GRITTy, RAw, GRIppING AND GuTTuRAL

Shahid

STARRInG: rajkumar yadav and Tigmanshu Dhulia

DIReCToR: hansal Mehta

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Stop right here. Shahid is the sort of rare, raw, unnerving journey into a socio-political reality that our cinema needs to undertake regularly, but seldom does. hansal Mehta’s film on the real-life slain lawyer shahid Azmi is a fearless work. Fearless and unfettered, Mehta wastes no time in establishing the monstrous marginalization of the Muslim community in a society where terrorism has blurred the majority community’s sense of propriety, to the extent of unmitigated bigotry. Shahid is an exposition on abject isolation. There is a harrowing sequence of police brutality in the film where the film’s Muslim lawyer-hero sits on the hard floor of a police station stark naked shivering, as the cop repeatedly accuses shahid of terror activities. The protagonist’s absolute humiliation at that point in the narration hits us where it hurts the most. Predominantly Shahid is about an impatient society anxious to find scapegoats for growing violence around us. In a language that embraces the complexities of Islamic isolation, Mehta’s film cracks open the code of that unexplored genre of cinema known as the drama of persecution.

In Shahid, Mehta chronicles the life of lawyer shahid Azmi with deft clenched directness. The silence of the night is punctured by the shrill sound of the phone. slurred threats are hurled. Taking the abuse on his chin, the crusading lawyer, played with scintillating austerity by r ajkumar yadav, sits stoically at the centre of the debris of destruction of distrust as he undertakes a jehad to prove the innocence of the arbitrarily accused. There are some highly poignant electrifying courtroom sequences shot with the languorous devastating dinginess of courtrooms that have killed off all chances of justice for the damned. what would those wretched TADA undertrials, locked up and left to languish for life, have done without shahid Azmi to fight for their lives? The character has been portrayed by the very gifted r ajkumar yadav whose forte is underplaying, imbues shahid’s role with the kind of tightly-reined tumult and an unspoken anguish. The performance deserves a standing ovation, primarily because it doesn’t scream for attention. In comparison, the other performances appear pale and distant, albeit authentic and thoughtful.

Tigmanshu Dhulia is notably powerful in a brief cameo as an eminent lawyer. shahid’s relationship with the divorcee mother is never satisfactorily rounded up nor assimilated into this courageous man’s fight for justice for those who are condemned not only by law, but by social stigmatization. The protagonist’s yen for justice comes across with forceful impact. he has experienced the worst humiliation and suffering in custody, but won’t allow the same shame and pain for those who are wrongfully confined. he means business, we must hear his story. Of course, he pays with his life. whether it’s romeo or shahid, all heroes must come to a suitably sticky end. That’s what you get for trying to be a hero.

Shahid is a crucial document of our troubled times. It builds an incredibly does get far-flung. But the leaps are made without fractured bones.

Quirky, colourful, agile and hectic, Mickey Virus is a ‘virtually’ interesting way for the team to start their respective careers. This is an oddball of a movie that tries to make sense of the senseless whirligig of urban internetdriven lifestyles. what the ‘hack’! Just go out there and have fun.

S UBHASH K J HA

gripping case study of persecution and vindication, with a treatment that is never ponderous or polemical. Mehta has set out to convert the slain lawyer’s valorous tale into an authentic exposition on the residue of retribution. And the result is so darned gripping. Shahid is a must-see film with an absolutely impeccable subtext, reading as an urgent warning against the politics of isolation practiced by many political parties. Be warned. you might be voting for violence.

SUBHASH K JHA