Shool
Tags: good versus evil, murder, tragedy

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a late night telephone call from Patna asking to speak to Bachchu Yadav (Sayaji Shinde), an MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) of the ruling political party in Bihar. Bachchu Yadav' lackeys trace their boss to a prostitute's abode, where he receives the telephone and is informed that his party has selected another MLA for the ticket this time. Yadav wastes no time, reaches the newly selected MLA candidate's home and pressurises him to give up his nomination in lieu of money. When intimidation fails, Yadav's thugs stabbed the MLA-candidate under Yadav's supervision. When his deadliest cohort, Sudhir Vinod, stabs him in right-side of the chest, Yadav rebukes him for this "mistake" and stabs the half-dead man himself on the left, jokingly reminding him that heart is on the left side, by enacting Madhuri Dixit's famous Bollywood song, "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga".
Meanwhile, Inspector Samar Pratap Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) arrives at Motihari, where he has been transferred as an inspector, with his wife (Raveena Tandon) and daughter. At the railway station he gets into a confrontation with a coolie (Rajpal Yadav). The two have a tiff on the payment of Rs. 30/- to be paid to the coolie for his services, which Singh refuses to pay, as he (rightfully) thinks he is being overcharged. As the situation goes to the verge of fisticuffs, a local police hawaldaar intervenes. Not knowing that Singh, too, is a police officer, the hawaldaar tries to manhandle Singh. Infuriated, Singh takes the matter to the police station to which he is posted. As Singh writes a complaint against the hawaldaar for harassing an innocent local (Singh), a sub-inspector, Hussain, intervenes. Hussain asks Singh to forgive the hawaldaar, to which Singh does not relent. Singh later learns that the Motihari police station runs according to the whims of a local politician and criminal, Bachhu Yadav, and his henchmen. Singh is an idealist who respects the constitution and the law, and expects that everyone else should do the same. But no one follows the law in Motihari, especially the policemen who receive hafta (illicit weekly payments) from Yadav to do his bidding.
One day, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Shrivallabh Vyas) asks Singh to break up a fight between two rival gangs and arrest the people who attacked some of Yadav's men. Singh investigates and finds out that Yadav's men are the real culprits. Among them are Sudhir Vinod (Nagesh Bhosle) and Lallan Singh (Yashpal Sharma), so Singh arrests them instead. When the D.S.P. orders Singh to release them, he refuses to do so, saying that he has already registered the case against the thugs. This is the first time Singh's superior learns of his real character and express concern over his future. Sub-inspector Hussain, who shamelessly admits to subjection to Yadav, declares that Singh won't last long in his current job if he continues in his ways. Singh sadly learns the limit of his official prowess, when the court releases Yadav's men (the men who were beaten up refuse to testify, understandably out of fear of Yadav's wrath).
Meanwhile Yadav is giving a fine demonstration of his rustically unsophisticated learning by arguing in the Bihar Legislative Assembly against the building of a certain dam over the river Ganges on the grounds that "stealing" electricity from water will result in loss to farmers. He further gives proof of lack of basic education and awareness by misquoting the famous political slogan "jai jawan, jai kisan".
Things begin worsening and Singh soon finds himself alone in his fight against a corrupt and rotten system. One day, while buying vegetables in the local market, he sees three young men sitting on a wall teasing passing girls by singing lewd Bhojpuri songs; when he confronts them they react defiantly to Singh (who is in plainclothes). However, on learning that he is the S.H.O., the two become defensive and tell him meekly that they are students of M.S. College, but the third declares proudly that he is younger brother of an influential politician Pranav Thakur (not Yadav), hoping that Singh will be impressed, but Singh retorts with a slap and forces him to apologise to the girls.
On his way home, Yadav decides to give an interview to a female journalist who boldly asks him if he is a murderer. Yadav, understandably, gets annoyed and tries to confuse and intimidate her, and upon failing to do so, simply asks her to get out of his car.
Yadav gets irritated by Singh's methods, particularity because he arrested his men. He decides to annoy him and organises his own marriage anniversary and arranges a folk dance by hiring a beautiful nautch girl (Shilpa Shetty) late into night. Singh reaches the scene and asks to see the permission papers that are required in India for operating loudspeakers late into the night. When no such official papers are produced, Singh seizes the music system and disrupts the party. Yadav confronts him and asks to be forgiven (in a patronising and satiric manner). The inebriated D.S.P. who is also present at the party tries to cool Singh's tempers by telling him such rules are inconsequential in small villages. Singh refuses to yield, which angers the D.S.P. who gives Singh a direct order to let the matter go. Singh stands firm, and states that he will let the situation go only if is given written orders. The following morning, the act of defiance by Singh causes a heated debate between Singh and the D.S.P., who, with the help of the corrupt sub-inspector Hussain, falsely frames Singh for a physical attack on his senior (D.S.P.). Tiwari (Vineet Kumar) tries to help Singh but in vain. Singh gets suspended from his post.
Yadav and his men decide to land the final blow on Singh and finish him once and for all. One day, when Singh takes his daughter to a sweet-shop, Yadav's goons begin passing disgustingly indecent comments towards Singh's daughter, which causes Singh to lose his temper, who single-handedly beats them. One of the henchman attacks Singh with a heavy wooden club, but instead bludgeons Singh's daughter on her head, killing her.
When the badly injured Laljee goes to Yadav and tell him that Singh has beaten them badly, Yadav, who cares next to nothing even about his most loyal men, finds it a golden opportunity to accuse Singh. He immediately takes a shotgun from the wall and hits Laljee on the head forcefully enough to kill him, and then orders his henchmen to register a complaint that Laljee actually died because of the beating by Singh. The police waste no time and arrest Singh while he is still grieving over his daughter's dead body. Singh's parents come to help him, and his father (Virendra Saxena) pleads with Yadav to get him released. Yadav uses this situation to his advantage and gets Singh released by asking none of his henchmen to testify. When Singh realises that Yadav was behind his release, he insults Yadav.
A few days later, Singh's parents leave, and he has a big fight with his wife over their situation and her accusation that his idealism is to blame for the quagmire they find themselves in and for the death of their daughter. Singh leaves in anger, and his wife tries to commit suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Singh's only true friend in town, the honest sub-inspector Tiwari, informs Singh about his wife's suicide attempt and both rush to the hospital. Singh manages to speak a few sentences of comfort with her, where she absolves him of his guilt and asks him to avenge her and their daughter, before she dies.
Singh, having lost the woman he loved; feels he has lost everything and has nothing to live for anymore. He goes home, readies himself and wears his police uniform, visits the police station and snatches his service weapon in spite of sub-inspector Hussain's warning. Singh kills Hussain, then makes way to Patna where the state legislature is in session, enters the well of the house, defying heavy security. Singh finds Yadav and drags him by his collar to the Speaker's dais. After an emotional appeal to members of parliament on the leadership crisis and criminalisation of politics that is rotting and consuming the entire system in India, he shoots Yadav in the head, declares his patriotism and yells "Jai Hind" twice.

Review: strong performance by manoj bajpai.
Shool is an excellent crime drama about corruption and murky politics in India.
This plot isn't anything new, but what makes the movie work is the mind-blowing performance of Manoj Bajpai as an honest cop trying to do his job in a corrupt environment.
With his work in this film, Bajpai has proven himself as a great character actor, at par with another cinema great, Shah Rukh Khan.
Both these actors have proven that you don't need good looks to make good movies.Aside from Bajpai, Shool is filled with wonderful performances, such as the de-glamorized Raveena Tandon's heart-breaking portrayal the police officer's wife, and Sayaji Shinde's genuinely scary villain!A mature film intended for a mature audience, Shool is a film that shouldn't be missed by anyone looking for quality in the otherwise lackluster world of Indian cinema!.
Good eye-opening movie depicting the ground reality of Bihar.
Motihari is a one-train town in the badlands of Bihar.
As a sanctuary of evil it resembles a piece of pre-riots Bombay, without the smells and the early closing.
As though in recognition that the underworld everywhere is essentially the same, debutant director E Nivas -- who began his career as spot boy under Ramgopal Varma and graduated to become his chief understudy -- has shot Shool in dank, washed-out colours, so that the red is drained to maroon and the blue to navy.Hi Any influence, unconscious or otherwise, that Satya may have had on Shool and Varma on Nivas, however, ends there.
Although cast in the typical Bollywood potboiler formula, its portrayal of the political milieu in the Hindi heartland is as authentic as it is rivetting.
Shool offers enough on this score to be a tempting alternative to curling up with the latest of William Darlymple's prize-winning despatches, if not a sojourn itself to Bihar's back of beyond.
Bacchu Yadav (Sayaji Shinde) is the MLA of Motihari for 15 years running but, more pertinently, is the lord of all he surveys in the district.
The film itself begins with a midnight call informing Yadav that the ''high command'' has decided to give the ticket this time to his local political rival, a Thakur.
The caller, before hanging up after confidentially confiding this information, darkly hints that the announcement will be made public only in the morning and that Yadav could do a lot by then.
It's a simple expedient: he himself leads his goons to Thakur's home, wakes him up and makes some small talk before stabbing him through the heart.The next shot cuts to a sylvan sunrise and a train steaming into a station.
A young man, lugging two ancient trunks, and with wife and kid in tow, steps out into the dappled light and...
well, a few sequences later, to a cutting knowledge of what life as an idealist police inspector means in Bihar.
Manoj Bajpai, as inspector Samar Pratap Singh, has risen to the expectation, pulling off a robust and salty performance.
At times he tends to go overboard, as with the scene where he pleads with the mute crowd for a glass of water for his dying child, and the result is smirky and jejune.
Otherwise, whether as a character out of his kilter or as a villain in a script he can't remember writing, Bajpai's acting is controlled and commendable, and he has an advantage here for so much of his personality resides in his eyes.The scene-stealing performance, however, has come from Sayaji Shinde.
Incidentally, Bacchu Yadav is the darker confiere of Bhiku Mhatre in Satya, played ironically enough by Bajpai.
Yadav is a vain priss who reigns through terror and wouldn't be remotely liked by his dependants even if he were to declare a general amnesty and donate a mangalsutra to every family with an unmarried daughter.
As though that weren't enough, he is truly reptilian in temperament: his eyes narrow in mock scrutiny of an unfortunate henchman, even as his smile has a pixie twist to it, making his next step unfathomable.
It's a memorable performance of a feudal politician, dumb and dictatorial, his virility and maschismo shading into bullying, his sheer physicality flatulent and dangerous.But Inspector Singh, the cop on the tear, is scarcely deterred by all this.
Each transgression by Yadav and each new incident revealing the obsequiousness of his superiors, rather than making our hero lose scales from his eyes, makes him more amped up.
His wife's -- played by Raveena Tandon who has done a subdued and convincing no-frills job --- remonstrations, as that of a trusted colleague, the only one, fall on deaf ears.From now on, formula takes over.
The climax is not predictable only in the excess of melodrama it contains.
And you have music accompanying the whole scene which sounds like something the music director-trio --- Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy --- dreamed up after a Mexican meal.
Understandably, the whole thing turns the movie into mush.
Trying for an infernal starkness, Nivas has achieved an infernal tackiness.
In the earlier parts of the movie the camera whirls and swoons among bursts of fauvist light and that combined with the authenticity of the various characters' nuances.
Their dialogue had managed to convey something feral and ominous.
In the end one can only say that Shool is for the most part a slovenly film and its politics fuzzy, but there is a vitality to the fuzziness.
Not something every Hindi movie can claim.
And lastly, congrates to the director and the actors team for working in such not-so-commercial serious movies..
The Limit Of Tolerance.
Debutant director E Nivas bravely tells the story of a courageous police officer and his fight against the system for justice.
Though the man-against-the-system story has been overused in Indian cinema, 'Shool' has a grittiness and honesty that makes that sets the tone apart.
The movie doesn't merely show the battle but it delves into the psychology of the protagonist and his inner conflicts.
The viewer can really connect to Samar Pratap Singh and his wife Manjiri.Shot in washed out green-tinted colours and the use of the shaky camera and with the lack of overdone sets, 'Shool' looks very raw and authentic.
The violence, though suggestive, implies very brutal and graphic mental images.
The film starts with a telephone-call which is followed by a brutal murder and this already tells us what kind of a person Yadav (the antagonist played by Sayaji Shinde) is.The performances are superb.
Manoj Bajpai nails the part.
The character seems to have been written for him and a lesser actor could have easily made a caricature out of this, but not Bajpai.
He's simply excellent in displaying even the toughest expressions and this ranks among his best works.
Sayaji Shinde is great.
Even though his mannerisms are the same as other characters he's played, they perfectly suit Yadav's personality.
Raveena Tandon takes the role of Manjiri after Juhi Chawla who had to walk out due to an accident which caused her to be hospitalized.
'Shool' couldn't have come at a better time for Ms. Tandon.
After all the glamorous roles and comedies, the actress was looking for something different and in 'Shool' we see a deglamourized Raveena Tandon.
Here she gives a very subtle, convincing and heartbreaking performance as Manjiri.
The child actor is expressionless.On the flip side, 'Shool' is quite predictable but one can't think of an alternative ending that would have made it better.
Nonetheless, even though we know what will happen, the last scene is very effective, mostly due to Manoj Bajpai's performance and dialogue delivery.
Anurag Kashyap's dialogues and E.Nivas's screenplay are good.
Some scenes would have stood out more without the background score (which isn't that impressive).
The songs are passable (and fit the situations) and of course there's the famous item number 'Main Aayi Hoon UP Bihar Lootney' filmed on a raunchy Shilpa Shetty.
This is perhaps one of the few films where an item number actually works as it both fits the situation and tells more about the character of the actors (e.g. Sayaji acting all wild around Shilpa).On the whole, 'Shool' is a great piece of Indian cinema.
Although the story isn't new, it's presentation is and unlike others this one digs into both the protagonist's and antagonist's psychology..
One of the 2 best Hindi movies I have seen (other being RDB).
It is too real to be a movie.
If you have been to that part of India, eastern UP and Bihar, you will feel as if the things happening to Samar Pratap Singh or others have, or may have, happened to you / your family / your friends.
Particularly for me it seemed more near to my heart as My Dad, though he is not a police officer like Samar Pratap Singh, is idealistic like him, and faces problems like he faces.
After watching this movie, the desire to become an IAS officer and start cleaning up the system becomes very high, it took some days to put it back under control.E Niwas, a 23 yr old boy, probably in his directorial debut has given a marvellous movie.It is story of an honest police officer, in fact an honest man who happens to be a police officer.
His only fault is that he is honest, honest as per the real definition of being honest.
Here it should be noted that in India in general and in those parts of India in particular, the definition of honesty is changed.
In those parts, If a person demands his share from the bribe that his colleague has taken, he is normal, if he does not demand, he is honest.
And if he does neither of these, he tries to stop his colleague from taking bribe, he is .....
there is no adjective to describe a person, probably people never felt the need, exactly as Eskimos did not feel the need to have a word for cactus.The only unrealistic part in the movie is its end, where Samar, after having lost his wife and kid, goes on to kill Bachchoo Yadav the villain, a rowdy who becomes politician.
But however unrealistic it be, it should have been that only.
After all it is this unrealistic stuff that differentiates between a movie and a documentary.
And Shool is a movie, not a documentary.Let us all hope for the day, when after watching Shool, instead of the end, one will feel the other things were unrealistic.http://shadkamislam.blogspot.com/.
watch this piece of Gem. excellent story, close to daily life of Indian corrupt system, and a honest police officer against it, pushing the law and order over corrupt politicians and system.
Strong script, gripping story, very tense, Manoj at his best performance, reading out the true close to reality story with his best acting.
After shool many director try to copy the same story with a bit of change in script but nothing close to this true gem.
give it a go, you wont be disappointed.
i don't usually watch Indian movies because of the length of story, but this one i watched many times, and every time i watch i enjoy it more.
Manoj is the best actor and at his best in Shool, Once true and honest police officer against the corrupt system from streets to Parliament, if you are into gangsters movie against law, this is your thing.
don't be distracted by some user reviews, its not a popcorn flick with some un necessarily sex scene and funny fight which could be torture for some people like me..
An unexpectedly bad movie from RGV.
When we see a Ram Gopal Verma movie, we expect a certain quality.
This defies all of the expectation built over the years.
The performance of Manoj Bajpai is good.
But the character development is very weak and story telling is pathetic.
To begin with to portray a police officer who is sincere and short-tempered is not new.
Add to that, the police officer is a DSP and lacks all possible traces of intelligence.
No script can possibly support such a bad story.
None of the scenes look natural, especially the one where Manoj Bajpai loses his daughter after he is provoked into a skirmish by the goondas.
Raveena has given a decent performance, but her role has not much to do with the story itself.
In the final scene Manoj Bajpai (who has been suspended from Police) walks into the police station in his khaki dress, shoots the corrupt officer, takes his pistol and heads off to the Legislative Assembly and breezes through all security and gets close to his villain.
And what does he do?He stands near the entrance and aims a shot at the villain, over and above the clamorous assembly members, when he could have walked 100 more meters and stood face to face and taken a shot.
He misses as usual and commotion ensues.
All the police are there with their pistols and MB has the villain under pistol and what does he do?
Give a 20 minute lecture, during which he raises his pistol hand to be expressive.
And what do police do?
Listen to the lecture till finally MB shoots the villain and says Jai Hind.I say do not watch this movie.
Very bad script, very bad story telling.
Then what use having a good performance?.
Great Movie, Nice dance by Shilpa Shetty.
Should be seen.
One of the few movies which touch of reality a bit in Bollywood.
The norm in Bollywood being that reality goes out of the window the moment somebody starts writing a script.
There are numerous examples of the rule.
But revenue seems to be more important than good film making.
That argument aside, Like I said this happens to be a better made movies.
Powerful performances by Bajpai and Sayaji Shinde.
The film has some funny moments balanced well into the whole script.
I simply loved that "why the sun rises from the east" question and its answer.
Good flowing speed and it doesn't bore you.
Watch it.
one of the highlight performances by Manoj Bajpai.
A superb film.
In 1990s RGV slowly post RANGEELA became a director to reckon with, he also produced several great films, SHOOL was one of them.
The film brings together the talents of Anurag Kashyap and E-Niwas together The film narrates a story of an honest cop told hundred times but treated with difference, here the cop doesn't dance on the road but is a human character.
The film is set in Bihar and looks realistic,and the film sticks to the main story,hardly shifting the focus.
The film starts off well and has several scenes well told, though many things have been witnessed before, but the manner in which it's treated is superb.
The film does get a bit filmy in the climax and may not seem convincing, but Manoj's speech is superb(A similar flaw was in E-Niwas's Bardaasht too)Direction is amazing, E-Niwas did a few more films like LKLKBK, Dumb and Bardaasht and later De Taali and hardly his films worked but got acclaim Music is decent, UP BIhar Lootne became famous and made Shilpa famous tooManoj Bajpai who became famous after SATYA did a great job yet again in Shool, no other actor could play his part better, he is simply brilliant Raveena Tandon who was busy doing films with Govinda took a break and did a good role after GHULAM E MUSTAFA where too she had an interesting cameo, she is superb Vineeth Kumar is amazing as Tiwari, Ganesh Yadav is superb, Yashpal Sharma is as usual(one of his first roles),Nagesh Bhosle too is good, Sayaji Shinde is simply marvellous in his role, sadly he got typecast after this, but he was so realistic that he makes you believe his real life persona is like that.
Virendra Saxena is good,Pratima Kazmi, Valabh Vyas are as usual The film has interesting cameos by Nawzuddin Siddiqui(playing a waiter not knowing English) who is just for one scene, Rajpal Yadav too plays a coolie,both in their struggling days.