Sameer ( september 2017 )
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 .
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quote about the movie from somebody else who saw the movie on echarcha forum
''the last few minutes were blatantly anti Modi. They imply that he was behind some terror attacks and the line by Sameer ‘Chai aur Chutia banana aap se Sikha hai’.
Question is, didn’t any of the intolerant BJP supporters rant against this or are the guys who made this movie not on Twitter?''