The film revolves around a retired Armyman Parabjeet (Naseeruddin Shah), who is training her daughter to appear for the Air Force exams. However, when the daughter succumbs to cancer (caused by regular swimming in a canal polluted by reverse boring), Parabjeet decides to go on the offensive. When a factory belonging to Paddy Sharma (Sharad Kelkar) explodes, corrupt CM Ramandeep Braitch (Divya Dutta) deploys NIA sleuth Arjun Mishra (Arshad Warsi) to investigate the case. Will Arjun manage to solve the case? Is Parabjeet the culprit?

In the world of filmmaking, great intentions can be destroyed by dismal execution. Irada is a resounding example of that fact. It has a great idea, noble intent, a stellar cast comprising of Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Divya Dutta, yet this film squanders its promise with aplomb. The clichd story telling, the jaded treatment, this film massacres its objective - that of highlighting the rampant pollution of habitats in Punjab. The only silver lining to this film is watching the great cast trying to lend respectability to a movie that least deserves it.

Ex-army man Parabjeet Walia (Naseeruddin Shah) is training his daughter Rhea for Air Force. While her training is on, Rhea is detected with Lung Cancer that's in an advanced stage. Set in Punjab, that's known as the Cancer belt of India, the film traces how reverse boring by industries is contaminating the water leading to one cancer case in each family. Walia soon finds out that it is PPFPL, a company being led by Paddy Sharma (Sharad Kelkar), which is responsible for the toxic waste.

I've grown up watching Crime Patrol and although a lot of new shows with the same concept have popped up in the recent times, the Sony show remains a classic. Watching Aparnaa Singh's Irada took me back to those days. It's a classic case of corruption put to an end as a man seeks vengeance from the authorities while he finds an aid in the process. The film stars Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, Sagarika Ghatge, Divya Dutta and Sharad Kelkar in pivotal roles. The storytelling is very crisp, to the point and hard hitting.

It is called the "Cancer Train", christened thus by locals because it transports scores of cancer patients from Bathinda in Punjab to the city of Bikaner, Rajasthan, for treatment. Available media reports suggest that the surge in cancer cases in Bathinda is a result of the uncontrolled use of pesticides by the region's farmers. This week's Hindi film release Irada points us in another direction: groundwater pollution caused by local industry.

Debutante Aparnaa Singh's Irada is peppered liberally with terms like reverse boring, chemical contamination and groundwater pollution: not something we normally expect from a Bollywood thriller. These deadly phenomena have been gnawing at the entrails of India's haphazardly growing urban sprawls. They are central to Irada, a reality-inspired eco-thriller set in a Punjab town (Bathinda) where cancer is endemic. It is a small film on a big mission: the issue that it calls attention to is global in scope and its relevance goes beyond the limits of a single town, state or country.

Despite a stellar star cast, director Aparnaa Singh's Irada is a scatterbrained film that fails to encash Arshad Warsi and Naseeruddin Shah's screen presence and articulate the menace of environmental terrorism that so dogs the state of Punjab. Just before the credits roll at the end of the film you are jolted with certain statistics and facts -- that every year twice the number of people die due to chemical poisoning than in terror attacks and that there is a train that runs through Punjab under the 'cancer train' label.

There are some inconvenient truths that we avoid looking when development is involved. And then comes a film which grabs us by the neck and forces us to take notice of a world different from ours. Director Aparnaa Singh's Irada brings us face to face with harsh realities in Punjab. Hundreds of new cases of cancer are being reported every year in the state that is known as the rice bowl of India and most of them belong to a particular geographical area.

Army man, Parabjeet Walia(Naseeruddin Shah) dotes on his only daughter Riya (Rumana Molla). He is shattered when she is declared terminally-ill. On digging deeper to find the real cause of her mysterious disease, he discovers that many others in Punjab are dying of cancer because of the contaminated water that is supplied to the township. Naseer, then sets out to expose the nexus between a pharmaceutical giant and the State Administration, both of who are turning a blind eye to the health hazards of the dying public. He is joined on his mission by Intelligence Officer, Arjun Mishra (Arshad Warsi).

That is a film crying to be made, but instead of the characters, Irada gives us caricatures: a strict disciplinarian Armyman father played by Naseeruddin Shah, who has fought in every war from 1971 to Kargil; his young daughter aspiring to be him and falling to cancer; an overzealous RTI activist; his raging journalist girlfriend who deploys drones to do her investigative stories (Sagarika Ghatge); a gum-chewing, cynical NIA officer (Arshad Warsi) with a young son who admires him; the corrupt chief minister who doesn't hide her capriciousness (Divya Dutta, with the film's only crackerjack scene)