'Mai Hoon Shiv'

These days channels are showing the promos of a movie called Sehar - a real life story based on a young, eastern UP based mafia-don Shiv Prakash Shukla, and a SSP Arun Kumar. The movie is set in mid & late nineties, when this don was alive and active.

Since I was in college at that time, I, like all other UPites closely followed his case, and I must tell you that this piece of truth is stranger than the queerest of the fiction. It was so intriguing that this person had almost become an enigma. His dare-devilry was without par, almost bordering on supreme-recklessness and overconfidence.

He came to limelight( at least mine), when he tried to expand his base to Lucknow. Earlier, in police files, his name was registered as Shri Prakash Shukla. His first act of rash boldness was when he made a call to Lucknow IG, and told that his real name is 'Shiv' Prakash Shukla. 'Mai Hoon Shiv' was the exact phrase used.

Well, that was something which was quite unheard of. It was shocking to call such a senior cop, and this created ripples. But this was just the beginning. He would inform police of his deeds(mostly extortion) before hand, and would do right below their eyes, and yet they couldn't track him.

When the embarrassment turned into the topic of public discussion, the legendry STF(Special Task Force) was created by then chief minister Kalyan Singh. They were highly skilled police professionals, and were trained in electronic surveillance system. But when they started tracking Shukla's calls, to their shock, it was found they were coming from Nepal. This was not possible because the voice was Shukla's, and businessmen use to vouch for having seen him.

Modus Operandi was simple .Shukla used to make a call to a Nepal PCO. From there a connection would be established to the receiving person. He would also change his SIM frequently. That made it double impossible to track him.

But his only two, but key mistakes brought his downfall, and death. The chase by STF had become too hot to handle for him. STF had numbers and tremendous power. Miffed by Kalyan Singh for shooing STF hot on his trail, he accepted the Supari (from whom, still not clear) to finish the CM himself, and like always, he announced it as well!

That was stretching his luck a bit too far. You don't mess up with your mai-baps. They are the bigger goondas. The order from Kalyan Singh was to finish this man ASAP. The other factor which trapped him was his love for girl friend(He probably didn't see the movie DON!). His repeated calls to her got him tracked. Police took out the transcripts, and soon learned that he was about to meet her near Delhi.

One fine day, he was encountered by the STF officials, and his era came to an end.

Arshad Warsi is playing the chief STF official, and Sushant Singh is playing the don himself. I am not too kicked about the casting, especially Sushant. The youthfulness is there, but not the menace. The lingo problem wouldn't be there as Singh belongs to the same region.

Arshad too gives a miss to comedy. His role is a serious one, not that of typical smart ass Bollywood cop. He won't crack jokes for you here. I am not sure whether he would pull off. Rather, I should say whether audiences would absorb that.

The director Kabeer Kaushik is also a debutant. He researched the subject for 2.5 years. That's a good sign for the script. But I just hope that he has added some finer elements of the commercial cinema to not to make it too hard hitting for the audiences. At the end of the story, we should be walking out entertained rather than heavy headed.

While not expecting too much, my best wishes for the movie!