ashdoc
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This is a film made with a hair brained conception of reality in mind---that the various acts of terror are the creation of those in power ; that they keep themselves in power by perpetuating acts of terror which force the public to vote for the politicians who promise to curb those acts . But what the public does not know is the fact that terrorists are being funded by those same politicians who are seemingly against terrorism . Also the public discourse over those terrorist attacks is also masterminded by the politicians themselves , as they make the media give wide publicity to the terror attacks and thus increase their own popularity by taking an official stand against terrorism . Needless to say , those who are reputed to commit terror are muslims and those in power are right wing parties . For example , if you are among those people who believe that 9/11 was perpetrated by the US government to attack Afghanistan and Iraq then this film is right up your alley .
So after a series of bomb blasts in Hyderabad , the Gujarat anti terror squad ( ATS ) gets a tip off that the mastermind is a gujarati muslim named Yasin Darji who is living in a college hostel in Hyderabad . The ATS raids the hostel to find only his room mate Sameer ( played by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub ) . He claims innocence , but the fact that he is muslim is enough for the ATS to capture him and torture him and force him to become a mole among the terrorists to infiltrate their gang and capture them . His fate is to become trapped between the ATS and the terrorists whose gang he is supposed to join inspite of having nothing to do with terror .
Openly pitted against the ATS is committed left wing journalist Alia Irade ( played by Anjali Patil ) . She is into searching for missing children of the left wings favourite obsession---Gujarat Riots what else . She is so popular among the terrorists for championing the cause of the underdogs that before every attack she receives a message from terrorists informing her about it , but her attempts to stop the terror attacks come to no avail . Curiously , the deputy chief of Gujarat ATS is in love with Alia . Yes , Vikram Desai ( played by Subrat Dutta ) is in love with Alia. And this gives a bizzare twist to the whole saga as the person who is the sword arm of the right wing establishment is in love with a driven left wing journalist .
Meanwhile , Sameer manages to get into the house of Yasin Darji by getting close to his mother Mumtaz Khala ( played by Seema Biswas ) . He then manages to win the trust of Shaheed ( played by Chinmay Mandlekar ) who is brother of Yasin , though an ATS officer has to lay down his life for that trust to be won .
It is in showing life in the slum in Ahmedabad where Mumtaz Khala lives that the director excels ; he has really captured the sights sounds and smells of that place clearly . A left wing small time politician ( played by Alok Gagdeka ) organises street plays to inform the public in the slum of the government's misgovernance , and Mumtaz gives Shaheed lectures on the foolishness of hindus and muslims to be unable to come together . A small boy called Rocket who had a stammer is the darling of the people in the slum . A minor incident like stone thrown by Rocket and his friends is enough to almost start a communal riot . The movie was gathering steam and I was watching it it with all my attention .
Shaheed makes a plan for further bomb blasts in which Sameer is to take a part and the ATS deputy Vikram Desai plans to use his mole Sameer to not only stop the attacks but also capture the terrorists . But inspite of all best laid plans , the bombs do go off and scores of innocents are killed . Only Shaheed is captured and put to death by Vikram .
But what did Sameer do that made the whole set up by Vikram and his ATS go wrong ? Why did the bomb blasts still happen even though Shaheed got captured and killed ? Is Sameer playing a double game of his own ? Who is he really ? Where is the original suspect Yasin Darji ? Why has he not even come into the frame ? Is Sameer himself the mysterious Yasin Darji ? I sure was hooked to the film by this point .
Since this is too small a film and hardly anyone is going to watch it , one can reveal that actually it is the state which is behind the bomb blasts . That the right wing government is orchestrating the bomb blasts and the mayhem in the media that Alia Irade does too , thus giving wide publicity to the terror that keeps the right wing in power by fuelling the fears of the majority . In the end the terrorists are shown to be people scarred in riots and thus the cause for their involvement in terrorism is explained . So the director would have us believe that they are the victims of the system rather than the extremists that we thought they are .
My personal opinion is---The director sure has been smoking a special kind of weed to believe that the audience can be made to believe that the right wing government sponsors the bomb blasts that regularly rock the nation . Yet the tragedy is that he has many takers !!
The ending of the film where the whole premise is explained is sure a surprise at the climax . It raised my rating of the film from three stars to three and a half out of five . I HAD to admire the director's ingenuity in spinning out such a yarn . It was the tallest of the tall stories I had heard in my life .
Acting is good by Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub as Sameer . He has really matured into a fine actor by now . Rest are all okay for their roles . Photography is authentic rather than spectacular . Music is not great but gels with the grim situations properly .
Verdict---worth a watch .
Three and a half stars out of five .
