A cliche ridden tale with only some good acting to show for.

Grade: C

Shoot on Sight

Indian Release Date: 17/10/08
CBFC Classification:  A
Running Length: 1 Hour 50 Minutes

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Brian Cox, Greta Scacchi, Gulshan Grover, Laila Rouass, Clifford Samuel, Stephen Greif, Mikaal Zulfikar, Ralph Ineson, India Wadsworth.
Director: Jag Mundhra
Screenplay: Carl Austin
Cinematography: Madhu Ambat
Music: John Altman

Shoot on Sight joins an ever increasing list of movies in the recent past that deal with the effects of terrorism on the perception of Islam & Muslims around the world. Director Jag Mundhra & producer Aron Govil have had enough trouble trying to get this film released due to its controversial content. After watching the movie however this claim of theirs doesn’t seem to hold much ground anymore as the movie, though not meek is no way a hot rock to handle.

 ‘Operation Kratos’ was the U.K. police’s directive given to its officers after the 7/7 London bombings. The directive stated that they would be allowed to ‘shoot-to-kill’ any suspected suicide bomber. However on 22nd July 2005 they accidentally gunned down ‘Jean Charles de Menezes’   a Brazilian national living in London , mistaking him for an Islamic terrorist based on his appearance. The movie’s plot kind of uses this as a jumping board for telling its own tale.

A young Muslim terror suspect is gunned at a crowded underground train station in London, when he does not respond repeatedly to orders from the cops to surrender & reaches for something in his pocket. It however turns out that the man was listening to music & wanted to switch off his mp3 player in order to hear what the cops were saying. With the cops under the scanner & the media hounding them over the wrongful killing Deputy Commissioner of Police Daniel Tennant (Brian Cox) in a face-saving move appoints Police Commander Tariq Ali (Naseeruddin Shah) as the investigating officer in charge of the internal inquiry into the killing. Tariq Ali is shown to be the “liberal” face of Islam, he is someone who doesn’t follow a hardened line (non-Muslim wife & all), yet offers Namaz five times a day. A Muslim officer heading the investigation makes the officers responsible for the killing uneasy & they quietly start a character assassination campaign against him. Meanwhile Tariq already has hands full on his home front with his rebellious daughter Zara (India Wadsworth), his newly arrived nephew from Pakistan, Zaheer (Mikaal Zulfikar) & being unable to spend time with his wife Susan (Greta Scacchi) & their young football crazy son. To make his problems worse the family of the man killed, decide to file a case against the police in court & Tariq is photographed shaking the hand of a rabid Islamic preacher (who also happens to be a childhood friend he doesn’t see eye to eye with anymore) Junaid (Om Puri) which results in him being taken off the case. To make his situation worse, Susan inform him of her suspicion that Zaheer may be involved in terrorist activities. Tariq goes about trying to set his life right & learning a thing or two about being a Muslim in world that views him with a jaundiced eye based on his religion.

The movie’s biggest problem is the way the story is told which leaves little or no suspense in the way the plot shapes up & nor does it leave any cliché unturned at every opportunity it gets. All the preaching about good & bad Muslims & the holy war & all what “Dummies Guide to Identify a Terrorist” talks about is there.

None of the character plots except for Tariq’s, to a degree are completed. They are set up to be an integral part of the story & then just abandoned, which makes me cringe at the amateur writing on display here. Even character traits are changed at the drop of a hat using the most inane of clichés without exploring any nuances or facets of their personalities. It has to come down to people yelling at each other rather than having a conversation & a one on one encounter at the end which doesn’t need to take occur in the first place much less last as long as it does. The entire movie reeks of lazy writing.

When the movie does however touch upon some serious issues which could have gone in a very interesting direction if handled properly the director simply chooses to ignore the unexplored & hit again & again on the clichéd explored part of the argument. The camera work & editing & locations in parts are more like a made for T.V. movie.

Naseeruddin Shah is excellent as Tariq who sees his handling of the investigation as his ticket to a promotion, but soon finds it to be as something far more than he bargained for. Om Puri is good as the slick & manipulative ‘shepherd of misguided souls’ in order to push forth his call for violence against the “enemies of Islam” as he calls it. Gulshan Grover too for a change underplays his part as a liberal friend of Tariq’s, Yunus. He plays the role with so much conviction that he comes off as the most real character throughout. Brian Cox & Greta Scacchi have small roles but make their presence felt. None of the other actors display much acting chops hence fade away into the background or stand out as the worst of the lot. Watch out for the truly bad acting by Clifford Samuel (he must have been mistaken into thinking this was a zombie movie) as Elijah, which would make you roll with laughter, while in reality his role is supposed to, send a chill down your spine in parts

The movie is very heavily cliché ridden & has a stale plot to go along with it. It does however, have some very good acting & certain unexplored aspects of the story which I’m sure would have made interesting arguments (the difference between a prejudiced person who’s not a racist really & a real racist for example). It’s worth a watch on DVD, but not worth your money in a theatre.


Final Verdict: A Cliché ridden tale with good acting as the only positive.

Grade: C
 

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