Omertà trailer: Rajkummar Rao transforms into a cold-blooded terrorist

Hansal Mehta and Rajkummar Rao's fifth collaboration, Omertà, is similar to their first, Shahid (2012). That, too, was a biopic. However the subject of that film, Shahid Azmi, could have turned to a life of terrorism, but instead chose to become a human rights lawyer helping the wrongly accused.

Meanwhile, in Omertà, Rao plays British terrorist Omar Saeed Shaikh (Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh), the man behind the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of The Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, amongst other crimes.

The film's trailer opens in London, England, the place of Sheikh's birth. He is seen protesting against injustices meted out to Muslims around the world. Soon he is radicalized and comes halfway around the world to Pakistan to work for the cause of 'jihad'. Rao is fierce and determined in the scenes where Sheikh prepares himself, at training camps and through recces.

Slowly, the trailer builds towards Sheikh's actual crimes — abductions for ransom and attacks in New York (2001) and Mumbai (2008) — and his pursuit by the authorities. The actor has altered his accent a bit to play Sheikh, there is a steely determination in his stance as the dreaded character.

A foreign voice (could be Pearl?) asking Sheikh, "Who are you?" To which he answers, "I'm the saviour." The trailer ends with a smiling Sheikh being led away in a van followed by the sounds of beating. Omertà refers to the Mafia code of silence.

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While the trailer doesn't show much gore or violence, its focus is now the progression of a quiet but driven man, capable of much brutality. 

Written and directed by Hansal Mehta, Omertà is due to be released on 20 April 2018.

Watch the full trailer below: