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The brief uncomfortable honesty of ‘Prahaar’

In an age when mob violence has become routine, and rage and retribution have become increasingly seductive answers to injustice, ‘Prahaar’ reaffirms its faith in democracy

Consider the question at the heart of Prahaar, one that seared itself into the national conscience in the aftermath of 26/11: Why must a man who had unleashed an unprovoked attack on innocents be afforded a trial at all?

4 min read Oct 30, 2026 07:10 PM IST First published on: Oct 30, 2026 at 07:10 PM IST

Towards the latter half of Avinash Arun’s Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam , Abbas Kazmi (Sikandar Kher), the Muslim lawyer defending Ajmal Kasab (Lalit Prabhakar), the lone surviving gunman of the 26/11 attacks, looks Ujjwal Nikam (Rajkummar Rao) in the eye and confronts him with the Islamophobia that underpins Nikam’s worldview and finds expression in the society around him.…