Indian Police Force Review: Ajay Devgn’s Bajirao Singham has always been a trump card for Rohit Shetty’s cop universe. In the weaker films of the franchise, which, to say, is everything save for the first Singham film, Ajay Devgn’s lion-hearted cop cameo has been the saving face for movies like Simmba and Sooryavanshi. No spoiler alert: Singham doesn’t make his jumping-from-moving-jeep entry in Indian Police Force, Rohit Shetty’s first web-series in his cop universe. This is sad since, without that attraction, Indian Police Force feels like a script rejected by Akshay Kumar before he signed up for Sooryavanshi. Indian Police Force: Shilpa Shetty Shares BTS Video From Director Rohit Shetty’s Series, Expresses Gratitude to Team for Their Hard Work.
What’s Indian Police Force About?
Despite the series being titled Indian Police Force, it primarily revolves around the Delhi Police Force, with DCP Kabir Malik (Sidharth Malhotra) as the protagonist. The narrative unfolds with a series of blasts rocking Delhi, prompting Kabir and his superior, Joint CP Vikram Bakshi (Vivek Oberoi), to spring into action. As they strive to contain the damage and unravel the mastermind behind the blasts, Gujarat ATS Chief Tara Shetty (Shilpa Shetty Kundra) joins their efforts, introducing a layer of juvenile ego clashes between the duo and her. Their target is Zarar, aka Haider (Mayyank Taandon), a terrorist affiliated with IM, and the series revolves around their pursuit to apprehend him before further harm unfolds.
Watch the Trailer of Indian Police Force:
Not Massy But Messy!
There is nothing new in Indian Police Force that Rohit Shetty hasn’t tried to attempt before on the big screen, including his most recent cop film, Sooryavanshi. Except that mostly everything feels blah, dull, and listless – adjectives that we don’t usually associate with a Rohit Shetty brand. I wonder where and when the director has been losing his footing since, once upon a time, he was known for crafting mass-appeasing scenes that actually worked. Even if the fans of Suriya may disagree, I personally feel his remake of Singam was a better film because the mass elevation scenes were better. Indian Police Force has none. Unless RS thinks having his actors wear Raybans (there are just too many of them here) and walk in slo-mo, looking perfectly poised for the camera, equates to being massy.
A Still From Indian Police Force
The plot is mostly similar to John Abraham’s Batla House, including having a similar shootout based on a real-life incident that inspired the Nikkhil Advani movie and even killing a major character in the process. It’s a genre that has already been done to death, not just on the big screen but also on OTT itself, from Prime’s The Family Man to Hotstar’s The Freelancer and Special Ops. What’s sad is that the director doesn’t bring anything new to the table here, relying once again on cliches and Islamophobia to get the narrative going while justifying unethical cop procedural measures in lieu of the ‘Greater Good’.
The Good Muslim vs Bad Muslim Debate Returns!
For a change, Kabir Malik is a Muslim, which, in the director’s mind, seems to give him more validation to push the Good Muslim vs Bad Muslim narrative. If it is not Kabir espousing what Islam is and what being a Good Muslim means to a captured terrorist, then later in the series, another terrorist’s good wife also schools her husband on what it means to be a good Muslim. Funnily, neither the actors playing these characters are Muslims, nor are there any Muslims in the writing team that involves six writers.
A Still From Indian Police Force
Ghost Who Bombs!
Six writers? To write this show? Where did all those joint creative pursuits go in the series? Even the dialogues are shallow. They are either awkward, like ‘let’s find the ghost who bombs’ or ‘uski beemari bhi uski tarah thi, rare‘. Or they are kitschy, like ‘Jung mein khoon kisi ke bhi bahein, aansoo maa ke behte hai’. Even when they have to be jingoistic, they are made to sound silly. Like having an Indian covert officer, who is in another country being chased by the cops there, say, ‘Ye videshi humein apne desh mein jaane se rok denge?’ Dude, you are the videshi there!
A Still From Indian Police Force
Mere Paas Drone Hai!
Even technically, the show rarely impresses. Unless you count Indian Police Force‘s obsession with drone shots, and no, not in the thrilling manner in which Michael Bay (imagine my own incredulity as I use Bay as an example of good filmmaking) uses drone shots in his chase scenes in Ambulance. Rohit Shetty uses them like an overenthusiastic child who gets his hand on a drone camera and just goes crazy with it. I think it was in the third episode, where, within just a matter of 10 minutes, there were three drone shots where the camera flew away from a character to reveal the entire locale where he was standing. There is also a brownish tinge to the visuals, attempting to ground the setting in an unspecific timeframe. The action scenes would have looked competent if the camera had kept still.
Web-Series Is NOT A Movie Being Getting Stretched Across Episodes
Indian Police Force can be shown as a prime example of popular filmmakers, who usually make big-screen entertainers, not exactly figuring out the dynamics of web series, and think stretching a flimsy premise across a few episodes and adding a couple of starry names is a job well done. What is forgotten is that a longer format is needed to flesh out the characters and their motivations. But in IPF, everyone is a walking-talking cliche with no discernible development. The hero is given a tragic backstory involving a dead wife (Isha Talwar) that matters not much after a couple of episodes. The villain is given a mishandled love story in an attempt to humanise him, but Shetty forgets that it is hard to care for a love song featuring the character when we have seen him bomb innocents just minutes earlier. In case you need to see how to write a good antagonistic romance, check out how the Daredevil series wrote the track between Kingpin and Vanessa. The finale of the show reminded me of the climax of Neeraj Pandey’s Baby, if it were stripped of any tension or sense.
A Still From Indian Police Force
Even Abhishek Chaubey’s Killer Soup can be accused of not understanding the medium it is made for, but at least Manoj Bajpayee and Konkona Sensharma were in great form there. Killer Soup Review: Konkona Sensharma and Manoj Bajpayee’s Netflix Series is a Lukewarm Blend of Dark Humour and Predictability.
Here… sigh…
Speaking of which…
The Performances (Or Lack Of It)
Sidharth Malhotra, in his OTT debut, is… just like how we expect him to act in his movies. Dude’s good-looking, and the camera makes sure you remember this by getting all his best angles, equipped with sunglasses or otherwise. But staring hard or clenching jaws tightly can’t exactly be equated with a good performance.
A Still From Indian Police Force
I felt Shilpa Shetty Kundra was given somewhat of a raw deal here; she looks badass and a little too glossy for a cop, but she was good in the two action scenes given to her. The show, however, keeps her on the sidelines in the initial episodes and also in the last one, which felt unfair.
A Still From Indian Police Force
Vivek Oberoi is decent, but his character gets little scope as the show proceeds. Mayyank Taandon doesn’t make a compelling antagonist, and the attempt to give his character a tragic backstory and a romantic track falls flat. Sharad Kelkar appears in the last episode.
Final Thoughts on Indian Police Force
In his OTT debut, Rohit Shetty stumbles significantly in translating his signature cop drama flair to the web series format. Without any effort to inject a unique perspective into the genre, Indian Police Force succumbs to tired clichés and an unsettling reliance on Islamophobia. The absence of innovative storytelling, coupled with technical shortcomings and lacklustre performances, exacerbates the overall disappointment. All seven episodes of Indian Police Force are currently streaming on Prime Video.
(The above story first appeared on Today News 24 on Jan 19, 2024 09:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website todaynews24.top).