Sirf (Released in 2008) - Life in Mumbai for 4 couples

When somebody tells you about a story with different couples, detailing their different situations, you know the following. The story will tell you about their challenges, about the complexity of their life, about how they all don't know each other but will come together (or rather, their life will be intertwined near the close (or in the second half) of the film), and they will all be in the same city. And all that is true of this movie.
However, a story such as this needs to be gripping, and it has to be logical. For getting its viewers to get hooked to the story, the person depicted in the movie may not be in the same social class, but the challenges that they face should be something that the person seeing the movie can understand and make sense of. These challenges can be related to money, love or affairs - these are the most common areas that make up the stories of our day-to-day movies.
So, here we have the story of 4 couples, all of them having their own challenges. And some of the people taken for depicting the various roles are great actors, and yet, you come out of the movie not satisfied. The story and editing needs to keep the challenges and the grip right through the duration of the movie, and here, after some initial effort, you feel that the Director, Rajaatsh Nayar, loses grip over the direction through the movie, and it gets difficult to stay the 2 hours of this movie.
Here are the cast of main characters in the movies, their relationships and the challenges facing them.




The rich couple: Gaurav (Kay Kay Menon) and Devika (Manisha Koirala). They are the rich couple, but you know the depiction of rich couples. When people are shown as rich, they are most of the time shown to have a deficit of love in their relationship, and the movie sticks to the same approach. And of course, they tend to be busy (or rather, the man is shown to be busy and not have time for his wife).
Needing money: Rahul (Ankur Khanna) and Shalu (Nauheed Cyrusi). Very much in love with each other, but her parents have set a condition that even though they are fine with the marriage, he has to find a house in 3 months on rent, else she will get married to somebody else. Seems a bit strange.
Love and trust: Amit (Parvin Dabbas) and Suchita (Rituparan Sengupta). They have a good life, not wanting for money, but then she starts suspecting that he is having an affair ? Is this true ?
Love and understanding: Akash (Ranvir Shorey) and Namita (Sonali Kulkarni). This one is difficult, but when you consider a number of divorce cases where there is no real reason, except that people have grown apart and hence do not want to remain married, it might make more sense. But did the movie bring that out ? They have their own offices, do love each other but are they able to understand their respective limitations ? Do they have that understanding ?
The music of the movie was no great shakes, with the music being by Sohail Sen and Shibani Kashyap. Lyrics are by Mehboob and Vipul Saini.

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.