Realism and Bollywood don’t really go hand in hand. Filmmakers do not, in the first place, try their hands at depicting true life stories especially if there is the slightest whiff of a controversy. The very few attempts more often than not end up as shallow in the garb of commercialism. So when a bold film like Shahid comes up, you tend to wonder if it is a one-off shot or are Indian filmmakers actually breaking the conventions and taking leaps.
Despite having a world premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival's ‘City to City’ programme in September 2012 and being screened at last year’s Mumbai Film Festival, Shahid only managed to get a wide theatrical release a year later. Wonder why the delay but we are glad it did, because such stories need to be told. I have seen/heard so many people gushing about the movie. I wonder how many of them knew who Shahid Azmi was before this movie. I did not.
Hansal Mehta’s Shahid is a biopic of the lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi. In the seven years of his practice, he got 17 acquittals, a remarkably high number for the Indian judiciary, where ‘taareekh pe taareekh’ is a norm. But he had to pay a price for standing up and fighting for all those he believed were wrongly accused or framed and imprisoned for alleged terrorist activities. He was brutally shot dead in his office by a couple of assailants in 2010 for defending a 26/11 accused.
Shahid Azmi’s life was quite eventful and complex. As a young boy he had witnessed the barbaric violence during the communal riots of Mumbai in 1993. The devastating impact prompts him to join an arms training in a camp in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. He witnesses another event there and thus changes his mind and runs away, but was arrested from his home under TADA. He spent seven years in Tihar Jail before he was eventually acquitted by a court of law for lack of admissible evidence.
It might seem like too much for a film but Mehta has narrated the incidents as it is. One of the best parts of the film is it is more fact and less fiction. Shahid is simple in presentation yet hard-hitting. It brings us unpleasant truths about contemporary India, its media, its judiciary and its people. Mehta subtly exposes the anti-Muslim stance so deep-rooted at every level of our law-and-order system.
Raj Kumar Yadav’s performance is OUTSTANDING! He is almost perfect in all the stages, be it in the jail or the courtroom. Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub too was commendable as Shahid’s brother. He was impressive in Raanjhanaa and now here too. He should get better roles that do justice to his talent.
Hansal Mehta says he decided to make the film after he found out that people were accusing Shahid Azmi of criminal activities: "He was not alive to tell his side of the story when aspersions were being cast on him. I decided to stand up for him." Mehta take a bow for this attempt, so honest that too!
Rating: 8.2/10
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