Shaurya- the story of Valor

I do not normally write anything about any particular movie in this blog, the reason being I do not get the technicalities and intricate details in a film with the eyes of a movie-critic. Only once, I deviated from this norm, I blogged about a movie which I did not like at all (Race). To make matters even, I have decided to jot down something about a movie which I liked very much. Another reason is purely personal. I was feeling to write something, anything in fact, today, and movie is the easiest topic which I could think of.

The movie Shaurya, directed by Samar Khan and starring Rahul Bose, Kay Kay Menon, Javed Jaffrey, Minnisha Lamba and Deepak Dobriyal, tells the story of a soldier in the Indian Army who has killed his commanding officer during a raid, but is silent about his crime. A court-martial has been ordered, and two lawyers, Major Akash Kapoor (Javed Jaffrey) and Major Sidhhant Chowdhury (Rahul Bose), are summoned for the legal matters. Although long-time friends, this time they are opposing each other, since Major Sidhhant is defending the accused Captain Javed Khan (Deepak Dobriyal).

The case appears to be an open-and-shut one, where the only thing the defence counsel needs to do is to plead guilty and then the sentence would be announced against Javed Khan for violating Army rules and commiting a murder. Here enters the journalist Kavya (Minnisha), who forces the defence counsel to think otherwise; the matter, although it looks simple, may have some depth, which needs investigation. Quite reluctantly, the defence counsel meets Brigadier Rudra Pratap Singh (Kay Kay Menon), who claims himself to be the God of the Army checkpost and when the defence counsel wishes to investigate the "scene of crime", he mocks him for his audacity and sends him back. This inflames the curiosity of Major Sidhhant to such an extent that at court, he pleads "not guilty" for Javed Khan.

From this point on, the film becomes worth-watching. Gradually, it is revealed that the commanding officer whom Captain Javed murdered, used to misuse his power, he used to torture the innocent Muslims of the adjacent village in order to make them "confess about their links with the terrorist groups", and when he was about to kill a small girl- when she was crying after seeing her brother dead in front of her own eyes- Javed had no other option than to kill the evil officer. According to Javed, the true valor of the army uniform lies in protecting the innocent Indians, irrespective of their religion.

It is also revealed that the murdered commanding officer was working under the orders of Brigadier R P Singh. In the last scene, when Major Sidhhant summons the Brigadier in the court room, the Brigadier makes a venomous speech against the Indian Muslims. He wants to uproot the entire community from the country it seems, and the reason for his act lies in the fact that years ago, his wife and daughter were brutally murdered by the Muslim servant of the family. After this tragedy, Brigadier Singh has taken oath against the entire Muslim community and will carry on his job as long as he survives. The film ends in declaring Captain Javed innocent and a new investigation is started against the Brigadier.

Both Rahul Bose and Kay Kay Menon have acted superbly in the film. Rahul Bose seems to be perfectly natural and spontaneous in the role of the open-minded Army lawyer. Kay Kay has appeared only in three scenes in the entire film, but he steals the show. In the courtroom monologue, he bears an astonishing resemblance with Adolf Hitler. Javed Jaffrey did justice to his small role, as did Minnisa Lamba. The young Deepak Dobriyal mostly acted with his eyes, and full credit goes to him as well.

In the year 2008, among the movies which I have watched so far, Shaurya is the best. Although there has been comments that the film has been adapted from the Hollywood flick A Few Good Men (starring Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore)- although I have not watched the Hollywood film- but the fact remains that Shaurya is brilliant in its own flavor. Salute to director Samar Khan for making this film.