Shaurya (released in 2008) - Starring Rahul Bose, Kay Kay Menon, Javed Jaffrey and Minissha Lamba

When you make a film on such a sensitive target, you cannot make a very simplistic movie, it has to be deep enough to present the different perspectives of the situation. And when you are trying to copy an iconic movie, then all the more so, since it is quite plausible that your audience would have seen the original movie and will end up comparing the original movie with this one, and it better be good, or the comparison will fail.
Now consider a situation where a defense lawyer, in an army setting is apathetic, not really caring about the cases of the client. However, he is asked to defend an army officer who is being prosecuted for killing his own superior officer, that too in the conflict zone of Kashmir, and he is on trial for his life. The evidence is against him, and there is a senior officer who is pushing the prosecution case. Does all this sound familiar ? Well, even though the exact situation may not be similar, no one who has seen the Tom Cruise movie, 'A Few Good Men', can fail to make the association. Even more so, since the movie was not an action thriller or something like that, it had some commanding performances, especially from Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, and trying to catch upto those performances can be a tough act, even for actors such as Rahul Bose and Kay Kay Menon. I would like to say that I found the movie great, but the English movie was in my mind, and Shaurya cannot catch up to that movie, especially because I found the script and direction to be one of the weaker aspects.




So what is the story ? In Kashmir, the young officer, that too a Muslim officer, Javed Khan had shot his superior officer, Major Rathod during the course of a search operation in a village. Now, he is on trial, and to stand as his lawyer is the cynical Major Siddhant Chaudhary (played by Rahul Bose). He is opposed by his friend, Major Akash Kapoor (played by Javed Jaffery) who is the prosecution lawyer. And a superior officer is in the shadows, Brigadier Rudra Pratap Singh.
Do I need to say more ? Rahul Bose gets more involved in the case, trying to decipher the motives of the young Javed Khan, who does not want to reveal any details of what had happened. And there is the journalist played by Minissha Lamba who reveals more of the truth to Rahul Bose and forces him to start thinking more about what Shaurya means, and how is this related to the actions of the Briagdier, the dead major and the non-speaking Army office on trial for murder. Where is the honor of the army and its officers also figuring in all this.
At the same time, it is still one of the better experiments in Indian cinema, and if you fed of nonsensical movies that become super-hits, then get hold of this movie and watch it. I hardly ever see any re-runs of the movie on TV though.