Review: Sehar, India's answer to Untouchables

Watched the excellent movie ‘Sehar’ over the past weekend and also the eminently forgettable Oliver Stones epic ‘Alexander’. Bad news first, about ‘Alexander’ the only recommendation that I can offer is ‘Please don’t waste your time’, unless you are a die hard Angelina Jolie fan like me or unlike me, a die hard Colin Farrell or Oliver Stone fan. Either way it’s not worth your time, so lets just move on to the good news.

Now ‘Sehar’ is another cuppa tea. This has been done in the Indian style Kevin Costner/Sean Connery/Robert De Niro starring Brian De Palma’s super-hit movie ‘Untouchables’ movie. In Kabeer Kaushik’s ‘Sehar’, Arshad Warsi an his team of STF policemen take on the organized crime ring in UP. The story has been set in Lucknow and the film proceeds at a brisk pace, with enough body bags to fill up a morgue within minutes, pausing only when Mahima Chaudry flits into the scene with her multi-hued saree’s, coy demure looks and the breeze gently blowing her tresses, no matter where she is or what time of the day or night it is. Now why couldn’t they get the excellent actress Chitrangada Singh for this role instead of the expression-less non-actress Mahima Chaudry? Fortunately she doesn’t hang around for long and does not have a role of any significance in this movie.

The extremely talented Arshad Warsi plays Ajay Kumar, the ASP who has been posted to UP, to fight the rising crime in the state is believable and sincere. The main antagonist, played by Sushant Singh came across as too robotic and extremely intense. Overall the film is excellent and the supporting case led by the ever-dependable “Karamchand jasoos” Pankaj Kapur delivers big time. The dialogues in the movie are excellent and with the Lucknowi Hindi dialect, which is oh-so-pleasing to the ears, one can’t miss. Watch this one, as it will be well worth your time, if you like police movies along the lines of ‘Ab Tak Chappan’, Khakee (minus the melodrama), Maqbool and those genres of movies. Well, don’t just take my word for it, check out Uma’s review about the movie here and the review from Mid-day here .

It is heartening to note that despite the Chopra-Johar proliferation of crap from Bollywood, there have been numerous remarkable, well made, sensible movies like Swades, Hazaron Khwaishaien Aisi, Parinita, Page 3 and the kind. For Bollywood, there is hope, after all.