Shorgul

SHORGUL – REVIEW

Coming from a real life political drama, the communal rights that broke out in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzzaffarnagar in 2013 with horrendous, hostile and inhumane approaches from different communities to fight it, is the subject put on the table for the audience with the movie ‘Shorgul’.

Showing different consequences of the horrific deeds of the people during these riots and what the innocents had to suffer as a result of it, Shorgul did a rather good job if that is the concern for the discussion. The moral of the movie was to highlight the fact that it is the political class which is the cause and the major cause of the difference created between different religions and it is the common man who is the actual sufferer, maybe the person be from any religion. The movie was quite distant of helping generate communal harmony. As far as the picturisation was concerned, I would rather say the director could have done a better job as the temperaments of the characters were not getting absorbed by the viewer because of some typical irrational behaviours of the characters. Besides, the ensemble cast with terrific actors such as Jimmy Shergill and Ashutosh Rana weren’t used to their full potential. The temperament of a Choudhary of a village as far as how kind hearted he maybe was totally missing from the character.

The story involves a love triangle between a Muslim girl who is engaged to a Muslim guy, yet has feelings for her friend who is from a hindu background. The unfortunate fate of the three is depicted parallel to the riots prevalent during that period. Zainab runs from the vicious clutches of the atrocious fight between the hindus and the muslims, while she is devasted to see her family lie dead on the ground. The tracks of the female lead as Zainab is shown overtly emotional, while she exuberantly effused out sugar-sweet personality, looking unnatural in many scenes.

The movie depicts truckloads of bloodshed, while everyone slaughters everyone during the onslaught between the two religious groups with their agendas of protecting their religion and faith.

There have been movies before showing different riots that might have occurred in India as a result of different agendas and modus operandi, while in Shorgul, considering the subject and the ultimate message as intended to be delivered, the director could have done a better job at it. The story was able to deliver the desired message that whomsoever may fight or whatever be the cause, it is humanity which is the ultimate sufferer. What could have been the harbinger of generating communal harmony was just another movie talking about religion and politics.