23rd March 1931 - Shaheed

(2002)

Circa 1930s in India, Sukhdev (Rahul Dev), Rajguru, Bhagat Singh (Bobby Deol), and Azad (Sunny Deol) are four young men with only motive in mind: Freedom for India. They set about doing this task together. Bhagat Singh is enraged when his mentor Lala Lajpatrai (Raja Bundela) 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 state that it was done in the name of Freedom from Imperialism. The Judge and the Public Prosecutor do not see it that their way and they are sentenced to life in prison. Bhagat's mother, Vidya (Amrita Singh), 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 four are charged with a more serious crime - treason and assassination - a crime that is punishable by death.