Sehar was Arshad Warsi’s ‘Jawan’ moment but Bollywood reduced him to Munna Bhai’s Circuit | Bollywood News

There’s a bug in our minds whenever we sit down to watch an old film – it might be slow, it might be overdramatic, or there might be too many songs. And if it’s a cop film, the obvious assumption is: that there’ll be endless slo-mo action scenes, close-up shots of the hero’s chiselled chest, some cars dramatically flying around, and an exaggerated demonic villain with a hunger to kill.Wait – did I just describe a ’90s film or one from Rohit Shetty’s cop universe? Honestly, it doesn’t matter. It’s all the same.
Amid this slew of similar, loud, over-the-top cop films, a few have quietly stood out and managed to withstand the test of time. One of them is Arshad Warsi’s Sehar. The actor, best known for playing ‘Circuit’ in the Munna Bhai films, delivered the best performance of his career early on with this 2005 film.
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Watching Sehar in 2025 feels like stumbling upon a needle in a haystack. The film is a rarity when compared to recent cop and spy dramas – because here the focus isn’t on turning the hero into a messiah through an excuse of a storyline. Instead, the makers choose to tell the story through a resilient, sincere cop, who doesn’t demand whles from his audience but silence – to observe his story, and to an extent the story of his nation, with empathy as well as discomfort.
Imagine Jawan but without the over-the-top, VFX-heavy action sequences and slower-than-a-snail slo-mo shots. Like the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, Arshad Warsi’s film too follows a familiar arc — a son of a wrongly court-martialed father, whose tainted legacy drives him to become a more committed, disciplined, and flawless cop, determined to erase the stain of ‘traitor’ from his father’s name. But it’s the simplicity of Sehar’s narrative that makes it far more relatable and impactful.
Unlike other quintessential cop dramas, Sehar strips away the facade of artificial nationalism and simply shows a cop who comes in, does his job, and quietly carries the weight of a corrupt, crumbling system. It’s almost a revelation to watch Arshad Warsi shine as SSP Ajay Kumar – an actor we’ve predominantly seen in comic roles, albeit some excellent ones. Here, he delivers a measured, no-frills performance – nothing more, nothing less, and that’s exactly what makes it so effective.
You truly get to witness his range, especially during the film’s climax. When he’s shot, on paper, it reads like a typically dramatic moment – the hero taking a bullet but still managing to finish his duty firing one final, decisive shot at the antagon. There was so much room to over-dramatise this scene, and considering how filmmakers often treat such situations like cash cows for audience applause, one would almost expect the same here. But Sehar ress that temptation. Warsi’s Ajay doesn’t make any grand declarations, no heroic speeches. He knows he has one shot to end it, and he takes it – even as he’s shot in retaliation. It’s simple, restrained, and all the more effective because of it.Story continues below this ad

Sehar is also a reminder of how quickly the world changes. While recent films discuss the impact of cell phones and social media on people’s mental health, here we see police officers grappling with the new technology of cellular phones and how to surveil them. There’s even a line in the film that goes, “Iss technology ko samajhne mein Lucknow police ekdum akele thi.” It’s almost quaint now, but back then, it reflected a genuine anxiety about how technology was already one step ahead of the system meant to control it.
Sehar is a film whose success can’t be credited to just one actor. Director Kabeer Kaushik should be credited for approaching it as a story and not a loud slogan. He resed the temptation of chest-thumping nationalism or vilifying any religion to amplify his film’s appeal. Instead, he allowed his characters – police officers navigating a deeply flawed system – to focus on their jobs, which in itself is a intimidating and inherently dramatic profession.
The film’s casting was also spot-on. From Sushant Singh to Pankaj Kapur and Rajendra Gupta, each actor fit their part perfectly.
Also, it’s genuinely hard to find a bad Arshad Warsi performance. Sure, he’s been part of bad films, but rarely has his individual performance been off the mark. If you look at his filmography, the last truly impactful role he delivered – or rather, was offered – was back in 2014 with Vishal Bhardwaj’s Dedh Ishqiya.Story continues below this ad
With Jolly LLB 3 now in the pipeline, the hope is to see Arshad explore more complex characters. If Sehar proved anything, it would be that Warsi is capable of much more than just making us laugh.