# Ae Watan Mere Watan

Ae Watan Mere Watan (‹See RfD› transl. Oh Country My Country) is a 2024 Hindi-language historical biographical film about India's struggle for freedom in 1942, based on the life of Usha Mehta, a brave young girl who starts an underground radio station to spread the message of unity, setting off a thrilling chase with the British authorities during the Quit India movement. It is written and directed by Kannan Iyer and produced by Karan Johar, starring Sara Ali Khan, Alexx O'Nell and Emraan Hashmi. The film premiered on 21 March 2024 on Amazon Prime Video to mixed reviews from critics.

## Cast

* Sara Ali Khan as Usha Mehta
* Alexx O'Nell as John Lyre
* Anand Tiwari as Firdaus Engineer
* Sachin Khedekar as Judge Hariprasad Mehta, Usha's father
* Abhay Verma as Kaushik
* Sparsh Srivastav as Fahad
* Benedict Garrett as Corrigan
* Richard Bhakti Klein as Viceroy Linlithgow
* Ashton Bessette as Cameron
* Rick McLane as Grant
* Ed Robinson as Captain Wily
* Godaan Kumar as Balbir
* Uday Chandra as Mahatma Gandhi
* Annuop Choudhari as Gaonkar
* Aditi Sanwal as Antara
* Pratik Yadav as Bhaskar
* Chrisann Pereira as Julie
* Sanjeev Jaiswal as Alok
* Emraan Hashmi as Ram Manohar Lohia
* Garrvil Mohan as Lieutenant Roy

## Production

Principal photography commenced in October 2022 and first schedule ended in December. The second schedule began by April 2023 and the film wrapped up in May 2023.

## Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by Mukund Suryawanshi, Akashdeep Sengupta and Shashi Suman while lyrics were written by Suryawanshi, Ravi Girri, Rohan Deshmukh, Darab Farooqui and Prashant Ingole.

## Reception
### Critical response

Ae Watan Mere Watan wasn't well-received by critics.
A critic from Bollywood Hungama gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ae Watan Mere Watan is worth watching as it presents an untold chapter of Indian history." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave 3/5 stars and observed "Ae Watan Mere Watan tries to get a grasp on the mind of youngsters, shaped by the words of inspiring leaders, committed to the cause of independent India. It's significant because their support isn't based on 'andh bhakti' (blind devotion), but leadership that encourages questions".
NDTV's Saibal Chatterjee rated the film 2.5 out of 5, opining in his review that, "Ae Watan Mere Watan makes its points with clarity and directness. It tells a tale that has meat, but the storytelling style that the film adopts stops it significantly short of being either consistently riveting or memorably rousing". He criticized the lead performance, opining that, "Sara Ali Khan, playing the principal character, is way too porcelain and dainty to convey the remarkably doughty woman's fierce determination." Zinia Bandyopadhyay of India Today gave 2/5 stars and wrote that "Ae Watan Mere Watan drowns in a lacklustre script despite having the potential to be an effective story."
Firstpost's Lachmi Deb Roy, in her review, rated the film 2/5 and said that "Though the film was able to weave the freedom movement with enough human stories showing Usha’s contribution to the Quit India movement, but Ae Watan Mere Watan was unable to give us those goosebumps which a freedom movie generally does". Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express called the film a "banal blur". She panned the film, opining that "nothing about this period drama breaks out of familiar moulds" and that "Sara Ali Khan leaves little impact." However, she called Sparsh Srivastav the "breakout star", praising his performance as a polio-afflicted young freedom fighter.