Chaar Sahibzaade (2014) - Heroes from our history, we must know.

Hi There!

Harry Baweja’s Chaar Sahibzaade is a historical event based animated movie. I must appreciate the director and the scriptwriter as they have played well through the thin line margin of it being an historical movie rather than a religious one.

Movie starts with Chaar Sahibzaade, four brothers and sons of Guru Gobind Singh, living in harmony at city Anandpur. The Movie progresses through and the real altercation starts when Quila Anadgarh is attacked and cordoned off by the forces of Faujdaar of Sirhind, Nawab Wazir Khan. The movie is able to deliver the mutual affection and attachment of the siblings with an impact. Songs sung by Sukhwinder Singh blend fine with the scenes, definitely enhances the result. The movie is splendidly narrated by Om Puri, which increases the interest of viewers even more into the story.

Movie’s climax is when the younger two brothers are martyred (bricked alive) at city Sirhind. I must say it was strikingly emotional scene. And it being a real history event which happened around just 300 years back benumbed me.

The animations are done by Mumbai based iRealities. They are not at par with Hollywood (obviously), so don’t go with that expectation. But they are good enough that you won’t feel like watching a robotic show.

The languages in which it’s released are Punjabi, Hindi and English. I have seen it in Punjabi. Punjabi being a language chosen may let some believe that it as a Regional movie and may even affect the viewer base. My take on choice of Punjabi is that it had to be done to have the representation more authentic as the event being pictured happened inside Punjab.

Another fact which may decrease its viewer base is that it’s an animated movie. Some of us still feel that animations are children category. That too a historical event being captured in animation! Well the reason behind choosing Animation is quite valid. In India, when real life actors enact historical figures, either they are disesteemed, if the movie fails to bring the message out OR they are honoured beyond limits. Remember Arun Grover, who played Ram in DD Ramayan.

Chaar Sahibzaade also forces us to think on the lines that we have so many stories of bravery scattered all through India. But they are never shared across. They don’t even are part of our school curriculum. May be, that’s the reason of our impeccable sense of nationality (sarcastic) - We don’t know our Heroes! One more fine example is the ‘Battle of Saragarhi’ and I am sure there are many more.

Finally, I feel it’s a good effort on our Bollywood part. Chaar Sahibzaade is definitely a ‘Good Movie’ and even if somebody doesn't relate to it, should see it once for sake of Indian history. 

Chaar Sahibzaade at IMDB
Chaar Sahibzaade at Wikipedia