My Review: Shahid (2013)

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

The Hindi biographical film 'Shahid' directed by Hansal Mehta is produced by Anurag Kashyap. Based on the life of slain human rights activist and lawyer Shahid Azmi, the national award winning movie (Best Actor and Best Director) is a gripping tale.

The opening scene starts with the was assassination of Shahid Azmi (Rajkummar Rao) at his office in 2010 in Mumbai. The film opens with murder of Shahid Azmi (Rajkummar Rao) and goes into flashback
Shahid witnesses Bombay Riots and joins a terrorist camp in POK. However he runs away from there after seeing a man beheaded. On returning home he is arrested under the TADA and tortured by police, who force him to admit the crime. While spending time is jail he is lured by a terrorist to join him but is altered to a life changing path in time by  fellow jail mate War Saab (K K Menon). He inspires Shahid to resume college education and helps in acquittal of the charges. Shahid studies law in Mumbai while working with a lawyer Memon (Tigmanshu Dhulia) for some months.

He does not agree with his mentor who is interested in money and starts his career as an independent lawyer with financial support from his elder brother Arif (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub). He marries a Muslim divorcee, Mariam (Prabhleen Sandhu), whom he had helped in a court case. Shahid starts fighting for cases of Muslims, who were charged under the POTA with no proper evidence. He starts getting threatening calls to back off, but he never heeds to them.

He gets criticized for defending such people and even media starts digging his past. His face gets blackened by some assailants outside a court room. while defending Faheem Ansari in the case of Mumbai attacks in 2008 . One day he gets shot in his own office and dies on the spot. Later his friend takes up the case and Faheem is shown to be acquitted of all the charges by the court.


Rajkummar Rao  is absolutely brilliant and has come a long way from playing side roles to main stream movies. He may be the face of parallel cinema with upcoming movie directed by Hansal Mehta "City Lights". He also is simultaneously shooting for a romcom "Dolly Ki Doli". He should continue to be unpredictable and do such good movies in future.