Welcome to Wasteland!

No, it is not over-acting – even our seasoned veterans do that and we have become more or less insular to histrionic excesses.

No, it is not songs being used as props to plant a budding romance. We have seen worse cases of the Bollywood song-dance retinue. A borrowed plot line? No, we are used to being fed on Hollywood rip-offs.

With 'Shaurya', the culprit is pretension. This is a movie that builds its premise by being unabashedly pretentious.

That the film dips into 'A Few Good Men' for content and structure is public knowledge. How filmmakers can continue to take 'story and script' credit for someone else's intellectual property is a question that Bollywood conveniently forgets.

For a film that talks of integrity, honesty and courage to right a wrong and all that blah, shouldn't the director have been more forthright?

Now, come on, which Bollywood viewer is going to take offence if he is reminded early on that the film is a 'copy?' The film starts off with profuse thanks to a lot of people and 'above all' (making the contribution of the others looks smaller) Shah Rukh Khan. Missing was the name Rob Reiner of 'A Few Good Men' fame.

Must give it to Samar Khan and crew that the film tries to tackle one of the most difficult subjects of contemporary India. And to their credit, they succeed to a great extent in walking the tight-rope without offending sensibilities – religious, political and military.

But enveloping virtually the entire narrative is the thick air of a holier-than-thou pretension. It is so in the monologue of Javed Khan's mother – Seema Biswas, surprisingly, hamming. It is so in the so-called media activism of Kavya – Minissha Lamba – again, grating.

And thumbing down the film's narrative is the predictability quotient – of its protagonist Sidd – Rahul Bose, effectively alternating between unsure to good to confident, echoing the character sketch. It doesn't take long for the viewer to see the 'loafer-turns-hero' mode coming.

Holding the film on its feet are some fine performances – from Javed Jaffrey, Bose and the ever-reliable Kay Kay Menon. Kay Kay Menon grabs the pulse of Brigadier Pratap right from the word go, and gives 'Shaurya' the desired gravitas.

But, despite being just 145 minutes, the film's run-time is conspicuously felt – and nothing seems to dispel the sense of monotony – not even the performances.

That is sad, indeed. Sadder is the fact that 'Shaurya' couldn't have been much better because pushing further would have ended the film forever in the cans – for hurting the pillars of the Indian democracy.

plz comment