In very different but strangely similar ways, the Indian Shaurya asks the same questions as the Pakistani Khuda Ke Liye: does your religion determine your future?

In very different but strangely similar ways, the Indian Shaurya asks the same questions as the Pakistani Khuda Ke Liye: does your religion determine your future?

A Muslim soldier (Deepak Dobriyal) kills his Indian commanding officer during a search operation in J&K. Army lawyers Majors Akash Kapoor (Jaaved Jafferi) and Siddhant Chaudary (Rahul Bose) are sent off to conduct the trial and the court martial: the case, they are told, is open and shut; all they have to do is to go through the motions. But with the spirited invention of local journalist Kavya Shastri (Minissha Lamba), what looks like a straight forward case, turns out to be a can of worms.

Samar Khan puts the debacle of his first outing Kuch Meetha Ho jayvee, which had a bunch of characters wandering aimlessly around an airport in search of a film, firmly behind him. Here, he is in much more command of his plot and his characters. Human rights violations in the army are not startlingly new in the movies, but Shaurya manages to keep us engaged in the way the tale unfolds. And in the manner in which it delivers its message: that the liberal, democratic face of the Indian Army will always be bigger, and hopefully more powerful, than the other side of the coin.

It’s another matter that the film does remind you strongly of A FEW GOOD MEN: the good thing is that it’s not a total rip off. Khan is to be commended for rescuing Jaaved Jafferi from the string of inane roles he’s been condemned in the past couple years (in the last appearance, he had to keep his mouth permanently open). The fine actor that Jafferi is, he hung his mouth open very entertainingly, but it’s nice to see him play a regular guy, with regular neurosis (I don’t like surprises, he tells his fiancée grouchily, when she shows up unexpectedly on the trial).

Kay Kay is wonderful, as the army man who is implacable in his likes and dislikes, and whose past tragedy drives the present one: your rum and coke generation, he berates Rahul Bose, can’t appreciate the purity of single malts. The decision to confine Minissha’s journalistic character to loud snappishness is not so smart, though: after a while she starts grating. And the talented Deepak Dobriyal is underutilized.

But these are a few rough edges. On the whole Shaurya is beautifully shot (parts of Himachal masquerading as Kashmir), well acted, and well told.

Rahul Bose, Jaaved Jafferi, Kay Kay, Minissha Lamba, Deepak Dobriyal, Amrita Rao
Director: Samar khan