Friday, 26 August 2016

Movie review of Sardar (1993 film)




On 15th August, after flag hoisting, we have arranged a screening of movie “Sardar”  in our Department of English in Maharaja Krishnakumar Sinhji Bhavnagar University.

Here is the link of photoghaphs: Yeshabhattfbprofile



Sardar (1993 film)



Director – Ketan Mehta
Producers – H. M. Patel
   Writer –Vijay Tendulkar
        Starring – Paresh Raval, Annu Kapoor, H. M. Patel,Benjamin Gilani

         The film has used flashback and documentary techniques with real footages and newspaper articles, it can be consider as a biopic on the life of Sardar Vallbhbhai Patel. All evidence related to the events is there. In the film viewer can observe the larger than life image of Sardar Patel, and all other characters like Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi are downplayed.
  
        The starting of the movie is very significant, the very first scene is of an office of press, where the reporters are discussing about the condition of nation after Independence; where people wanted old days of Britishraj back, and thinking that whatever freedom fighters have done is of no use. In another scene we can see that the photographs of Sardar Patel are shattered on the floor and they are collecting the photographs as if they are collecting the old memories and their lost identity among people and they decides to make film on Sardar Patel.
       
         All the movements of freedom fighting related with Sardar is there in the movie, the awakening efforts by freedom fighters are there, one of that is by singing songs of freedom in native language,
Don’t tolerate injustice, wake up o people”
     
         By watching the film we come to know about various fact of Sardar and how he was a person and as a freedom fighter. We can see two different personalities of him, as a person he was against Gandhi before he met him and abusing him but after one meeting with Gandhi he became follower of Gandhi.
    
       Sardar Patel was very much in favour nonviolence, but when Muslim and Jinnah has started direct action plan, he quit the idea of being non violent and sufferer. Sardar can be considered more practical man in comparison of Gandhi and Nehru. Very effective convincing power we can observe in Sardar, the way he convince Gandhi by saying that,
“You are Mahatma, only you can think like this, we are just human beings”
  
       He also merged 562 princely states in one country and also solved the matter of Sikhs and Muslims.

There is good use of various symbols in the movie:
     
       The very first symbol is portrait of “Bharatmata” the bounded Bharatmata’s portrait in the office of Gandhiji, on which camera focuses again and again.
      
      The shattered photographs of Sardar and dust on it, that is also a significant symbol of lost memories of Sardar.
      
       In the scene of violence towards Hindus in direct action plan by Jinha we can observe that there were fire all around and in the centre of it there were Sardar and victims of this action plan were craving for help towards Sardar, so we can say that country was burning and only hope was Sardar. Even after the independence most of party members have selected Sardar as the prime minister but because of Jawaharlal Nehru Sardar Patel has taken his foot back and allowed Nehru to be the prime minister.
    
      The Symbolism of three monkeys has shown in the film as a deep psyche of Sardar and Nehru and its effect on Gandhi. In the scenes of conversations of Gandhi with Sardar and Nehru we could see the focus of Camera is first upon white statues of three monkeys and when there are arguments between these three characters we could see the colour of statue is black. It is a deep archetypal symbolism of colour.
     
      At the end of the movie when Gandhiji died, his dead body becomes a symbol of friendship or we can say reunion of sardar and Nehru and at the end, after plan crash Sardar is sitting in free India from Kashmir to Kanya kumari.


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