The trailer for Hansal Mehta’s film ‘Shahid’, which had been long-gestating, has finally dropped, and rest assured, it is a hard-hitting trailer.

Bringing on screen the life of human rights activist Shahid Azmi, ‘Shahid’ is set during the communal riots in Mumbai, 1993. It traces Shahid’s life from the time he was a teenager training to be a terrorist, served time in jail and became a lawyer and a human rights activist.

The trailer starts off with a monologue by Shahid Azmi’s character played by actor Raj Kumar Yadav (‘Kai Po Che’, ‘Talaash’) accompanied by scenes of him lying naked and cold in a dark room, presumably a prison cell. From there on the trailer moves to full-tempo, moving head-on into the gist of his story.

As noted in the trailer, the movie looks like it will start from Shahid Azmi’s life as a defence lawyer who fought for those falsely implicated of terrorism charges. His early life, training to be a terrorist, will appear only in flashbacks. This revelation, for someone not familiar with the activist’s life, will only draw the audience in.

The trailer also shows how Shahid Azmi’s personal life gets affected due to his determination to be a human rights activist getting threat calls from unknown people. But he stands by his conviction and goes on.

Shot in real environments instead of sets, the trailer does tend to get a little longer than required. But a little extra of a good thing is not always bad. Even Aamir Khan has endorsed it on his Facebook page!

‘Shahid’ was produced by Anurag Kashyap and Bohra Brothers, and is being released by UTV Spotboy.

Also starring Tigmanshu Dhulia (‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’), Kay Kay Menon (‘Black Friday’) and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub (‘Raanjhanaa’), ‘Shahid’ will release on 18 October, 2013.