REVIEW: Shoot On Sight

After a spate of films like Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan and A Wednesday, comes Shoot 'On' Sight…. This Jag Mundhra film dwells on the blasts of 2005 and the killing of Jean Charles De Menezes in the London tube. However, Mundhra tries to establish a connect by making his innocent victim an Asian Muslim Baqir Hassan (Avtar Kaul).

A slow but gripping film, Shoot On Sight focuses on the turbulent life of Commander Tariq Ali (the charismatic Naseeruddin Shah), a Muslim police officer at Scotland Yard. Ali is born in Pakistan, married to an English woman (Greta Scacchi), with two kids.

Anyway, the film sees Commander Tariq Ali heading the investigation team after a suspected terrorist, Baqir, gets killed by a police officer on the tube platform.

Of course, the more Ali investigates, the clearer it becomes that Baqir was shot without valid reason, and soon the racial and communal discrimination that led to Baqir's death seeps into Ali's life. Meanwhile, Zaheer, Ali's nephew (Mikaal Zulfiqar from Pakistan) comes to live with Ali and his family. The plot becomes more complicated when photos of Tariq meeting a childhood friend from Lahore, who happens to be an extremist Imam (Om Puri), end up in the newspaper.

PERFORMANCES:

The story unfolds in a less didactic manner but soon changes gear. The Imam's preaching on jihad and what is right or wrong sound too clichéd. Om Puri as the Imam has done a good job but his character is no different from the fundamentalist Imams in Mahesh Bhatt's Dhoka or the Pakistani film Khuda Ke Liye. In spite of his stature, Naseer's role had nothing new to offer, but the actor definitely looks sharp and perfectly suits the role of an investigating officer.

Two more characters that deserve a mention are Laila Rouass as Ali's assistant and Gulshan Grover as Ali's friend. Both have given convincing performances in their own ways.

NEXT: The MOTIVE