Movie poster of "Shoot on Sight"

It is difficult to believe today that Jag Mundhra makes cerebral cinema. The man who once made eminently forgettable features such as "Vishkanya" (Venomous Virgin), "Tropical Heat" and "Monsoon," did not start with such a repertoire, though. His 1984 "Kamla" was a deeply disturbing commentary on slave trade and the then fledgling concept of investigative journalism. Years later, he once again raised his voice against society's beastly treatment of women in the 2000 "Bawandar" (Sandstorm) and the 2006 "Provoked." When his admires concluded that Mundhra was singularly focussed on the fair sex and their dilemma, he emerged with his latest work, "Shoot on Sight," a riveting look at the crisis Islam faces today.

The first movie to tackle the July 2005 London bombings, it highlights the fear and sheer prejudice that followed these tragic events. Mundhra tells me over the telephone from his Mumbai flat that his bearded look made him a "suspect" in London. "Cabbies would not stop by, let alone take me," he rues. "Apart from my appearance, the fact that I happened to live in an area dominated by Muslims went against me." There is a line in the film that affirms such bigotry: a white policeman says that "all Muslims may not be terrorists, but do not forget that all terrorists are Muslims."

Profoundly affected by such bias, Mundhra thought of a story and convinced Arun Govil, an Indian living in New York, to fund it and Carl Austin to script it. "Shoot on Sight" re-enacts the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent, young Brazilian, in London. However, Mundhra's movie replaces him with a Muslim, painting the grim horror of this pointless police action through the life of a senior Scotland Yard officer, Tariq Ali (inspired by the real life cop, Tariq Ghaffur).

Ali (played by Naseeruddin Shah) — who lives in London with his British Christian wife, Susan (Greta Scacchi), a rebellious daughter, Zara (India Wadsworth), and a soccer addict son, Imran (Arrun Harker) — walks right into a whirlpool of hatred and jealousy when he is asked to probe the killing in an underground tube station. Ali's white colleagues are uneasy over his increasing power and prominence, and nail him down with a picture of him shaking hands with a venom-spewing Imam, Junaid (Om Puri). The photograph picked by Britain's scandal hungry tabloids damages Ali's reputation, and he finds his problems multiplying with the arrival from Pakistan of his nephew, Zaheer (Mikaal Zulfiqar).

Excellent performances apart, the film takes a hard look at all those who assume that Islam is synonymous with terror. "All my life I have known Muslims, who have been very close to me and who have been extremely moderate. They are artistic and talented. The majority of them are well integrated. They may be devout and loyal to their faith, but they are tolerant and respectful of other points of view,"Mundhra argues his case.