Shahid: gritty biopic gets mixed reactions

First, the good: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan loved the trailer of Shahid so much he gave it his mighty stamp of approval. The bad: The film’s director, Hansal Mehta, received threats during the making of the film.

Nonetheless, movie-mad Indians gave the gritty drama — led by a relative non-star Raj Kumar Yadav — a great run at the Eid box office. In the UAE, this film is scheduled to hit the theatres on Thursday, a week after its release in India. 

As far as behind-the-scenes drama goes, the controversial Shahid, a fictionalised biopic of a slain human rights lawyer in Mumbai, had plenty going for it. “I want people who have extreme reactions to such issues to watch the film. This film gives you a very honest and balanced story,” Mehta said in an interview with tabloid!.

Shahid tells a story of a lawyer, Shahid Azmi, who defended Muslims wrongly accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. One of his most high-profile cases included the acquittal of Fahim Ansari, who was jailed for his alleged involvement in the attacks that saw a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai’s posh hotels and railway station.

Two years later, the 32-year-old activist was gunned down in his Mumbai office.

“There’s a line in the film that says those who commit crime and those who goad you to commit crime have no religion. Neither the victims nor the criminals have any religion. That makes perfect sense,” Mehta said.

His dramatised biopic, which is set against the backdrop of rising communal violence in India, has travelled to festivals, including the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. Mehta, whose credits include Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, claims that while there was no attempt to glorify Azmi, his drama will reinforce the concept of heroism.

“Heroism stems from the common man. It doesn’t stem from leaders. The onus is on the common man to be the change. As [Mahatma] Gandhi said, you want to see change, then be that change. This film is about the change that a common man brings rather than complaining about the conditions around him and doing nothing about it,” Mehta said.

He believes that all those who enjoyed the Shah Rukh Khan blockbuster Chennai Express (which espouses the power of the common man in a comic, classic hero style) will also enjoy watching Shahid.

Background work

Mehta, along with leading man Yadav, spent hours with Azmi’s family, pored through newspaper reports and sat in Indian courtrooms to get a feel of how the judiciary functions on a day-to-day basis. Past Bollywood films have been notorious for over-dramatising courtroom scenes.

“When it came to the making of Shahid, there were challenges at every stage. Filmmaking is like a battle: from organising actors to raising money to getting somebody to support your vision. It’s all tough. We are on this eternal quest and the idea is to keep your vision as intact as possible,” Mehta said.

The film is produced by Anurag Kashyap, Sunil Bora and UTV Disney. Mehta claims that he didn’t succumb to traditional pressures of adding songs or dance routines to make Shahid commercially viable. 

“None of them ever put any pressure to conform. Their request was to make a film as honestly as I can. They backed my convictions.” He seems to have won that round. The reviews from critics in India hail Shahid as a no-frills Bollywood film.

For Yadav, the war raging inside him was of a different kind. His homework for a role that could turn to be the defining point in his career included taking rifle training (Azmi was detained under anti-terrorism laws and joined a militant training camp in Pakistan-administered Kashmir) and conditioning his mind to play a Muslim protagonist.

“I have never used a rifle before and it was important to know how to fire. I learn how to do namaz [prayer]. Mentally, I wanted to feel Muslim,” Yadav said. The actor, who was appreciated for his reticent performance in the inspiring friendship drama Kai Po Che!, claims that Shahid has altered his life forever.

“Tomorrow, if I read a newspaper report about a bomb blast and that the police has caught three boys, I will see it in a different perspective. They are not terrorists when they are caught on the basis of suspicion. They might be innocent. Let us wait for the court verdict.”