Ketan Mehta’s National Award winning film Sardar - The
Iron Man of India (1993) is a tribute to Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel,
It was released more than 15 years back but is still a must watch for every body who would like to know more about India's freedom struggle and the people who contributed immensely towards it but are unsung heros.
" Sarder is Sardar Patel’s biographical epic concentrating on the last five years of Sardar’s life from 1945 to 1950 when he strode on the national scene, a key figure in wresting India’s Independence and integrating the nation. The film deals with all the myriad and debilitating problems that India faced in its pre and immediate post Independence period, which turned out to be Sardar Patel’s finest hour when Sardar solved one problem after another monumental problem with ease." (These lines are taken from DVD).
Movie covers majority of events that influenced Sardar Patel's life and reflects quite a clear picture wresting India’s Independence and integrating the nation which is not known to many (even i was unaware of many facts that have been uncovered in the movie). To list a few
- How Jinnah wanted new Pakistan and various negotiations for single and partitioned india between Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar, Jinnah and Lord Mount Battern
- Fights in Kashmir, Junagarh, Hyderabad,Punjab partition and Migration
- Complete partion process, its complications and aftermaths
- Sardar as the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India, how tactfully he took charge of the task to forge a united India from the 565 semi-autonomous princely states and British-era colonial provinces. Using frank diplomacy backed with the option (and the use) of military action, Patel's leadership enabled the accession of almost every princely state
- How Sardar opposed Nehru’s decision to allow UN intervene into Kashmir issue.
Movie also shows the friction among the top congress brass for power and how the issues were resolved
One thing which I liked about the movie is that at NO point does the movie depicts Sardar as the more powerful figure than Gandhi or Nehru or any other but at the same time highlight everybodys contribution ( also highlights contributions of V.P. Menon, H.M.Patel and Moraraji Desai) towards India's independence and sticks to the historical events beautifully.
Movie has well justified and highly convincing performances by
Paresh Rawal ... Sardar Patel
Annu Kapoor ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Benjamin Gilani ... Jawaharlal 'Panditji' Nehru
Shri Vallabh Vyas ... Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Tom Alter ... Lord Mountbatten 'Dickey'
Ashish Vidyarthi ... V.P. Menon
Govind Namdeo ... Shankar
All of the above have performed superbly.
Films research, script and screenplay is deserves a special applause.Movie is
beautifully paced and does not bring about any confusion over historical facts.
Any day I would rate this movie Much higher than any movie the same category.Rarely we get film makers who make a movie on such subjects with an excellent research that is supported by fabulous performances.
All in all this movie is a MUST WATCH to have an insight into the problems that India faced in its pre and immediate post Independence period,how it was managed and who all contributed to it.