Preview: Shahid

Hours before the film releases and a day before the reviews appear, here’s what you can expect from this week’s release(s)…

Film: Shahid
Lead actors: Rajkumar Yadav, Tigmanshu Dhulia, KK Menon and Prabal Panjabi

Shahid-is-an-upcoming-film-based-on-the-life-of-lawyer-and-human-rights-activist-Shahid-Azmi-who-was-assassinated-in-2010-in-Mumbai

Director
Hansal Mehta (last directed Raakh: A Poem Masked in Blood; 2010)
He directed the Sikandar Kher-starrer Woodstock Villa in 2008, which received mixed reviews. He has also directed a segment in Dus Kahaniyaan (2007)

Writers
Apurva Asrani (co-writer), Sameer Gautam Singh (screenplay)
While Apurva has previously edited popular films like 8X10 Tasveer (2009) and Satya (1998), this is the first project he has contributed to as a writer.

Music
Karan Kulkarni
This film has only one song, which according to Kulkarni, “is the character’s theme and the background score”.

Controversies/stunts
The film saw an unusual supporter in Bollywood star Aamir Khan, who promoted this movie on Facebook by making a post about it recently. He also said, “I saw the promo and really liked it… Raj Kumar seems to be doing some good work (sic).”

Marketing/hype
Late Shahid Azmi’s brother, Khalid, recently saw the film and was touched by the director’s vision. He also called the film “95 per cent” accurate. Since the film is releasing a few days after the Eid special, Boss, it hasn’t managed to generate a lot of buzz, but it has earned some good word-of-mouth publicity.

For the final verdict: Look out for Anupama Chopra’s review tomorrow