The bitter truth, but the truth nonetheless.
Just came back to my illusions after watching the reality in the movie Sehar. I call my world an illusion because that is what we are living in everyday, choosing to ignore the reality that surrounds us.
Moving on to the movie. The movie is a narrative from the eyes of a professor turned savior of a Special Task force, who took upon themselves to eradicate organised crime in U.P. in the 1990s. The story is about a cop who believes that what is wrong is wrong and needs to be dealt in that light. The protagonist played by Arshad Warsi is a true-life character. He walks in to the scene where two rival gangs are fighting to extend their fiefdoms. In a situation like that the intensity exhibited by an individual to tackle the issue will probably over shadow all other aspects of his personality, especially when he is so driven by his cause. Arshad Warsi shows a cool and composed determination except in a few scenes, to get to the bottom of the matter, which, I personally believe, will not be possible. He has definitely come a long way as an actor, but lacks the grit exhibited by Manoj Bajpai in Shool or the frustration by Om Puri in Ardha Satya. Shushant Singh, who plays the Mafia don, is at the other end of the tale. He is also very driven by his cause to extend his superiority in the world of organised crime. One cannot but go back to the excellent portrayal of the same by Ajay Devgan in Company. But again Sushant Singh appears too cool to be true. The story of the movie is great and no matter what critics say about the topic been over done; I think I still need to be revisited once in a while. A lot has been said about directors seeking inspiration from stalwarts of the yester years, but here I think Kabeer Kaushik has picked up the right stuff. The story does seem patchy, but on deeper thought one does realize that the Director is trying to unfold the story in the events. One does get a feeling that it is like an event-to-event movie, though the continuity of the movie is not lost. Another problem that I believe the Director must have faced was that the movie had too many characters that had an important role to play and trying to bring out their characters would have been difficult, especially when it is your first film.
Films like these are a rarity though the frequency of movies like these is on the rise and that surely is heartening. Movie making is a very powerful media and does need to be rekindled to bring about social change. What really strikes home about the movie is that a new Director is not really bothered about the glamour of Tinsel town but is making movies about something that’s close to his heart. How many of us have the courage to do that? I don’t make movies but every day I do take decisions that ensure that my self-interests are safe guarded. How long and how far is this myopic attitude going to work? Some guy turns a mafia don in the U.P., the first thought that comes to our mind is what is to us? It is in U.P., not my hometown unless of course if you come from there. Generation after generation is being fed with cowardice and asked to look at only at the ground beneath their feet. I believe that this attitude needs to be changed and we as a society need to look at the world around us with more responsibility.
To sum up my salutations to Kabber Kaushik for he has taken a bold step and also that we as a society too need to fall in step with him if at all we are to see that Sehar