Prahaar Movie Review: Rajkummar Rao as Ujjwal Nikam

There is no shortage of films about the night Mumbai was attacked in November 2008. Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam takes a different route. It leaves the gunfire behind and walks into the courtroom, following the prosecutor who built the case against Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker captured alive.

Directed by Avinash Arun, the film stars Rajkummar Rao as Ujjwal Nikam, the special public prosecutor in the 26/11 trial. Lalit Prabhakar plays Kasab, and Sikandar Kher plays a defence lawyer.

The story

The film opens with Kasab’s capture and follows the investigation that came next. Nikam is appointed to fight the case and decides on a single chargesheet instead of several. Kasab denies killing anyone and offers shifting accounts, and the defence makes the prosecutor’s job harder. Nikam works to prove the case against him while tracing the origins of the attack to Pakistan. The film also touches on the 1993 Bombay bombings.

The attacks killed 166 people. Kasab was convicted and hanged in 2012.

Rao as Nikam

Critics agree that Rao is the film’s anchor. He plays Nikam with a dogged, unflashy sincerity, as a lawyer who treats a very public case as a job to be done well, with the public’s expectations on his shoulders. Reviewers say he lifts the courtroom scenes, which could have been dry, with sharp lines and timing. The film does not glamorise the legal process and shows the sacrifices that go with it.

Prabhakar’s Kasab has drawn strong notice too. Critics describe his performance as restrained and unsettling, and say it works because it doesn’t overplay the menace. The supporting cast also gets room to shine.

Justice, not jingoism

One of the film’s most praised choices is its tone. Instead of turning the tragedy into a flag-waving spectacle or a religious argument, it treats the carnage as a crime against humanity and the trial as a test of the rule of law. In a genre that often leans on chest-thumping, reviewers note that this restraint is what gives it weight.

Where critics disagree

Not everyone is convinced. Some reviewers feel the film revisits a story Indian audiences already know well from earlier films, documentaries and news coverage, and does not go deep enough into the legal arguments that could have set it apart. Others say it comes close to being a very good courtroom drama but falls short of its potential, and that its length of about 140 minutes of a mid-budget film is too long. Even the harshest reviews, however, single out Rao’s performance.

The verdict at a glance

Worth watching for: Rajkummar Rao’s measured performance, a thoughtful treatment of the trial, a controlled turn from Lalit Prabhakar
Mixed points: Familiar ground, limited courtroom depth, a long running time
Best suited for: Viewers who prefer procedural, performance-led drama to action