| 23 March 1931: Shaheed | |
| Director: | Guddu Dhanoa[1] |
| Producer: | Dharmendra |
| Screenplay: | Sutanu Gupta |
| Starring: | Bobby Deol Sunny Deol Amrita Singh Rahul Dev Suresh Oberoi Vivek Shauq Aishwariya Rai Shakti Kapoor Divya Dutta |
| Music: | Songs: Anand Raj Anand[2] Score: Surinder Sodhi |
| Cinematography: | Tirru[3] |
| Editing: | Keshav Naidu |
| Studio: | Vijayta Films |
| Runtime: | 185 minutes |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Hindi |
| Budget: | 20 crore[4] |
| Gross: | 14.25 crore[5] |
23rd March 1931: Shaheed is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language historical biographical film about Bhagat Singh, directed by Guddu Dhanoa which depicts the events leading up to the hanging of Singh and his companions Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar on 23 March 1931. The film stars Bobby Deol as Singh, his elder brother Sunny Deol as Chandra Shekhar Azad and Amrita Singh in her comeback role as Vidyavati Kaur (Singh's mother).
The film's release coincided with another film based on Bhagat Singh directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and titled The Legend of Bhagat Singh. Both films failed at the box office.[6] [7] But both the films gained a cult status.
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 Rajguru 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.
| Song | Singer(s) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Mera Rang De Basanti Chola" | Udit Narayan, Bhupinder Singh, Veer Rajinder |
| 2 | "Deshnu Challo" | Hans Raj Hans |
| 3 | "Jogiya Ve" | Alka Yagnik |
| 4 | "Watanparaston Ki" | Hans Raj Hans, Veer Rajinder |
| 5 | "Pagadi Sambhal" | Veer Rajinder |
| 6 | "Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna" | Bhupinder Singh, Mohammad Salamat, Vinod Rathod |
| 7 | "Aye Watan" | Veer Rajinder |
| 8 | "Khush Raho" | Veer Rajinder |