Review
Appalled at Human Rights abuses in Pakistan, the International Human Rights Commission recruits an aspiring young lawyer, Saamiya Siddiqui, to look into the rights of prisoners, especially those who have been languishing in jails for years without getting a fair trial. One of the cases she is assigned pertains to Prisoner No.786 alias Rajesh Rathore an alleged spy for the Indian army who was caught red-handed spying, and sentenced indefinitely to jail. Saamiya meets with an aged looking individual and finds out that his real name is Veer Pratap Singh. She is told that he has never spoken or said a word for over 22 years, but he responds to her as she calls him by his real name. Veer starts to tell his story to her, and thereafter she realizes that he is not Rajesh Rathore nor a spy - but a Sikh man who loves an Islamic woman, Zaara Haayat Khan; was caught up in a web of deceit and betrayal, made to sign a "confession", and has since been languishing in prison. She has to now prove that Veer has been wrongly jailed, but she faces many obstacles, including the fact that her peers do not approve of a woman doing a "man's job"; and that the country's top prosecutor, Zakir Ahmed, her former employer, is himself taking an interest in this case. Saamiya has her work cut for her, for she has to prove that it is not Rajesh Rathore who is imprisoned, but Veer Pratap Singh. All she can find out is that Veer Pratap Singh was killed in a bus accident 22 years ago. So who exactly is Rajesh Rathore? And why didn't Zaara come out in his defense? |
