|
Release
date:
|
March 16, 2018
|
|
Director:
|
Raj Kumar Gupta
|
|
Cast:
Language:
|
Ajay Devgn,
Saurabh Shukla, Amit Sial, Ileana D’Cruz, Sheeba Chadha, Sulagna Panigrahi, Saanand
Verma, Devas Dixit, Ravi Khanwilkar
Hindi
|
An honest income-tax official
conducts a carefully planned raid on one of the most powerful people in Uttar
Pradesh. The lead star is Ajay Devgn. The director is the man who brought us Aamir and No One Killed Jessica. The year is 1981, back when sewing jewellery
into mattresses and stashing cash under floor tiles was the order of the day
among tax evaders.
Raj Kumar Gupta’s Raid works, for the most part, like a
procedural drama. Devgn’s Amay Patnaik arrives at his new posting after being
transferred from station to station as punishment for his integrity. Ritesh
Shah’s writing largely mirrors this no-nonsense character, going about its
business quietly and purposefully, and in the bargain throwing light on one of
the least hailed of government departments.
Amay’s sincerity is established within
minutes of his arrival on the scene. It is clear too right from the start that
the enemy is not confined to the homes of wealthy families with unaccounted
incomes. The enemy within is as lethal a combatant as any outside.
Apart from his associates, we also
meet Amay’s wife Malini (Ileana D’Cruz) who unflinchingly supports him despite
her exhaustion at the repeated packing and moving that have become constants in
their life.
On the face of it, it could be
said that Devgn has played precisely this part – a ramrod straight man within a
broken system, doing his duty against all odds – a zillion times in his 27 year
long career, yet there is a difference. In most of his previous such films, there
was a superhero element to his role. In Singham,
for instance, his Bajirao Singham virtually climbed pillars and walked on air to
single-handedly bash up packs of goons. Here, in a production that strikes a
far more realistic tone than the formulaic commercial Hindi cinema that
dominates his filmography, Amay requires police protection to conduct his work freely,
and is often afraid although he does not allow his fear to hamper his assignments.
Credible realism and Gupta’s
unembellished directorial style are what make Raid such a gripping experience.
The film occasionally falters in
this area – twice, to be precise, when the romantic songs Saanu Ek Pal and Nit Khair are
needlessly jammed into the otherwise unrelentingly pacey proceedings. This trite
device has been plucked out of the 1980s in which the tale is set, from the
days when musical interludes were the primary means of portraying man-woman
love in Bollywood and it was assumed that the audience wants such breaks within
every powerful narrative. If anything, these numbers serve as irritating
distractions in Raid, though
thankfully they are brief enough to not be completely ruinous.
Once Amay’s team enters the house
that is the fulcrum of the film’s action, Raid
almost feels like a suspense thriller. Who is the informer who has given
him such accurate information about a family with such clout? Will Amay manage
to finish the task at hand or will he be disillusioned by how far the corrupt
Tauji’s political allies will go to save him? And where on earth has Tauji
hidden his ill-gotten riches?
As riveting as these questions is
the realisation dawning on the viewer as the film rolls along, that income-tax officials
operate in a very dangerous field. Potential transfers are nothing in
comparison with the risk of actual physical harm that their targets could
inflict upon them.
The manner in which Gupta leads
up to this point is smooth and believable. It helps that he has picked a
no-fuss cast who match his intent scene for scene, as does editor Bodhaditya
Banerjee.
Devgn does brooding intensity
better than most of his colleagues, and injects just the right amount of
vulnerability into Amay to make him relatable. While some of the lines given to
Amay (and wisely to Amay alone) hark back to the dialoguebaazi of an earlier
era in Hindi cinema, the actor delivers them sans bombast to ensure that they are
fun and do not sound dated.
Ileana as his wife gets limited
screen time, but for what it is worth, she plays it well, achieving a nice note
of indulgent bemusement in response to her husband’s often exasperating
uprightness.
Saurabh Shukla as Tauji is the
lynchpin of the striking supporting cast, with the screenplay giving him enough
space to imbue the characterisation with interesting shades of gray. Sheeba
Chadha as one of the bahus of his household and Amit Sial as Amay’s colleague
are among the multiple satellite players who lend crucial detailing to their
characters’ questionable morality.
Thankfully, none of the bad folk
here are caricatures and one of the most enjoyable parts of Raid is Tauji’s relationship with his
brusque, wizened old mother.
At 128 minutes and 3 seconds, Raid is just the right length for its pithy
screenplay by Shah whose earlier credits include Citylights (2014) and Pink (2016).
The opening text on screen informs us that it is “based on true stories”, and
in the end we are told of the perils faced by income-tax officials in real
life.
Media coverage and our own apathy
have reduced these sarkari afsars to
nothing but their nuisance value and the way they are misused by vengeful
governments. Raid throws light on
another crucial aspect of their story that we all ought to know, minus
stereotypical Bollywood-style glorification of honest individuals. Barring
those incongruous songs, the gendered language of the closing text on screen (which
assumes that all income-tax officials are male, contrary to what we see even in
Amay’s office) and a passing line about homosexuality that could perhaps have
been better written, Raid is on
point, insightful and engaging.
This is not the kind of fare you
might expect to set your pulses racing, but that is precisely what it achieves
in its closing scenes. Raid is not
regular Bollywood. What it is though is thoroughly entertaining.
Rating
(out of five stars): ***1/2
|
CBFC Rating (India):
|
UA
|
|
Running time:
|
128 minutes
|
This review was also published on Firstpost:
No comments:
Post a Comment