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Shaurya: Courage is also being original
[Guys, I am on maternity leave, living in Bihar. Films come in late, often pirated on cable TV and DVDs. I will be trying to write in reviews when I can. For the next 2-3 months, they will be irregular, short and a bit out of focus. Do bear with me. Thank you, Padmaja].
For those few who have cared to follow the release of Shaurya, the end credits roll with ‘101’ definitions of Courage. One is missing. Courage is also being original. Shaurya is ‘inspired’ by Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men (based on AB Sorkin’s play of the same name). Shaurya is the story of Siddhant (Rahul Bose), a cocky lawyer in the army (Tom Cruise in the original) who is searching for meaning and adventure in life. He is waiting for something that would challenge his spirit. This he finds in defending a soldier Javed Khan (Deepak Dobriyal) who is accused of killing a senior army officer. Khan stands all alone, with nobody to support him and refuses to speak in his own defense.
Shaurya’s director, Samar Khan has tried to contextualize his inspiration by putting an Indian issue at the heart of the story. But what can be more unoriginal than playing the same old Hindu-Muslim communal card? Javed Khan says that he is paying the price for being a Muslim. Siddhant (Bose) scoffs at him for playing the victim and trying to be a martyr. Although there is truth here and it would have worked to the film’s credit had it been presented the Muslim issue with clarity and honesty. But the film cows down under easy options. So it is not one community dominating another but just one man, Brigadier Pratap (Kay Kay Menon) dictating not only the entire army operations in the area but also the lives of people who happen to enter his self-declared jurisdiction. Blaming him comes easy because he talks like a madman and the officer (shot by Khan) who follows his orders is shown to be a beast. Since the entire blame of false encounters in Kashmir can be pinned down on one man, Brigadier Pratap, the solution is clear. Lock him up. If only the problem was this simple and the solution this easy! Playing safe is not original.
Rahul Bose is one of the finest actors in Bollywood today. In Shaurya he is so coolly balanced that he makes even the over-dramatic scenes bearable. Javed Jaffery plays a regular (non-comic) guy well and should try more of these. Minissha Lamba is a hairs breadth away from over-acting and Amrita Rao just about manages. Kay Kay Menon tries hard but standing up to the cold and menacing fanaticism of Col. Nathan Jessep of the original (Jack Nicholson) would always be a tall order. Deepak Dobriyal as Javed Khan is not extra ordinary (one thinks of Omkaara) but does his job.
There is not much place for songs in the film but a couple of then have been jammed in anyway. Cinematographer Carlos Catalan does what he is asked without adding much of his own. The dialogues deserve a mention; there is an attempt to be natural and witty. On details, I was left wondering can civilians and journalists be present during a court martial? They are. And, can the army let go of a soldier who has killed his senior officer. He is.
– Padmaja Thakore
27 Responses to “Shaurya: Courage is also being original”
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it was bollywoodised! they must hav thought wow we cracked it! hindu-muslim drama. saw it recently on dvd. didnt like it at all. the most funniest bit…javed (deepak’s charcter) shoots just one guy and he doesnt shoot d others. why ? anyone would ask that first. but the writers of the film created such a false dramatic premise to make rahul think about it. and what a reveltion it was!! AFGM works because of the courtroom drama and how it was a big deal to get jack nicholson there. but in shaurya it was so so lame!
Not surprisingly, one finds A few good men at # 5 on the AFI list, in the courtroom drama genre.
http://www.afi.com/10TOP10/crdrama.html
It makes more sense to adapt something where one can add something to (rgv’s aag comes to mind).
“Rahul Bose is one of the finest actors in Bollywood today…”
:D LMAO!!!
“Rahul Bose is one of the finest actors in Bollywood today.” People who understand acting wont be amused with that lady !
@ Padmaja -
“there are 101 definitions of courage at the end of the movie”
“Rahul Bose is one of the finest actors in Bollywood today…”
allow me to offer a few definitions of fine, and by extension finest.
A fine piece of wood.
Fine means monetary punishment for an intransigence, over here his mere existence, let alone acting chops
Fine means I get more emotion out of my wrinkled elbow.
Fine means the trees in happening had more presence than bose
fine means rahul makes salman khan look like dilip kumar
i hope you can fill in the rest…
@dabba…ahahhahah. a freind of mine who is editor told me once that mr bose is editor’s delight. nobody can give u so many pauses and with d same dead expression everytime. u can chop him anywhere and can add his any bit anywhere!
dabba, Pnu
or may be a Woodstock Wallah! ;) sorry Padmaja no offence, jusht for fun sake :)
i agree iwth you on that one playback
rahul bose is not a fine actor he tries hard though
not giving rubber stamp faces and not looking good does not make u a good actor
rahul bose is an overrated actor… i saw shaurya couple of weeks ago… i hate when supposedly intellectual people try to make film thinking they are doing “different” cinema than usual.. but it is nothing but same usual stuff…
rahul bose’s acting was so expression less and wooden.. not the fine piece of wood.. but like aishwarya rai type of wooden…
For once I agree with consensus here :) on RB’s acting ability or the lack of it thereof.
Andho mein Kana Raja….
Enuff said!
Director Samar Khan had joined NDA and trained for 2 years in 1992. But he quit, never joined Army. Wonder why.
Whatever he shows in the film about Indian Army is so far from truth that it doesn’t deserve explanation. No Army operations are conducted the way he shows it. The young officer had no authority to shoot his senior officer dead under any circumstances. The Court Martial is not empowered to order arrest of a witness for an altogether unconnected reason which had nothing to do with the case it is hearing. In any case, it can not arrest a Brigadier without following any procedure, solely on the basis of his statement. And it can not simply free an officer proved to have killed his senior over operational disagreements. Rashtriya Rifles is an organisation where Army personnel come purely on deputation for fixed periods and can never inspire the kind of loyalty Javed Jaffery ascribes to it in his dialogue.
But what is more disturbing is Mr Khan’s agenda. He is the real communalist going around here. He has one-dimensional ideas of victimhood of his own Muslim community and drags Indian Army into his arguements to enhance the shock value. He would do well to locate some of his old contacts from NDA and make use of them to learn more about the Army before making his next malicious film. It was extremely disappointing to see Shah Rukh Khan associating himself with such stuff.
rahul bose may be one of those who know their limitations on screen, and play to that. may be in the league of Naseeruddin Shah, or an Om Puri (I hope this is no sacrilege!) I can’t recall many variations in Om Puri’s face which might take out the “wood” tag from him. I am not doubting his acting capabilities mind you, but if facial expressions ever counted towards acting well there isn’t a graph there. Yet Om Puri has survived movies, years and he has earned respect. We could may be cut RB some slack here, after all how many movies has he done till now? How many chances has he got to go beyond those “thinking, urban, disturbed, frustrated” types? He is in another league with Kamal Haasan w.r.t his interviews in print. The point or the idea may be simple or the same but the variation and the way of saying it… wah! ;) ;) May be he needs to chill, unwind and go about doing a breezy movie with no heavy luggage set in a natural everyday environment. Natural expressions will follow. Till then as
Mainak uvacha “andho mein kana raja”
Rahul Bose…Well…I mean…anyway, you guys know the text.
@ Santosh Kumar T K
did you compare Rahul Bose to Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri? you need to watch Mirza Ghalib and Kirdar.. both are TV Series by gulzar saab to see the acting talent of these two legends… i dont even need to give another example because these two serials were so diverse and multi dimensional— they were such a complementary to their acting talent…
Badmash bhai,
thanks for asking if I compared! :) I just referred to limitations with respect to the facial expressions. Not that they don’t emote well but I somewhere feel they have their limitations at least Om Puri does. Mind you that doesn’t not take away anything from their on-screen brilliance which is above and way beyond JUST facial expressions. They surely must have matured over years and come to offer what they do today. I am no RB fan but he has been here only since a while
@dabba
LOL
two females (not gonna call them actors ) i couldn’t watch at all were.. Meenakshi Sheshadri and Karishma Kapoor… the reason.. too many facial expressions(i counted Karishma Kapoor’s million per sec… )..
so facial expressions are not always a good thing…
and I am NOT equating facial contortions/gimmicks/expressions to emtoing power…
*emoting
@ badmash -
I was a material science major, and there are some things i know and i know them well.
rahul bose = wood, although i could never ascertain if it was teak, pine or bamboo.
ash rai = plastic, NASA engineered plastic
dobara yeh galati mat karna.
13…
rahul bose in the league of Naseeruddin Shah, or an Om Puri I can’t recall many variations in Om Puri’s face which might take out the “wood” tag from him…
om puri wood???????? nasirudin shah wood???????????
dude watch only mirch masala to c how ur self made theory becum wrong…
rahul bose in their league…its a joke…
at best rahul bose may reach in league of actor who was partner of nasir in jane bhi do yaro… nd other actor who was elder brother of sunny deyol in ghatak…
i dont recall their names…
sharuya is bad film..badly written…badly directed…
it ridicules army intelligence…
3rd grade film…
@dabba
Do watch “A Mouthful of Sky” if you ever get the chance. A finer collection of wood was never assembled and never will be.
Dabba ! LOLLLL ! @ “material science major” HaHaHa ! :))
The worst thing about rahul bose is not that he is a bad actor, its the fact that he is a chronic bullshitter.
And Samar khan is a disgrace. Shaurya is a disgrace. I was pained to see Kaykay Menon to be a part of all this. How can you do this Kaykay???
To the guy @13, who equates RB with Naseer and Om Puri -
GO AWAY.
Of course..no offence to anyone in particular and kindly lets not have a “@!@!##%$^%&^” forum now to prove all the above..but still..you know..sets one thinking:))))