Movie Review: Shaurya

In an industry where army movies often border on jingoism, banshee screams, and mindless bloodshed, Shaurya strikes you with its different portrayal. There are no righteous speeches on justice, loyalty, and patriotism; instead you have characters battling their inner conflicts wih a quiet but touching dignity.

Two lawyer friends in the Indian army, Akash Kapoor (Javed Jaffery), and Siddhanth Chaudhary / Sid (Rahul Bose), who couldn’t be more dissimilar from each other than chalk from cheese, make their way to the beautiful climes of Kashmir. While Akash is the serious, brooding sorts (a far, far cry from Jaffery's usual slapstick comedy roles),Sid is nonchalance personified, impish smile firmly in place, without a care in the world ruffling his spiked hair.

Legally pitted against each other, Akash and Sid find themselves bang in the middle of a defense investigation, to probe the alleged murder of one Major Rathore by Captain Javed Khan (excellently portrayed by Deepak Dobriyal). Where Sid strikes you with his verbal diarrhea, Khan speaks volumes with his pained eyes, the very picture of a wronged soul. Minissha Lamba is the hard-as-nails local journalist, Kaavya, who is keen to spot her prize-winning story. Seema Biswas as Javed’s mother, gives a short but striking performance, which is but natural, given her proven acting prowess.

However, the show-stealer is undoubtedly Kay Kay Menon, who is par excellence as the high-strung hard-hitting-dialogue-spouting Brigadier Rudra Pratap Singh. He undeniably has the best dialogues, effortlessly delivering them. His thunderous court-room scene is applause-worthy.

Though it is “inspired” by A Few Good Men, Shaurya is pretty much watchable fare. Watch it for its brilliant cinematography, impactful story, above average direction.
Oops, did I miss out the crisp dialogue delivery…?

Thank God that in its “Indianized” version, the budding romance between Sid and Kaavya in Shaurya, was not closed in a holy matrimony / living-happily-ever-after-scene, as is wont in most Indian cinema.

Though obviously the director could not resist picturizing a small song on them.

But that’s ok, in the item number performed by Rosa Catalano in the movie, our very own Jaaved Jaffery could also not resist showing us some neat moves to set the dance floor ablaze… :-)