Shahid: The unlikely stunner

Shahid
Starring: Raj Kumar Yadav
Rated: 6/10
It is a tricky world that this real-time film courageously propels. And one must say that it makes quite a mark on you, thanks mainly to its main protagonist Raj Kumar Yadav who plays a do-good lawyer who fights for the acquittals of innocent Muslims arrested under TADA.
In real life, Shahid Azmi was gunned down in his office in a Mumbai suburb by till now unknown assailants. His death, a shocker for Mumbai, came on the heels of yet-to-be identified threat-makers who wanted him to drop the cases he was fighting. The film, produced by thinking men of Bollywood (Ronnie Screwallah and Anurag Kashyab among others), is to the point, perfectly ambienced and taut enough to get you all emotional about a life needlessly axed.
Yadav is the life of the film and he plays the role of a misguided Muslim youth picked up as a terror suspect, tortured, jailed and then released for lack of evidence despite a brief stint of terror training in Kashmir after the 1993 Bombay riots, with the poise and research of a veteran.
He speaks like a naive youth all through but has aptly captured the personality of the real lawyer who was slain in his youth. There is no ingression of over-the-top emotions and Yadav’s even-keel portrayal of the life and times of Shahid Azmi is quite arresting. More such real-life drama from Bollywood will be more than welcome.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 20 October, 2013

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