Director Hansal Mehta and actor Rajkummar Rao’s fourth outing together is an intense thriller based on the life of a terrorist Omar Sheikh. By Upasana Singh
1994: Kidnapped four foreign tourists in Delhi.
1999: Freed from prison in exchange for the hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814.
2002: Kidnapped and murdered of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.
The life of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh reads like the perfect bio of a terrorist. And it is this life that director Hansal Mehta and actor Rajkummar Rao bring to the screen in their latest movie, Omerta.
Omertà (meaning ‘code of silence’) talks about the highly sensitive issue of terrorism. Mehta believes that, “It is an uncomfortable movie which will raise uncomfortable questions and answers that we have to compel our establishment to find.”
The storyline was established in the imagination of the director long back — in 2005 to be precise and it has now been given an eventual shape.
Discussing the silence that the film is trying to break, Mehta said, “There is a lot to discover in the film but majorly it’s trying to make the audience realise that somewhere we are living a lie. A state like Pakistan is harbouring a young man — which is a brutal truth and must be known and spoken about openly. What is interesting is that Rao is not a hero this time but an unapologetic, unsympathetic and unrelentingly violent human”
Sheikh, the protagonist personifies the image of a well-read student from a privileged family who eventually turns out to be evil. The film does not talk much about the backstory of the studious child who dropped out of the london School of Economics and became a terrorist later. But it narrates the horrifying incidents the world had to bear afterwards.
The film will hit screens on April 20 and touches upon the incidents in the life of Sheikh. “This is the toughest character that I have played till date. So much so that my soul changed while living the character. I wasn’t aware of the intensity of its nature until I researched and read about the horrifying videos of terroristic attacks. And then, to be well aware of that dark world, I just turned myself into a different ‘Me’ which is angry with the society and the whole world”, said Rao addressing the efforts he made to imbibe the negativity and psyche of the character.
Further discussing the challenges of playing a sensitive character for the first time that is not heroic, he shared, “looking from character’s perspective, he’s (Sheikh) doing what he believed in. But to a large group of ‘us’, this is purely wrong. Similarly, for me, it was not a black or grey thing but about adapting the inhumanness of Sheikh’s character. I never felt so involved into a character which took a toll on my mental health. My thought process started to change which bothered me a lot through that period of time”.
Asked if he could identify with the character, he promptly replied, “Not at all. I think it’s not even remotely close to me. There can’t be any similarities between Sheikh and me or even most of us. But as an actor, it was my duty to enact the character with full sincerity and honesty and I did that adequately”
In a scenario where artists are easily threatened for their creativity, Mehta said optimistically, “As an artiste one has to be fearless otherwise you will not be able to express yourself. I haven’t made the film to provoke or incite protest. The only idea was to propel our matured democracy to start a conversation and a healthy debate about such incidents”. However, when asked about the reaction he expected from the censor board for bringing the disturbing incidents back to the discussion, he said, “For me, the question about the censor board is never controversial as I consider it as an integral part of my profession. But apparently, this film has to be seen in a certain context because it reveals the truth in an unhindered way”.
From its trailer and a well-recognised image of a Muslim saying his prayers in the poster, it is not difficult to understand which community the film is targetting. However, when asked about being ever caught up in anticipation of threat from the public or a particular society, he said, “No. For me, the film was always a companion piece to Shahid.”
Not many know, the character — Shahid from Mehta’s eponymously named 2013 release has a reference to Sheikh. A scene where Shahid Azmi aka Rao has a conversation with Sheikh (played by Prabal Panjabi).
“There is a scene in the film where both of them are in Tihar jail and are sharing a cordial relation. But the irony is Shahid was assassinated in 2010 and Sheikh became the person who was much favoured by Pakistan.”
Sheikh was one of the terrorists who went on to plan the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001 and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008 too.
And he was important enough for the hijackers of Indian Airlines flight 814 in 1999 to demand his release as a pre-condition for letting the passengers go.
The director decided to reveal these interesting though dark incidents from Sheikh’s life through this film, “Significantly, I wanted to focus the attention towards organisations like ISIS which itself is complicit in creating individuals like Sheikh. Today, such cases are the cause of tension on and across the border but no one talks about it. Our neighbouring countries are spoiling the world by harbouring these terrorists and encouraging them to do such actions.”
Shedding light on the issue of major concern depicted in the film where the educated Sheikh came in contact with a priest and from there was recruited as a part of the ISIS network.
“This is the most upsetting scenario which is prevailing in the country. Such individuals, even in western counties like United Kingdom establish contacts with youngsters, carry out an anti-state propaganda and recruit them for terror networks,” said Mehta.
From films like Shahid, Citylights, Aligarh and to Omerta, the director seems quite impressed with the actor’s creativity. When asked what propelled him to sign Rao for his long-researched project, Mehta shared, “In a film like this the trust factor between a director and an actor matters a lot. I feel fortunate enough to have that professional bond with Rajkumar Rao.”