Police Force

[Nokia]

Staring: Achyut Potdar, Akshay Kumar , Alok Nath, Amrish Puri, Asha Lata, Govind Namdeo, Mohan Joshi, Raveena Tandon

Director: Dilip Shukla

Music: Anand Milind




Police Force-An Inside Story is not based on Carnage by Angels, the popular book written by IPS officer Y.P. Singh but it effectively brings out the internecine quarrels within the police force in a natural and realistic manner. It is a strong film with a strong content and puts the police force on a high pedestal note. It takes us to true meaningful Hindi cinema when drama reigned supreme and the clash of powerful ideas and resolute personalities determined the theme.

Dialogues formed integral part of the story. They reflected the tough struggle of determined individuals and the manliness of a world of true grit. In many ways, the film marks the comeback of underdog hero. Akshay Kumar plays an under trainee police cadet Vijay. He is seen not as a super hero killing and romancing at will but an ordinary middle class small town boy. He gets sucked into circumstances not of his making but of a political system where the leaders have turned the battle of the ballot into distorted opera of guile, opportunism and murder and also of a political system where people at the top crush the dreams and idealism of their own upright cadets. Police Force-An Inside Story is also far removed from stereotypes peddled by Hindi cinemas.

Corruption in the political system is represented as a well oiled operation performed by normal human beings. Raj Babbar is Rattan Sethi, a politician who astutely subverts the political system at will. But he is also a man with taste of flowers and beauty. Similarly for the first time the police department is presented as a dynamic government organization with its own set of contradictions and good and bad officers. As a senior police officer, Mr. Bhonsle (Mohan Joshi) runs a virtual mafia operation for politicians and friends from inside the department. But Amrish Puri acting as another honest senior officer Mr. Panday, trains cadets with dedication, seeing to it that they imbibe values of truth and honesty. It is this teaching imparted by Mr. Panday to Vijay that returns to haunt the mentor.

Vijay gets trapped into Mr. Bhonsle's web and Mr. Panday has to bend over backwards to save his cadet's life and career. Here, instead of giving over to melodrama and sentimentalism, the film continue, to tread the path of realism. Mr. Panday sets about diligently to counter Mr. Bhonsle step by step, through hard collection of evidence. The Amrish Puri - Mohan Joshi stand off takes the element of confrontation in Hindi cinema to a new realistic high point. The fidelity to detail is evident also in keeping heroine Raveena Tandon's (Roma) character free from trappings of glamour. Alok Nath, her father is a senior police officer but he is even able to help Akshay Kumar only through a proper process. He is not shown as a super cop who just barges into a police lock-up to rescue his future son-in-law. The art design of the film as well as the background score keep track with the mood of the subject. The settings of police camps, drawing rooms, lock-ups are startlingly real with drab, gray, natural colours dominating scenes. The sofas, the curtains, the roads of Mumbai all emerge in their natural form as independent actors in a hard hitting drama. Realism enhances the meaning and urgency of Vijay's final heroic act, which, in another twist, runs parallel to Amrish Puri's saving act. All actors, small or big look real on screen and stick to their characters.