Shaurya: Its not "Few Good Men"

I will write about what I thought of the movie. Stop linking it with Few Good Men, its not a copy of it. Its a good movie, Watch It.

If you ask me, I loved the movie. The basics were right, yes the director didn't steer away from the formula of small budget multiplex movies. Samar Khan has repeated his brilliance of Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye (KMHJ) with keeping the story simple and to the point. He has also learnt from the his mistakes
of KMHJ and paid attention to the screenplay as well. The screenplay was tight and put in just the right amount of time in explaining the context to the viewers. The actors were very good with Deepak Dobriyal, playing Capt Javed Khan, shining over the rest of the lot even my personal favourite KK Menon. KK Menon seemed a little uncomfortable and dis-interested in his role. It was refreshing to see Javed Jaffrey in a serious role, haven't seen that since Meri Jung. He seemed slightly at ease with his character of the responsible friend of Rahul Bose. Rahul Bose played his character of a young carefree army officer a slight notch below perfection, but is was good. Minisha Lamba reminded me of Kareena Kapoor's "Geet" from Jab We Met. Amrita Rao was very convincing as a young widow mother and Seema Biswas played her part well as Deepak Dobriyal's mother. The background score amalgamated perfectly with the narrative. The music composed was good too. Saving the best for the last, the cinematography was breathtaking. I've always said that I've only seen the beauty of J&K in pictures, movies and in my parent's narratives. So, 2 extra points to Samar Khan for walking me through the crown jewel of the Indian Republic - the state of J&K. I was absolutely stunned at the shot where Rahul Bose is standing in "the Khaai" looking up at the mountains - what a brilliant shot? I just feel bad now that I wasn't back home and I missed watching this movie at the theaters. And thanks to the so called "film critics" a well deserved movie wasn't able to sustain too long at the theaters.

I was very angry with the critics instantly comparing it to the Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson starer Few Good Men because it was a court room drama about Defense forces. It only reflects the poor knowledge of these critics about the movies. Consider, the following points:

1. Few Good Men was about US Navy where as Shaurya was about Indian Army. Being an ex-defense officer's daughter I'll break into a hysterical laughter if you tell me that Navy and Army aren't different wings of the Defense forces.
   
2. Few Good Men was about improving the mental and physical toughness of a soldier by ragging and troubling the living daylights out of him. Shaurya, on the other hand, was about the issue of Culpable Homicide and Ethnic Cleansing.

My respect for the critics would've remained if they had said that is was an adaptation of Few Good Men, which I believe it was. Some scenes had a very distinct flavour of Few Good Men. Even then, labeling it as a copy of Shaurya is robbing the crew of the credit they should get for this effort. I've realized the lack of knowledge of critics now and also understood why many mainstream directors don't lend an ear to the critics. I was amused by one particular statement made by for brother's former favourite film critics Rajeev Masand - "The climax was pretty cliched with same old Hindu-Muslim thing," - I wanted to ask him; Mr. Masand do you understand the meaning of Ethnic Cleansing in the Indian context? After watching the movie, my brother lost all respect for Rajeev's film critic abilities.

In conclusion, I would like to say to all of you, if you haven't seen Shaurya - watch it. Rent a DVD and watch it. As for me, that's one movie for my private collection. When I go back home, I'm going to Music World and buying the original DVD. I would just like to end with the couple of lines of a dialogue which I absolutely loved - "Shaurya kya hai. Shayad ek hausla. Shayad ek himmat. Hamare bahut andar. Mazhab ke banaye dayere ko todkar. Kisi ka haath tham lene ki himmat. Goliyon ke betahasha shor ko apni khamoshi se chunauti de pane ki himmat. Shaurya kya hai. Aane wale kal ki khatir apne is kayanat ko aaj bacha lene ki himmat."