23rd March 1931: Shaheed

Plot

Set in the mid-1920s in British India, the film tells the story of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad, who have only one motive in mind: freedom for India. They set about doing this task together with two other men, Sukhdev and Rajguru. Bhagat Singh is enraged when his mentor Lala Lajpat Rai is mercilessly beaten to death by the police, and he sets about to avenge his death. He and his colleagues do succeed in killing one of the officials responsible, but they are identified, and as a result, Bhagat and Others are arrested and held in prison, where they are tortured relentlessly.

When produced in court, they dramatically admit to the killing and claim that it was done in the name of "freedom." The judge and the public prosecutor do not see it their way, and they are sentenced to life in prison. Bhagat's mother, Vidya, comes to meet him in prison, and he goes to greet her, shackled in chains from head to toe, and he foretells that India will continue to suffer, even after independence from the British, and that he will return in another birth to free his motherland. Subsequently, all three are charged with treason and assassination and are sentenced to death.

Cast

• Sunny Deol as Chandra Shekhar Azad
• Bobby Deol as Bhagat Singh
• Amrita Singh as Vidyavati Kaur Sandhu, Bhagat's mother.
• Rahul Dev as Sukhdev Thapar
• Akshay Anand as Ram Prasad Bismil
• Vicky Ahuja as Shivaram Rajguru
• Divya Dutta as Durgawati Devi
• Aishwarya Rai as Mannewali, the girl Bhagat's family wanted him to marry. (special appearance)
• Raja Bundela as Lala Lajpat Rai
• Suresh Oberoi as Jailor Chaddha
• Shakti Kapoor as Jail Warden Chattar Singh
• Vivek Shauq as Bhagwati Charan Vohra
• Samaresh Routray as Yashpal
• Tej Sapru as Dilbagh Singh
• Rajesh Khera as Sardar Ajit Singh, Bhagat's uncle.
• Deepak Sharma as Jatindra Nath Das
• Suresh Chatwal as Pandit Kishori Lal
• Sachin Khedekar as Advocate Asaf Ali
• Manoj Tiwari as Virbhadra Tiwari
• Rana Jung Bahadur as Public Prosecutor Ashish Verma
• Ranjan Koshal as Kishan Singh Sandhu, Bhagat's father.
• Vivek Kumar Rawat as Batukeshwar Dutt
• Imran Khan as Kartar Singh Sarabha
• Raman Khatri as Ashfaqulla Khan
• Sanjay Tripathi as Hans Raj Vohra
• Indal Singh as Jai Gopal

Music and soundtrack

The music for the film’s songs was composed by Anand Raaj Anand with the lyrics penned by Dev Kohli. The background score was provided by Surinder Sodhi.

Box office

The film failed to cover its budget thus underperforming at the box office, collecting only ₹14.25 crore by the end of its theatrical run.

Shubhra Gupta of Business Line attributed the film's commercial failure to its release on the same day as The Legend of Bhagat Singh, opining that "the two Bhagats ate into each other's business". The producer of the film The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Ramesh Taurani, also acknowledged this as a reason for his film's failure, along with the release of another Bhagat Singh film Shaheed-E-Azam the week before.

References

References

1. "23rd March 1931 Shaheed - Movie - Box Office India".
2. "23rd March 1931 Shaheed - Movie - Box Office India".
3. "rediff.com: Movies: Which Bhagat Singh do we choose?".
4. (8 June 2002). "At the movies: The Legend of Bhagat Singh".
5. Gupta, Shubhra. (17 June 1998). "Problem of plenty?". [[Business Line]].
6. (18 July 2024). "Ramesh Taurani reveals they lost Rs 22 crore on Ajay Devgn starrer 'The Legend Of Bhagat Singh' despite the National Award: 'Company ki economy hil jaati hai'".