Prahaar movie review: Rajkummar Rao brings patent sincerity to Ajmal Kasab trial

Prahaar movie review: The case against Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist who was captured alive during the Mumbai attack on 26/11 was built by public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, whose painstaking methods left not a shred of doubt about the former’s guilt.

Rajkummar Rao brings a patent sincerity to his playing of Nikam, but the film never really shakes off its dominant quality — it is as by-the-numbers as it can get, in both re-creating the glimpses of that terrible night during which a terrorist group took Mumbai hostage, as well as the court-room proceedings in which defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi (Sikander Kher) works hard to dismantle the case, under the watchful eye of the judge (Ashish Vidyarthi).

Given the flood of films and serials based on 26/11 over the past years, the challenge was always going to be to give us something new. How do you make a ‘hero’ out of a workaholic who devotes all his time to his job, ignoring his family? Nikam is built for the audience as the kind of lawyer who believes in amassing every last shred of evidence duly documented in piles of sarkaari files: his righteousness is based on plodding process, not drama.

The easy option then is to create domestic conflict. Nikam’s long-suffering wife (Wamiqa Gabbi) is made the centre of a conflict between husband and son (Ritwik Sahore). While that may have been intended to a way to show that well-regarded professionals also have blind-spots, these portions also come off predictable: the thread of a workaholic father, passing on his own father’s expectations to his son, had the potential to be thorny, but is conveniently resolved.

Ironically, a film intended to showcase the fairness of the Indian legal system which holds off judgement till the case is water-tight, is made interesting by its depiction of the bad guy. Lalit Prabhakar’s Kasab gives us a believable villain through a range of emotions — from sly cruelty to straight-up lying and evasion during his trial, to the growing awareness of his crime as he waits in his cell. The creation of a ‘jihadi’ coming from a place of ignorance — ‘yahaan bhi Eid manaate hain kya,’ he asks his prison guard — is a nice, if familiar touch.

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The exchanges between Nikam and Pakistani legal eagle Zulfikar (Jaideep Ahlawat) gives the film a chance to add nuance, and we see that at play in a smartly-written sequence, in which both men show mutual respect while coming to an accommodation over a feast. Refusing to take refuge in jingoism is also a noteworthy aspect, making the carnage a crime against humanity, not just reducing it to a religious divide.

The performances are all solid, with Ahlawat leaving a mark — no surprises there — even in a walk-on part. Good to see Ashish Vidyarthi properly back in the saddle, in a rounded role: he presides over his court with precision and empathy, making sure that, in the end, justice is done.

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Prahaar movie cast: Rajkummar Rao, Lalit Prabhakar, Wamiqa Gabbi, Sikander Kher, Ashish Vidyarthi, Ritwik Sahore, Ajinkya Deo
Prahaar movie director: Avinash Arun
Prahaar movie rating: 2 stars