Ae Watan Mere Watan Trailer Released: Sara Ali Khan plays Freedom Fighter Usha Mehta and runs a secret radio station during the Quit India Movement

Prime Video has dropped a nearly three-minute-long trailer for Sara Ali Khan starrer Ae Watan mere Watan, a political thriller based on the life of the freedom fighter Usha Mehta. The film is set in pre-Independence India’s Bombay of 1942 and particularly focuses on a secret illegal underground radio station started by Usha that operated for about three months during the Quit India Movement of 1942. The radio was used to broadcast recorded messages from Mahatma Gandhi and other prominent leaders across India. This was at the time when the British had banned all amateur radio licenses.

Ae Watan Mere Watan’s trailer breaks open with a few quick glimpses of young Usha determined to fight for the freedom of her country. This is followed by a tense group of people waiting for her radio’s first broadcast, setting the tone for the main theme of the film. The trailer clearly emphasises the importance of radio as a powerful weapon against the British.

Sara’s gutsy character is shown as full of patriotism, courage, determination, and rebellion, with an undying spirit of bringing a change. She is fully convinced that the British have impaired the Indians’ ability to think clearly, an idea also stressed in the gatherings she was a part of.

However, her ordeals are not supported by her father (Sachin Khedekar), a judge under the British Raj, who is clearly tense about her daughter’s actions, inviting trouble for him. Her idea is also ridiculed by what seems to be another student, who mocks her idea of bringing independence with the help of pamphlets. She is also warned by a motherly figure that the merciless British won’t spare her if she continues with her actions. Despite the opposition and challenges, Usha continues her fight for freedom with even more resolution.

The trailer has plenty of scenes where Indians can be seen protesting against the British and burning paper and other goods. Police brutality is also hinted at in some sequences, including the one where a baton is thrashing Sara’s character.

The cinematographers have attempted to create a vintage effect; the patriotic background score adds to it.

Synchroneities with Real-Life

Interestingly, Sara’s dialogue “This is our country’s radio, from somewhere in India” is inspired by the actual words spoken by Usha Mehta in her first Azar Radio broadcast: “This is the Congress radio calling on [a wavelength of] 42.34 meters from somewhere in India.”

The fact that Usha Mehta was a Gandhian in real life is also shown in the trailer in a few scenes where Sara Ali Khan is seen attending one of Mahatma Gandhi’s speeches and is seen echoing his slogan “Do or Die” while holding the Swaraj flag, during a protest. She is also spotted with a charkha (spinning wheel), a symbol of the Swadeshi movement that Mahatma Gandhi encouraged Indiana to use.

Halfway through the trailer, the British officials are seen panicking over the radio station, which functioned from different undisclosed locations in Bombay, plotting to shut it down at all costs and hang all those behind it. Like the trailer, in real life, Usha Mehta was caught and imprisoned. However, the gallant leader refused to give up or speak up against her people in the trials.

Ae Watan Mere Watan will premiere exclusively on Prime Video on March 21. Kannan Iyer (Ek Thi Daayan) directs.