This biopic begins with a young Bhagat Singh growing up in colonial India pressed under British rule.What gave rise to Singh's determination to free India from the shackles of foreign rule is lucidly etched in the film he is inspired by his mother and by his freedom fighter uncle who gives up his family life to continue his struggle from outside the country. In a tense sequence, with a background score like a pulsating heart, another British, Saunders is assassinated and Singh becomes a fugitive. He aims to spread his Inquilab Zindabad message to the masses. Justice, however, is denied him in a keenly contested court case and Singh is sent to jail. "Shaheed" very effectively captures the camaraderie between the young freedom fighters in the hearty greetings Singh accords to his compatriots in jail. That line proves poignantly prescient. The freedom fighters are tortured in jail. Adamantly refusing to submit to subhuman conditions, Singh goes on an affectingly filmed 40-day hunger strike and the jail's inmates follow suit. The case against Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru ends with a death conviction.