Shahid

Director: Hansal Mehta
Starring: Raj Kumar Yadav, Prabhleen Sandhu, Baljinder Kaur, Tigmanshu Dhulia, KK Menon.
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Year: 2012 | Country: India

Hansal Mehta’s powerful tour de force is based on the real-life trials of activist Indian lawyer Shahid Azmi. It was world premiered at Toronto Film Festival and has since been a hit at festivals around the world. Shahid (Raj Kumar Yadav) is a young Muslim man who gets drawn into a radical group and joins a militant camp in Pakistan Kashmir. He however realises violence is not his path and escapes the camp, but is caught by the police and ends up in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Here he meets his mentor who encourages the bright young man to study a law degree. On release the dynamic Shahid throws himself into hottest part of the legal system, defending Muslims accused of acts of terrorism by the state. As his success in getting acquittals cause dark powers to gather against him, Shahid takes on his greatest and most controversial case, defending one of the men accused of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The film is sharply shot and edited and it offers a vivid insight into the legal and political mechanisms of modern India.