Cast: Rahul Bose, Minissha Lamba, Javed Jaffrey, Deepak Dobriyal, Seema Biswas and Kay Kay Menon.
Director: Samar Khan
Producer: Moser Baer India Ltd.
Music: Adnan Sami
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
THE FILM
'Nice Architecture' - The moment Rahul Bose, who plays an Army lawyer in Shaurya, utters these two words at the intermission point of the film while walking out of a court proceeding, it is reaffirmed that he is an actor par excellence. In a situation where any other character would have been hassled with his very first high profile assignment (of saving an Army officer who has been accused of killing his fellow officer in cold blood), Rahul prefers to underplay the seriousness of the situation and instead comments on the architecture of the court room. Tongue in cheek and yet so intense.
This is how most part of Shaurya is - intense while continuing to keep the momentum on, either through means of tongue in cheek humor or some powerful character portrayal. Whether it is Rahul Bose or his fellow lawyer cum best friend Javed Jaffrey, whose job is to ensure the conviction of the Army officer without dwelling too deep into finding the 'real truth', it is the characterization and finding right actor for the right part which works most for second time director Samar Khan.
Special mention deserves to be reserved for Kay Kay Menon who enacts one of his most difficult roles ever as an Army Brigadier. If you have found him convincing in recent films like Black Friday, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd and Life In A...Metro then look out for Shaurya - he is simply killing with his mere stare here!
However, it is this very strength of his character, which makes one little dissatisfied with the culmination of Shaurya. For someone who is so powerful, so intense, so head strong and so full of himself in a major way, it is surprising to see him break down so very easily towards the film's end. Frankly, the culmination of the story isn't quite convincing and seems like a rushed job, mainly due to the way the character graph sees a lowdown on paper. Samar does well in keeping the drama intact throughout; in fact Kay Kay is superb even in the culminating scenes of the movie, it's just that the ease with which his character breaks isn't quite convincing.
Amongst other actors, Minissha makes her presence felt in the first half of the film though she is completely missing from the scene after the interval. Deepak Dobriyal, who has already made a mark for himself in films like Omkara and 1971, is good once again though he gets smaller screen time. Seema Biswas is wasted while the role played by Amrita Rao could have been done by just about any other supporting lady.
PACKAGING
The film comes in a standard local plastic case with a striking cover layout featuring the three lead protagonists of the film - Rahul Bose, Javed Jaffrey and Kay Kay Menon. Since the DVD comes on Moser Baer, don't expect any fancy packaging.
DURATION
The film comes in a single DVD pack with the film's duration being 141 minutes.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The DVD doesn't come with any special features.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
- Just last week it was highlighted in the DVD review of My Name is Anthony Gonsalves that in any of Amrita Rao's last films (including Vivah), the DVDs do not come with a 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation. In layman terms, the film comes in a regular format (with thick top and bottom stripes) which is associated with VCD format. Well, this has happened again with Shaurya too and guesses what, Amrita has a guest appearance here as well! Too much of a coincidence, isn't it?
- Subtitles in English
- Dolby Digital 5.1 and Stereo
PRICE
Rs. 50/=
CONCLUSION
Samar may have failed in his debut flick Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye which brought together an ensemble cast but with Shaurya he gets it just right. And all this happens while keeping the commercial quotient intact. In his 140 minutes flick centered on a Court Martial (and not a war breaking down on the border, as some would have wanted to believe after seeing men in uniform on the film's posters), Samar packs in a number of powerful sequences which the audience takes home.
Give Shaurya a dekko!
Rating: ***
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