Shoot on Sight rating and review

Shoot on Sight (2008) movie photos :















Shoot on Sight (2008) Movie Rating and Review :

Rating :

Acting – 7/10
Direction – 6/10
Screenplay – 7/10
Music – 5/10
Technique – 5/10

Review :

Both sides of the story

Though it slips into predictability at the end, Shoot on Sight manages to keep you glued to your seat for the most part. Set in London after the July 7, 2005 bombings, the film begins with a young Muslim being gunned down at the mere suspicion of being a suicide bomber. He doesn’t stop when officers tell him to, but the truth, as we learn later, is that he did not hear the officer’s command as he had been plugged into his MP3 player. That is the starting point of a riveting exploration of the complexities of the case.

When the London police draw flak for alleged racial profiling, resulting in the killing of an innocent, the authorities come up with a masterstroke of spin: they bring in a Muslim commander of police, Naseeruddin Shah, to plug all the holes the media has been poking in their story. Shah is a policeman of some credibility and he is also brought in to investigate the shoot-on-sight incident. Naturally, he soon acquires enemies within the department.

The officer’s London life runs parallel to the main story of the film. Married to a British woman played by Greta Scacchi, he has a grown-up daughter who needs to be dealt with strictly (she gets rounded up from a rave party) and a Beckham wannabe for a son. He even has a nephew coming to Britain from Pakistan to study and stay with him. How this young man, the very impressive Mikaal Zulfiker, crosses the “thin line between a freedom fighter and a terrorist” makes this personal story, and the film as a whole, a gripping two-hour watch.

What’s best about Jagmohan Mundhra’s Shoot on Sight is that it sticks to a very neutral standpoint. Both sides in this crisis are shown walking a tightrope, with life and death decisions often taken in the blink of an eye. And acceptance is the keyword for survival.

The performances are top notch, the script is gripping and the director moves his camera and focus all over the place to give a rounded view of the situation. Again, no sides taken. Definitely worth a watch, but we would recommend the English version, not the Hindi one.

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