Director: Rajkumar Santoshi, 140 mins, 12A, Subtitles

Stars: Ajay Devgan, Vidya Balan

Watch the title song

‘Raise your voice!’ is the translation of the title of this candid critique of corruption in modern India, and I urge all to seek it out.

Sameer Khan (Ajay Devgan) is a true Bollywood superstar: he acts in blockbusters of dubious artistic merit, cheats on his loyal wife Sneha (Vidya Balan), endorses any product for fast rupees and backstabs his co-stars and directors. At a party in a nightclub, Sameer witnesses the mindless gunning down of young woman who had refused the advances of two thuggish rich kids.

At the subsequent police inquiry, no one including Sameer comes forth as witnesses. Eventually, Sameer has a conscience crisis and decides to speak out. His is a lone voice as the establishment turns against him. The murderers are the sons of an influential government minister and liquor baron respectively. Their links with the police and underworld conspire to silence Sameer. Will justice be served?

Director Rajkumar Santoshi revisits familiar territory with this one man against the system vigilante drama. The first half, set in the inner workings of Bollywood, exposes the film industry’s skeletons. Sameer is no Samaritan: he is egoistical, ambitious, materialistic, and enjoys his status as ‘Bollywood’s new angry young man’.

Post-interval, the film shifts gear to a similar expose of the Indian establishment especially the nexus between unscrupulous politicians and corrupts cops. No one is spared: the media’s hypocrisy, shady swamis, fickle fans, religious leaders who stir up communal tensions.

Santoshi’s film is never sententious, lettings incidents speak for themselves. Anyone with knowledge of Indian society will know that all of the events portrayed ring scarily accurate. Indeed, the film is based on a true incident, the senseless gunning down of Jessica Lal, which took place a few years ago in Delhi in similar circumstances. Lal’s killers were acquitted but after a huge public outcry, the case was reopened and the murderers convicted.

Devgan as the stoic Sameer is miscast: he is no ‘King Khan’. The real star is the script which exerts a powerful grip. It asserts that moral redemption is achieved via speaking out and that many Indians are hapless victims of a hierarchical nepotistic society which offers little leeway.

The second half is too long and the tonal consistency is not entirely convincing but this is a welcome slice of gritty Bollywood. Pessimistic, realistic and ultimately uplifting, Halla Bol’s predictable and passionate plea for justice emerges victorious

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