Shorgul is reduced to a clichéd melodrama with its bloody clashes between the sword-wielding `Musalmaans’ and `trishul-dhaari’ Hindus.

If you aren’t familiar with what happened in 2013, or were looking for a new perspective on the incident, Shorgul isn’t for you. The movie is a disappointment.

Instead, the dramatisation of events insipidly tries to answer a few questions. Considering the film’s impressive cast and compelling message, I was willing to cast aside many downers that the film’s narrative is saddled with. But couldn’t overcome its preachy didactic and facile dramatisation of quite a few nuanced real-life tales.

Shorgul had the potential to be a great movie but directors Jitendra Tiwari and P Singh seem lazy and incompetent.

Shorgul is so horridly ham-handed that it merits no rating as a film. But for the statement that it strives to make, no matter how feebly and incoherently, it deserves one star. And that is all it’s worth.

Is the film gritty? No. Is it emotional? No. Is the love story worth the bloodshed? No. Is it worth your money? You know the answer. Give this frivolous fare a miss!

While the intentions may have been in the right place, the real voice of “Shorgul” is lost in melodrama and fake blood.

Shorgul is a missed opportunity! The film is white noise with all possible cliches from a political drama clubbed with hard-hitting issues rolled into dramatic dialogues.

Shorgul deserves a watch, more so because of its topicality in this putrid climate of communal hatred and intolerance.

Shorgul tries to tell a tale of merit. But the methods it employs to tell its story are so jaded, you just lose your faith in the film. The movie ends with Sanjay Suri, (portraying a CM’s role that’s a spin-off on Uttar Pradesh head Akhilesh Yadav) taking a dig at democracy. The tone is that the CM was helpless as he could merely sit and watch a tragedy unfold. Oddly, its a sentiment that mirrors the film’s audience’s experience too.

SHORGUL is nothing but a hopeless political drama that gets played on our T.V. Channels just to fill the slot.

Outdated in its approach, and tacky in its handling, ‘Shorgul’ disappoints on more counts than one. Even though the intention might be to bring a gritty true story to life, it shows less guts and more compromise in the final product.

The Muzaffarnagar riots are a blot on contemporary history and the wounds from that blaze are yet to heal. It is almost criminal to use references to this human tragedy to draw audiences into a deafening, unimaginative, ordinary film.

Do you have nothing better to do than watch a story about a small town burning and killing and raping people over religion? Can you be so bored that you could watch cliches in character and dialog? Then this movie might satisfy you and give you the despair you are craving for.

The weak plot and its amateurish maneuverings frequently bring us to a state where badly choreographed scenes of mayhem and rioting are met with nothing more than hollow, long-winded speeches about insaaniyat. It gets to us after a while, because the depth that such a subject warrants here is as thin as a Jimmy Shergill mooch! Also, the song interjections do precious little to keep us engaged.

Considering the subject had tremendous potential if well-handled, “Shorgul” makes noise, which all hear, but no one listens to.

The movie fails to make you develop an emotional connect with the central characters but what keeps it going are the spotless performances by Ashutosh and Jimmy. Besides, the movie gives you a slight peek into the Muzaffarnagar riots and how fanatics like these still exist in our country. It also shows how politics and religion are two major forces in India, which when mixed and used wrongly can result in major chaos and unrest. Watch this if such movies are your cup of tea.

I will make my verdict about this film short – Avoidable, unless you are the ones who enjoy bad schlocky films!

Veteran Ashutosh Rana is mostly contained and Jimmy Shergill is controlled in his insults. But Turkish debutant Suha Gezen is a bit too loud by average sonic standards of someone grieving multiple setbacks. A highoctane dialogue in the film reinstates the supposed moral of the film, “Dangon mein Hindu ya Mulasmaan nahin marta, insaniyat marta hain.” While this is true, watching this film till the very end can be terminal for audiences of all religions too.

Shorgul ’s release was postponed because of political pressure. To its credit, the film bluntly takes on real-life references with slightly modified names. Shergill’s Ranjit Om is of the Bharatiya Janatantra Party (modelled on Sangeet Som of BJP) whose speeches evoke history to fuel hatred toward Muslims.

Overall, Shorgul makes for a decent watch. It scores heavily on the acting front and performances alone make it watchable. Kudos to the movie’s ensemble cast! Lalit Pandit’s music adds soul to the film. Shorgul’s strong socio-political commentary succeeds in depicting the dirty side of vote bank politics and in raising pertinent questions about the lack of tolerance that engenders communal hatred. More importantly, it tries to teach us the true meaning of humanity.

Shorgul deserves a watch only for the performance of the actors. The plot of the film could have been better and convincing.

Shorgul has no scope to explore the unending rise of communal feelings among ordinary people, and the confused plotting and never-ending turn of events further muddle an already mixed message.

You can conveniently skip this one and leave for a long drive this weekend.

While the murkiness of politics and spectatorial role of the Security Forces is not something new, the strong character of Chaudhary saab accomplished by Ashutosh Rana in his new avatar, is reason enough why Shorgul should not be missed.