Movie Review: Shaurya

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Shaurya

I hadn’t been to a movie theatre since mid February and was beginning to get withdrawal symptoms. I am so glad that I ended this sabbatical with Shaurya. For once I happily overlooked that the story is a straight lift of “A Few Good Men” and thoroughly enjoyed the drama adapted to the Indian context.
The story is about the Court Martial of an army officer accused of killing a fellow officer. He maintains a silence on his guilt or otherwise. Two friends in the JAG branch are transferred to the accused officer’s place of incarceration to take on the roles of the opposing counsels in the trial. What is supposed to be an open and shut case takes another dimension when a chirpy journalist, the forgettable Minnisha Lamba, introduces some doubts in the mind of the defence counsel, Rahul Bose. In a happy go lucky and devil may care life a sense of purpose is introduced. The movie is as much about the awakening of maturity of the dedicated to fun Mr Rahul Bose as about the ready to die for his convictions Mr Deepak Dobriyal who plays, ah what else, but a conscientious and a nationalist Muslim army officer. The evil that men do find a persona in the character of Brig Pratap who confuses every Muslim with the demon who had wiped out his family. KK does immense justice to this characterization with his usual professional competence. Deepak Dobriyal rides the movie with a searing intensity which flows from his glowing eyes. Javed Jaffery like me is at last beginning to look old but still, like me retains his sense of fun. He sizzled a bit in the beginning of the movie, a totally unnecessary dance number accompanying the not so sizzling Rosa of the Saif fame. It’s a bit tragic to see the could be Begum of Pataudi reduced to an item number.
The songs are forgettable, the background music is tremendous and the photography is good. It was great to watch shots of Patiala’s Mahindra College and the beauty of Manali which is supposed to be Kashmir in the movie.
A word again about the two principal players in the movie. I admire Rahul Bose on many counts. He lives life the way he wants to. Does movies, plays in the national Rugby team, stays single and remains fit. Deepak Dobriyal, for the uninformed is an Uttarakhandi and my parochial Uttarakhandi chhamak challo has decided that he is the real hero of the movie. So as of this evening my children have a new Mama. So what does this have to with the movie? I feel that both of them bring freshness to the cinema that at least I have been yearning for some time. Both are young and different and harbingers of a new era. Cheers and amen to that.