Cast: Raj Kumar Yadav, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayub, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Runtime: 123 Minutes
Gripping you to your seats, with each scene appearing as if just out of the real life of Shahid Azmi, reality just takes a solid transformation and Raj Kumar infuses amazing strength into the character, making you relate with him like never before and all this without compromising on anything, and just displaying great clarity in thought, Shahid is a hard-hitting take on the life of a lawyer, which surely is one of the finest movies of this year.
“You are acquitted of all the charges, and the court is extremely sorry for everything you and your family suffered in the 2.5 years of you being behind the bars”, the court declared when Shahid Azmi was released. This was what became his mission, post becoming a lawyer, to bail out all the innocent Muslim youths’ out of the jail who have been arrested under TADA, same as that of him.
Hansal Mehta( Who directed part of dus kahaniyan) has taken great care in not dramatizing even one bit, and just simply makes his actors bring out their best to be portrayed out on the screen. The casting is perfect, from the protagonist Shahid (Raj Kumar) to his elder brother who supports him in each of his decisions without questioning him for a second time (Mohd zeeshan Ayub of Ranjhanaa fame) and Shahid’s client-turned Love interest turned-wife (Prabhleen Sandhu) and their simple love story and the conflicts from time to time, have been beautifully captured the way it is meant to be.
The family-life, from where Shahid grew up, when he went to jail, returned and even got married, has been portrayed the way it actually happens and not over-dramatized to punch it up and that is the beauty of Shahid. It grows on you, scene by scene. The jail-time Shahid is part of, becomes livelier due to the presence of Kay Kay Menon, who carves out the perspective of Shahid to resume his studies and he comes of age to become a lawyer striving for the innocent youth and the judiciary which simply ends up manufacturing more and more terrorists.
There are not one, two or three things for which you need to watch this masterpiece. Its’ simply a story, something which makes you ponder over a lot of things in the system and empowers you to at least think, that you should do something for the system too. A system which needs to breed equality rather than injustice based on a name.
I’m going with 4.5/5 for Shahid. It’s simply a masterpiece.
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