he wouldn't have killed him earlier, right, but the real Udom Saying totally would have. Yeah, it's there for dramatic tension.

I didn't dislike their interactions, Like I was like, this is kind of interesting, like interesting little movie, but I think knowing how it ended and knowing like the central trust the movie. I had trouble reconciling the two. It's like it's almost a different movie. Like it's like this character is actually a bit more complex than the udom sing that were following throughout the whole movie, who really just cares about one thing, and like you kind of see him be friends of the Indian revolutionaries in London and they kind of are, you know, put to the side. So yeah, I didn't really it didn't mesh like it was effective but messed with the rest of the movie.

Well, and you know, again, obviously this movie, this movie has a pretty this movie has a pretty anti British slant, right, And I don't think it's undeserved. I don't think it has any bearing on outside of the British government hasn't apologized. I don't think it has like a bearing on the British people or Britain as a whole, any the contemporary Britain and yeah, not modern right. But it's what's interesting is even the character like even though that's the case, they really had to because of the story, in the way that they told the story and his singular focus being all they focused on. They had to make Michael O'Dwyer this like pretty much a mustache twirling villain.

Like those scenes act as the singular reason outside of the actual massacre that we see, which doesn't need anymore, Like what else do you need? Frankly that, like you've said, it almost feels unnecessary to the point of it's like that. It's like the massacre. It has the same problem that the massacre scene does. It's excessive.

I don't I don't think Udom sing and Michael O'Dwyer ever interacted outside of the one time that they did, which wizards we shot him. So what did anyone think was needed to in reinforce that Michael O'Dwyer is a terrible human being and needed to be punished for Udom Singh's beliefs outside of what he did at the massacre? Like it's it just pads out the length of a movie that's already almost three hours long. And I don't complain about the length of these movies most of the time, but this may be a case where the movie is just way too long, Like it's like, it's almost an hour too long. I agree, I agree with you there.

I will say the court scene like was effective like once he's arrested and caught and he like kind of gives his speech about the oppression of India and how he's he's not a killer, he's a revolutionary. Like I found all that really effective, but it was also like felt a bit rushed, like it was oddly truncated. Let's just like yeah, and I don't know if it was supposed to say, like, hey, he didn't really get a fair trial because of like the of his extra who's just edited weirdly, because it's like he you, after almost being tortured. He he has seemed to be given like a pretty competent attorney who seems like a you know, decent dude. But then he just basically objects a few times and then the uh and Udam Singh gives a cool like a couple like really effective responses, not like a full speech, but like this is why I did it, and then the the judges like you're guilty, you're being hung on it.

Just that felt the pacing was really weird. It was like effective but rushed in a three hour movie, right well, and to your point earlier about a the weird broken English thing that they do where he's speaking and broken English, like that was an opportunity to really give him that. If there's any moment in the movie to give Udom saying his moment, it's that moment there and they robbed the character. I get that it happened in real life, but you have already injected this movie with a fair amount of seemingly fiction and or decided to gloss over things that happened in real life for the sake of streamlining your narrative. But you removed a substantial amount of emotional weight from this movie by truncating that scene, because you can go and read what Udom Singh said in real life, and they even truncated that for the movie.

So he didn't say like his full speel. No, they kind of like they kind of they kind of I don't know if you would say contemporary ized it, but kind of. But again, like why do that, Like this is the one opportunity that the character really gets throughout the entire film too, outside of the kind of scene that he has with the homeless man in the park. Yeah, this is the other scene where he really gets to even though it Michael O'Dwyer is not there, he gets to really condemn the British government, and it's not enough. It's so not enough that it sticks out that it's not enough to the point where you noticed it and I noticed it, and I feel like anyone watching this would be like all right, but he didn't even get his even in a movie like this, he didn't get his own moment.

Yeah, like he did, Like I think what he said was effective, but it just felt yeah it did. It just felt rushed. It wasn't enough. It wasn't enough, or they didn't give him enough time, or like they're they're sentencing a man to death. And yeah, it probably was as truncated in real life as it is in the movie.

But again, you've already injected fiction into your movie. Why not make that scene a bigger thing? Snip more time out of these scenes with him and his girlfriend sitting out and eating together, Like there's so much in this movie that just is like you've mentioned it, they just do it like two or three times. They show him and his girlfriend two or three times together doing the same thing. Like, and the girlfriend thing is interesting because it's like, well, I may have a crush on the actress, but that notwithstanding, I was like, hey, is this part real and I'm not sure if that was And then b I was like, if that's not real, do you really need her to add the like this is why he it was revenge because not just this horrible thing happened, but like his girlfriend died, which is horrible.

But also I'm like, if I saw that like kind of carnage, I don't know if I would need and I don't know if that my girlfriend being dead versus the thousand other people including my friends and stuff being dead like that would have been enough to throw me over the edge, Like it kind of trivializes the loss the other people. But like I said, if that happened real life, fine, you know I'm being ignorant. It's like a really nuclear Bond villain that goes, I'm gonna kill your wife and your daughter and your dog and your pet lizard and your fish, and then'mna go kill your family too. It's like you don't have to do all that to prove a point. And it's like it's the same thing with the having udom Sing, and Michael O'Dwyer interacts like, you don't have to give us more reason for us to understand why udom Sing is angry.

It is apparent we have to watch this scene for an hour to Unlike I don't need to watch it for an hour to understand it. But that's anyways, you cut hers, you see the flashback of him just you know, coming out and all these people are deadly saving them. I get it, like or even his friend because mind you, he's not there and his friend comes in and is bleeding all over the place, He's like, yeah, they opened fire. Honestly, is that not enough? I mean, what, like, what more has to be there?

I don't think it was watching that and being like, oh, like you know, the mask was bad, but they got his girlfriend, Like that's why he like like like it's in the camal Later it's like, no, it was his girlfriend. I was but but I honestly think that was for the for the movie's sake, and it didn't. It's not like it wasn't impactful. But in the context of it being such a long movie that already had a lot to say, it does seem like we could have focused on the trial or the legal aspect, or more of his time in London rather than kind of on these things that are supposed to engender more of an emotional response from us when I feel like we're already there and I couldn't find any information if Udam Singh had a girlfriend that was there, that was mute.

I just it's it's such a contrivance. It's a film. It is a narrative contrivance for what again, Why there you you know, movie what you're going to be showing us in the last hour. Do you really think that's not enough? Because that's enough on its own, and it's it's too much on its own, frankly, I mean we've already talked about how that scene ends up being too much.

Why why do you feel like you have to make it like like paint a fucking bullseye on their forehead and to make us like really understand it is apparent why Udom saying is angry and why Udom sing feels like he has to go and commit an act of violence to react to acts of violence like it's not And Vicky Cashaw's performance is so good that you don't question it. He's so good. He carries this movie by himself. There's not really anybody else in this movie, frankly, like there are but like but you know what I mean, like it doesn't feel like anybody else's movie. It feels like Vicky Cashaw's movie, and everybody else is kind of coming in.

It's like a one man show, really, and everybody else just kind of comes in for a scene or two. But he is why you're here. He makes the movie not feel three hours, even at its most draggiest moments like these later bog massacre scenes, and he's like simmers, like just simmers underneath, like you're like there's something not evil, but something like violent and angry in him, and you can just feel that in all of his interactions and the way he carries himself, and like the loss and the anger and just his almost like feelings of disappointment within himself and how much he's done because he's moved to London and it's like I can't even do this thing, like I'm just living among these people and I'm not speaking my truth or living my truth.

And he like he is a truly like powerful presence on the screen, even with the broken English, Like I mean, I watch the subtitles. I think most people do, but like it's it's sometimes a bit hard to understand what he's saying as he's mixing I think Hindi with English literally it's hard to follow, but you're somehow he's still able to make it like where you're like, I get like just his emotions are apparent to mean, like I understand what he's feeling, what he's trying to communicate, And I think that was intentional, like by the by the director to have him communicate where sometimes you're like, I don't literally know what he's saying, but I can feel what he's saying, right, No, you're you're right.

He is such a presence on screen, and he looks so different from the way he I mean he normally even looks as an actor. He really kind of transforms into udom saying and he is a presence. I mean, he is a presence on screen. He really is, you know. I don't know if he is like Omi tab or SRK levels of charisma, And I would be really curious to see him in a movie that is relying on his charismatic aspects as opposed to kind of the maybe the kind of more serious dramatic aspect of his ability as an actor, because I feel like he's probably like a really charismatic actor as well.

I don't I don't know, and I haven't seen him in anything else, but he does such a good job even with this really serious, like dead drop dead serial role, that I can't help but assume he's just a I mean, clearly he's a very talented actor, but I assume he also has a lot of range, because it almost feels like to be an Indian and a successful actor in Indian cinema, you really have to be able to have a lot of range. You can't just be like a lot of tonal shifts in their movies. Yeah, yes, for sure. I will tell you though, this movie is, for all of its kind of flaws that we've already talked about, very western in its film and it's filmmaking sensibilities. Oh yeah, it also looks like the cinematography is excellent.

I think there's some there's a couple of times that there's clearly cg and it's sketchy, but like I would say, overall, like it looks like it's very crisp. Like even the things that look old and raggedy, it's like, are like they're very immaculately done. The sets look great. The Indian part, like in the parts of India look I mean, I'm sure they're shot there at least partially looks great. Parts in Old England look great, Like even though it's a pretty dour movie, it's kind of great.

It's got this crispness to us that may enjoyable to watch it. Yeah, you're right, it does. It did feel like very western, and maybe a lot of it takes place in London too, which probably leads to that there's a lot of English in this movie. A lot of English. Yeah, a lot of English, A lot of English speakers.

Yeah. I would say, like probably like a third to half the dialogue is in English. Yeah, I you know, I enjoyed. I enjoyed the movie for what it is. I just, you know, these kinds of movies don't really animate me, even in Western cinema, like a serious biopic historical drama about a real life personally, I would rather read about them.

Does that make sense? Yeah? Is that weird? Like? No, No, I think I get that.

The reason I think I wanted to watch it was a you wanted to talk about, like an Indian movie. I think the more contemporary things that I've seen from like Indian cinema, I've tended to enjoy more than the older ones, and this just had really good reviews, So that was it wasn't I didn't really know much about I knew nothing about the story other than I knew it was vaguely his historical like the movies, right, So it's it's not like there was any intentionality around the story that I was trying to do by choosing this. It was just hey, Hair, this is good and it is Indian cinema and it's a Prime Video movie. That's yeah, it's it's because Amazon's actually invested in a decent amount in like their their Indian movies and shows.

There's plenty of movies that we've talked about on this show that can be found on Prime Video. So yeah, I mean, I mean they this was like I don't think that it's necessarily in Amazon serious production, but they got the exclusive rights and they distributed it distributed. Yeah, so uh, which is awesome. I mean, again, as someone who is obviously heavily invested in Indian cinema, like, it's nice to see Prime Video not investing in a American made Indian cinema film, but an Indian cinema film being made in India by Indian directors. Indian filmmakers, Indian actors and cinematographers and editors.

I am really excited to see if Amazon continues to put money into Indian cinema because again, obviously it is a world of cinema that so many Americans and Westerners in general really would be interested in. Like, you know, many people would love this movie that are into these kinds of movies that it's just exists, yeah, like it's right in the wheelhouse, or they don't want to read the subtitles. I mean again, like I get it, but I don't because you have essentially ruled out so many movies that you could watch. But I was just it's really nice to see Prime and Netflix putting movies from Indian cinema on there but also producing and you know, distributing them. And this is definitely like, doesn't look like this movie couldn't have been cheap to make?

Right? Well? And you know I've said this before on other episodes of other shows, but a movie looking nice, like looking high quality? Is that really anything to get excited about anymore in twenty twenty three, Like shouldn't your movie look nice? It's like a digital camera can be purchased by you or I for a couple thousand bucks, it's not even prohibitive for you or I to make something look nice.

But I'm saying, like, like this does this movie does have like some quite big set pieces like that, oh yeah, And so it's not even just like, oh, it looks nice in the code of Oh it looks nice in the hallway or it looks nice in the house. It's like, no, the outside looks nice. And they have a lot of people in these scenes, and there there's some ambitious filmmaking going on. But I really think, again, this is probably my biggest complaint with the movie, and we've kind of talked about it already, but I think it kind of bears repeating. I think my issue with the movie is it really does almost feel like they put all of their time, energy and focus into the jelly and Walla bog massacre.

Honestly, to the film's detriment. It feels like they if they wanted to make a movie about that, they should have just made a movie about that, you know what I mean, because like it's an hour on its own. It could have just been its own thing with like characters who were there or in you know, like set an entire movie about that. It kind of feels it's weird that it's part of this It's not weird that it's part of this movie, but it feels very much, again, like a plot contrivance. I think what hurts it is because it happens, like I said, late in the movie, but also we don't really see the aftermath other than him just wanting to kill Michael Ladyer.

Like we see him go to jail years after that because he joins the relationships, but we don't really see like how, why what he did. So like you have this really impactful thing that makes him do another thing that sends him to jail, but we don't really see what that is. It's like vaguely hinted at the beginning of the movie, and then it drives him to do this thing in the end. And so like I think it does by skipping the immediate impact it has on him and how it developed him and just kind of saying, this bad thing happened, skip some years, he's this person now, and you and go ahead, like it hurts it. So, if you're going to spend that much time on the massacre, maybe spending a bit more time saying, Okay, this was his journey in the immediate aftermath, so we can kind of understand a bit better because we had to fill in a lot of the gaps ourselves, which it wasn't difficult to do considering the context of the movie.

But I do think maybe me didn't. It didn't all work together as smoothly as I would have liked well. And I think also to your point, I mean, there's plenty of stuff at the you know, the early, you know, first second act of this movie, that's just you know, he's walking through the wilderness of Russia and that's five minutes, and then he's you know, it's walking around and interacting with people, and that's another ten minutes. The movie wants to show you everything that happened in Udom Singh's life after the massacre, but it doesn't. It shows you him getting to London and that's it.

There were things going on there that he was doing. And they're like, it's not a movie about Udam Singh. That's it's you know what. It kind of feels like he's not the focus of the movie, even though he is. It's not about who he is, it's about what he does, right, which is like, not the way you do a biopic.

I guess it is again, it's it's weird. It almost feels like it's more about the massacre, and the massacre as the jumping point for the michael o'dwyre assassination, but even the michael o'dwire assassination isn't given enough weight or time in the movie because of this disjointed narrative. It happened. Everything happens at the beginning of the movie is what it feels like, and then we're spending the rest of the movie unpacking what happened. But because we don't know the context of the things happening when they did happen, there's no weight to them.

And I could go back and watch this for a third time, given that I've watched it twice, but I don't want to watch it. I did because I wanted to see, knowing how the movie played out narratively, how those initial scenes felt, and they didn't feel any better. They didn't feel any different knowing that again, because the first time you watch a movie, you're not going to know where it's going, you're not going to know the narrative flow. But watching it a second time you get a better sense of certain things and can focus on certain things. And while again those scenes did have some weight, like when he shoots Michael o'dwire, they still fell flat knowing where the movie goes because it just it just kind of happens.

Not that it needs to be given pomp and circumstance and fanfare, but you need to give this kind of blow off of this entire movie. You got to give it more weight than just well, it happens and now he's in jail. It really felt like the movie was rushing to get to the massacre recreation, which again perfectly fine, but why tell the story of Udam? Saying then, I guess it's like, like, what was the point of the movie. Is the point of the movie to like make us understand this man?

Is it to highlight the trustees that the British did? Is it all of the It could be all of the above, right, and and I think that is kind of what the movie was trying to do, but maybe it would have been better to put more focus. I think the performances were amazing, the overacting, stories interesting and compelling, and it's because it is essentially true. It's crazy, and like there's an emotional hef to the massacre. It's just you have these really great puzzle pieces that generally fit.

But I think I'd feeling these could have there's a way where it would have felt fit really well, Like yeah, and it could have really come together and been gone from like a good film to like a excellent film. And you know, we're kind of in the minority here. The the overwhelming response to the movie is rather positive. But we are positive, right right, I just I think we're obviously pretty critical about some some things in the movie. Uh, you know, it was really well regarded when it came out in twenty twenty one.

Vicky Cashall won the Best Critics Best Actor by the Critics at the sixty seventh Filmfare Awards last August. So again well regarded movie. Just I don't know. And again, like I said this already like this kind of movie, I wouldn't I enjoyed this movie more than I would have if I had watched a Western version of it. Does that make sense?

Yeah, Like I do not seek these kinds of movies out. I have never seen Schindler's List, you know what I mean? Like, right, Schindler's List is it's amazing. I know I watched that. I've never seen it though, but like I've never seen it for the same reason that I wouldn't search out a movie like this, because I don't like burdening myself.

I don't like burdening myself with bummer entertainment. When we live in the world that we live in, entertainment's kind of an escape, you know. And the last thing I want to escape into is thousands of Indian people being fucking massacred in essentially like a closed off space. So the thing I wish that they had shown more of, and not because I want to be grotesque, but because I think it was an interesting thing researching it. The well that people were throwing themselves into to try and escape being shot.

There's a well in Jolly One Ba Blah Bag that the people were throwing themselves into and then they were fucking drowning in the well. Jeez, I didn't even notice. I mean, there was so much going on that scene that, like, and the actual masker self was very impactful, Like yeah, it was like we we really kind of we kind of dragged it a little bit because it is the later part of it goes on too long, But the aftermath of the massacred. Yeah, but my god, it's like fucking say, it is as it is, as it is, as grotesque and gory and brutal as the first fifteen minutes of saving Private Ryan are like no exaggeration, no hyperbole. And I couldn't help but think that, like there's there probably is like the heft of realism to this, Like I don't think it was over like it was over the top to like see that, but I don't think it was actually over the top of like the experience of those people that were there.

I'm like, actually probably would have been something like this. And they were shooting them with three H three's, which is a very large caliber round which would blow your hand off if somebody shot it at your wrist at close range, Like and that's what happens in the movie, and we see like they were and like the stuff I read online was saying they were actually in an enclosed place space where like they couldn't easily escape, and that the movie does show like people were essentially rounded up, and they were they were the exit was blocked. There's one exit out of this place. It's essentially like a courtyard it's a six acre core yard. It's you know, it's it's it.

They probably didn't even really do it justice, which is the fucking horrifying part if you think about it, right, Like, yeah, I mean, I mean obviously it's way worse. But I'm saying like I didn't feel like, oh it was overly dramatically. I was. I was. No.

This is actually a good telling of how fucked up this situation was, and man, I appreciate that. At the end of the movie, they include those two little like recreations of the Hunter Commission where they're talking to dire and and they're like, well, since the passage was too small for you to get your armored cars, and if it happen, would you have could of And he's like yep. And they're like, well, do you think more people would have died? And he's like yep, Like yeah, thank god they couldn't get the cars in there, because holy shit, can you imagine that? No, I've just killed everyone there, right, because those guns were probably at least maybe fifty cow guns on like an armored car, Like I have no idea what caliber, but it's bigger than the rifles.

And I saw what the rifles were doing the people. And again, like we have become desensitized to violence as Westerners. Given you probably I know you do you probably you play video games that are rather violent. I play video games that are rather violent. But when you shoot violence the way that they were shooting it in this movie, very matter of fact, very just here it is, look at it.

You don't like, look at it, like, don't look away, like that kind of violence when it's shown like that, like at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, it sticks with you. And for me, as successful as Vicky Cashall is in the movie, that that will be what sticks with me from this movie out of everything. I can't help but wonder if you feel the same. Yeah, I mean I think anyone that sees this movie, that's what's gonna come to mind, is that scene. And to your point about the box, I think anytime I don't know what it is, but there's like a connection when you know something is like real or based on something real.

Like if it was just a fictional movie, I probably would be like, Oh, that's fucked up, But like I'm like, no, these people like actually had to suffer this thing, Like that's her Like I was thinking I was like, how could you as a soldier Indian too? And Indian souldis Indian, so like you you it's not like like this is one things like you you have to know, this is fucked up. They were were They're believed they were breaking the law. Yeah, but I'm not. Well then it's like, I mean, this is like but if the laws are unlawful, breaking the law doesn't matter, right, And that's like is it it's okay they broke the law, Like is it worth just getting well the I mean again, the law was the Roulet Act was so expansive and awful and what it was like, like you said at the beginning of this, like you can't help but obviously for multitude of reasons, empathize and sympathize for why they were protesting it, Yeah, to make protesting illegal, like okay, yeah, yeah, Like what what do we have to say about that?

Like what do we have to say other than yeah, no, not a good idea, you know. And and I think also, you know, as much as I did like that scene, I think it just undercut everything else that the movie's trying to do in like the best kind of worst way, if that makes sense, Like I'm glad that the scene exists in the movie because it's so well done and it is such a impactful recreation of something so terrible, But it kind of just sucks the air out of the rest of the movie, which is unfair to Vicki Cashall because his performance is so good. He doesn't deserve to be in a movie where there's this giant, insaneo ass scene at the end of the movie that just takes it sucks the air out of the movie. You don't remember anything that happened before it, and you do kind of forget like where you're at, Like and you're telling this guy's story, like you're rapping.

This is like the conclusion of his life. It's like, wait, where are we at? What happened again? Like, oh, he's been sentenced to death and he's like telling it before he gets walked down to get hung. Like it's like, hey, why did you do this?

Well back in mind, well funny you should ask that question. Let me put on a kettle and I'll tell you my story. It's like inspect like you're not a killer. Like so he's like I know you're not a killer, so like what like what think possibly could happened to make you a killer? And he's like, well, let me tell you, yeah, buddy, it's just everything before that.

I don't like it. Just it doesn't I don't remember it as vividly, even having watched the movie twice because that scene. Once that scene happens, it's kind of hard to remember anything else or even think about anything else. And the movie could have prevented a little bit of that by not drawing it out the additional twenty minutes after it happened. Yeah, because the initial massacres like what five to ten minutes, and then the additional stuff is so much unnecessary.

Udam Singh being the body carrier, like at some point it's like, what are you minding here? And all they're doing is undercutting the rest of the movie because then after the flashback, it's all right, now he's dead. That's literally it's and now he's dead. He talks to his wife or a girlfriend, because they never really make it clear who she, how she's connected to him, if she's married to him, or she's just romantically involved with him. Well he could have been married to her.

Say no, no, she says, remember there's eyes. She's like, I'll never get married, so like it's implied there we need to talk about it. But there's like this like kind of weird maybe many love story he has with this like British Irish woman that kind of goes nowhere and serves no purpose. There's a brief scene with the Irah just be like, hey, I mean, I'm sure he probably if he was a revolutionary maybe did have contact with the IRA Like I was seem like that doesn't seem like a crazy thing, but yeah, it doesn't really go anywhere. I guess it's worth shouting out.

And I exists in the movie, and you know what I wonder. I don't know you know how much research you did. But they were initially trying to cast Urfon Khan as Sardar Oudom sing are Oudom Sing, which I don't know, Like I would have liked to have seen that because I'm I'm a fan of Urfon Khan. He's such an interesting actor. He does have like this like quiet, like he could do quiet menace well.

But like again, like Vicky Cashall is so good that like it doesn't matter told them to cast Vicky Cashall. He was like, I don't He was, like, I have to step out because of health issues. Obviously. I mean those health issues I think ended up being what ended up killing him. Yeah, but he was like unizing to Kasviki cashall.

So, but if if we had gotten an rfon conversion of this movie, which if he had not passed away and gotten sick, we would have man that would have been interesting, and it would have been him as older udom Sing and then his son as young Udom Sing, which I think would have worked better because it is it is kind of hard sometimes to tell where these scenes are taking place outside of the fact. And the funny thing is that you start giving him different kinds of facial hair to tell you know, he doesn't have any now, so this must be London. He has some now, must be in pun Job, okay with Actually the funny that, like the really young udom Sing, Like the first couple of scenes I saw him, was like, who is this guy?

Didn't even recognize him. I was like, who is this guy? And I was like and then I stay him with the girl and I'm like, oh, is that supposed to be him? Like that, Oh, that's his girlfriend. I didn't know I was stupid or what, but I know I was with people.

See I was with next scene, recognize it, and I was like, oh, it's just a random like I don't know. I thought he'd just a friend or something, because that did happen in the movie where you just be introduced these like random characters who would be in a scene or two, sometimes in to like push the story forward. Sometimes they're an inspiration. So I thought it was that same mechanism. Well, and they even have Bogats sing in the movie for like a second.

It's it's also didn't really yeah that that I didn't didn't get. But again, it really feels more like the movie should have been called like, you know, Jolly Walla, you know, Jolly and Walla bog or something to that effect. Like Udom sing in his own movie kind of feels like an afterthought in a way and to the success of the movie. But also if you do a scene like that scene at the end of the movie, you can't help but forget everything else, Like can't can't blame me for forgetting that there was another movie before I watched, so all these people get gunned down, So well, yeah, and I don't know, it's it's it's definitely a movie worth checking out. It's an interesting kind of style of Indian cinema that I haven't seen because it is so very influenced by Western philm But at the same time, like I said before, like I wouldn't have watched this movie if it had been a Western version.

So yeah, you know, Vicky Cashall's performance is so good that it does kind of carry me through the entire movie. But yeah, I don't know if I would go I don't know if I would go back to this one. This is like a one time watch. I think probably you mean the two times well, but I mean, like outside of watching it for this like, I don't think I will go back for a yeah, a second watch outside of the times I watched it here, i'd have to agree, But I don't watch movies more than once often anyway, but this definite wouldn't be one for me. I think, one and done.

Like it's it's good to I feel like I like that I learned something right. I mean, by the end of it, you feel like you understand and a singular moment in the Indian freedom movement, like a catalyzing moment. You I feel like, by the end of this movie, I understand that more obviously, you know, with a lot of these movies that I have been watching for this show and for the Indian Cinema Month that I've been doing over at the Culture Cast, a lot of the movies involved, you know, like Triple R involved the British and their you know, occupation of India and how that affected the relations between Indians and Brits and Brits and you know, the other countries and Indians with other Indians, Like I really appreciate that they constantly have a villain that they can go to in their cinema that is completely justified, and they will probably never get old of killing British people in their movies.

And I would not blame them for getting tired of it or never getting tired of it. But what's really interesting is to see a more kind of serious look at how it affected people, because like slugs of Hindostan Triple are like those are flights of fancy. Like, yes, it's serious and yes there are stakes, but a guy punching another guy with tigers and fire and shit in the background, it's not the same emotional intensity of this movie. And that's okay. But to your point, like I appreciate that this movie is like, all right, you could go watch Lagan and see, you know, the the cricket version of the Indian Freedom movement, but this really happened.

This, you know, this man's life or this moment in his life was important. And again, as a Westerner who had no frame of reference for you know, Jolly and Wallahbag or Udom, saying like it put me on a path to research it more just like yourself, and look into it and inform myself. And if that is one of the outcomes of watching this movie, as far as I'm concerned, it's a success. Is it the best most entertaining Indian cinema movie I've seen? No?

Is it in the lower third of the movies I've seen? Yeah, I would probably put it there because it's just, oh wow, it's It's not that it's bad like you said, It's not that it's bad. It's just I don't want it. It's like saving Private Ryan. I don't want to revisit it because I get it like I get I get it.

I've seen it. I understand. But as your is your threshold of good or bad, as if you want to revisit it like some of it, it depends it just it from movie to movie. There again, like what did this movie fill me with? Was more of like anger and rage and you know, thankfulness that this is not going on in India anymore.

But it didn't. It didn't induce a reaction in me that would want me to feel that again, does that make sense? I didn't feel when I got done watch this movie, I was like, I want to watch more of these movies. I want to watch more Indian cinema, but not these like deathly serious, very like we're gonna we're gonna educate you about something like I just don't need it like right now. I guess I guess like the thing i'd argue is like because we both did have like an emotional reaction, like of like how unjust it was?

Maybe, I mean, I'm sure that is what the director wanted to get, so like right, maybe maybe maybe it was like subtly more effective if not as like a narrative device is like a just like evoking a reaction, right, I mean you live in the UK. I mean you know this is you know, this movie was kind of not allowed to be part of the Academy Awards. I don't know if you looked into it, but there is a the Academy I guess was like this movie has a lot of hatreds toward the British. No shit like it. I mean it's yeah, Like I think to your point, you know, shu Jit Circar, I think he got his message across whatever it was.

You know, Forbes named it the best Hindi movie with a social message. I mean, if that was the point was to give us the message less the entertainment, I think it was successful in that respect as well. So yeah, again for me, it's on the lower third only because I just I don't want to revisit it, like I don't and I don't even know if I would tell other people to watch it unless I knew that they had an interest in Indian history history in general. Yeah, Like, there are so many other Indian cinema movies that I would push someone to first. This is not that this is so just different, And it's not that it's not fun.

It's just it's serious. It's not but it's not fun. It's not fun. I mean it's not there's like no, like the comedy in the movie is almost relegated to one scene where he's pushing the bowl back out and that's it. And the next scene is him being force fed.

So there goes all the comedy in about two seconds, just fizz fizzled into the air. So yeah, it's it's it's about as serious a movie as I've seen in a very long time. So final thoughts on sardar Oudam, I liked it, didn't love it, but is it definitely is a like effective piece of storytelling. Drags on too long, and I think to its it loses some of its half because of that, but it has like a truly amazing lead performance, and it's it's definitely worth seeing if you're interested in like Indian history, or like colonial history, or if you like biopics. But to your point, it's probably not like the pinnacle of Indian cinema.

But you don't need to be to be to be worthy of a watch, no, So I'm yeah, yeah, I agree. You know, I think I'm glad I watched it. I don't think I would have searched this one out on my own. I think, you know, I would have read about it and said, mom, sounds interesting, but not for me, because again, these just not the kind of movies I watched. But I'm glad I watched it, and I'm glad that now I have a better understanding, a continued understanding, a continued education in Indian freedom and what that means, because again, as a Westerner, I don't understand that.

I mean, I maybe understand it a little bit more because of my family, my dad's family having ties to Ukraine and what's going on there right now, but it's not the same. It's not you know, and even and even I mean, all occupations aren't the same. It's not one to one. So I'm really glad you picked this movie. But yeah, I don't know if I'll be revisiting it, but I know some people that I think would definitely enjoy it, so there is that at least.

So so until then, you can find Yashar and I over at weirdingwaymedia dot com, where we do our two other little shows, the Last of Us podcast and The Game of Bro's House of the Dragon show, which is currently on a hiatus until the second season of that show comes out. So yeah, you can find this show and those shows and all the other shows that I work on and that y Shar guests on or we work on together over at weirding Way Media dot com as for this show, Bollywood cinemaclub dot com and on iTunes, rate and review the show. That's all you need to do because hey, that's where everybody goes, is iTunes, So head on over to iTunes, rate and review the show or Spotify. But no, there's no way to rate and reviews shows on Spotify.

You know that, right, Yes, there is is there You can you can you can't write a review, but you can rate with stars. Five stops the Algo broke if I don't get over. If it's not a one star or a five star, does it really matter. It's all about the algot Algot Algo. But yeah, that's where you can find us, That's where you can find me, That's where you can find your Shar and yeah you shar.

Thank you so much for joining me. This was great again. Never know what we're going to get into with Indian cinema, but here we are so and yeah, as always, we'll catch it on the next episode.