Bad Cop(Season 1)
Introduction
The plot point of Karan Arjun….errr beg your pardon, the new Hindi show Bad Cop is straight out of the subplot of Mirzapur. A character donning the personality of his twin doppelganger is not only restricted to Mirzapur, but it is essentially an age old formula also seen in films like Don. The problem here lies elsewhere – probably in the long format storytelling technique that requires a different skillset from the makers, to provide character arcs and subplots that are relevant to the show, and also because you do have time at your disposal. So if the makers fail to implement that, then this format can be rather unforgiving given the amount of time that is put in by the viewers to complete the show. And this is exactly what the show Bad Cop suffers from. There is little to no pay-off by the end of it, when the reality alsp was that the plot was wafer thin in the first place. Director Aditya Datt has always been a hit and a miss kind of a director who offers suffers from the staging of the drama. This was particularly true in his last directorial venture Crakk that just failed to engage the audience with the setup. And the repercussions of it can also be seen in Bad Cop, although it is a marked improvement from that debacle. Yet, Bad Cop for me never really rises to its full potential given how sketchy and cliched the characterization is. It neither sizzles nor fizzles while ending up to be a mid show and nose-diving with its central conflict. Which also makes me sad for actors like Gulshan Devaiah, Harleen Sethi and Saurabh Sachdeva(discounting Anurag Kashyap who probably was just there to pay his bills)….
Story & Screenplay
Based on a German show by the same name, Bad Cop follows the story of the protagonist embroiled in the world of crime while having to don the identity of his twin brother who himself lead a mysterious life. Will he ever get out of the mess? The story here might be pulpy but it definitely was wafer thin despite the curveballs that it promised at the beginning. The couple of issues straight up with the writing of the show is its own identity of what it intends to be – does it wish to be a pulpy potboiler? A murder mystery? The expose’ of the ivory mafia that itself felt like a missing subplot? A mass masala entertainer with over the top action sequences that felt straight out of the 70s? The issue is with the ever shifting tone of the drama that just doesn’t allow the viewers to quite settle into the drama even though the proceedings remain frivolous and watchable over its course of 8 episodes standing at 20 odd to 30 odd minutes each. But at times, that too felt like a stretch with such a forgettable ending that it made me go like ‘ Much Ado About Nothing’.
The drama gets off to a flyer of a start with the introduction of the protagonist and his girlfriend robbing a businessman from a hotel, while stumbling upon a murder that transpires right in front of them. But things start going in a downward spiral even as you are introduced to the twin brother of the protagonist, a cop by profession who has his own shady ways of extracting information while frowning upon taking orders from his superior, only for the viewers to later realise that that superior is his wife with whom he shares a strained relationship. The third wheel is introduced in the form of the antagonist who spends most of his time doing weird antics like singing Bedardi Raja with a s*x worker, or shaving at night or dancing to a Bollywood number, all separate instances while giving an impression of him being a straight up caricature. But his core profession lies in smuggling ivory, a plot point that is shown as a flashback in his introductory shot, only never to be visited again that would make the Ritchie Mehta directed show Poacher a joke of sorts! It is these loose chunks of writing that acconpany the central plot of the protagonist and his twin getting stuck in a shootout before only one survives(and you don’t need me to tell you which one it is, do you see the cliche?).
The proceedings are a masterclass on surface-level writing that focuses on the just creating situations while never focuses on the character arcs, that end up characters either looking like a caricature or plain one-dimensional. And the issue is also the situations created that just take far too many liberties in the screenplay. For instance, the protagonist having survived the onslaught of gangsters in an over-the-top chase sequence, survives another brainfade wherein a letter written by him about his real identity is returned back to him by his ‘wife’. There was no real justification as to why would his wife(who by the way is a cop herself), return a letter instead of reading it that has her name written on it. Such silliness accompanies the screenplay that completely loses focus of the murder that had transpired at the start while never revisiting the plot point of ‘ivory’ smuggling(it should have been a parallel and ‘unrelated’ track used as a prelude to every episode), even as it goes round in circles with respect to the identity crisis of the protagonist even as he finds a way to impress his wife while inexplicably distancing himself from his girlfriend.
The stakes in the drama at never quite raised with respect to the central characters, all of whom who seem to be offshoots of the pulpy 70s. The idea was to create a pulpy drama which I would have passed off as a success had the tone of the drama been consistent. The mystery doesn’t feel like a mystery even as the initial promise that the humour had showcased, quickly fizzles out. Even the city of Mumbai that could have played an important character is mostly treated like a few secondary ones, wjo come and go but have no real impact on the screenplay. This includes the death of a character towards the end that was intended to be shocking but had no real impact on me given how disconnected I was with the drama. This, even as the revelation of the actual mystery sparks some hopes of a late revival. But the finale was such a mess that I just couldn’t fathom how the writing was approved in the first place. Not only was it all over the place but it lacked the basic buildup of tension while completely ending on an abrupt note, that had me scratching my head on what was the point of the show in the first place. You atleast need to conclude the plot point of this season before the setup of the next(schoolboy error as they say in cricket). The screenplay is very shoddy and shabbily written and it just doesn’t create a stir at all.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues by Hussain Dalal are peppy and pulpy, and the lines definitely do leave a mark, almost momentarily being distracting from the substandard screenplay. The BGM is very generic and just doesn’t give you a high in any of the scenes unfolding in the drama. The cinematography is adequate featuring frames that atleast try to create an ambience of tension, often nullified by the overall dose of insipid writing. The editing ranges from decent to shoddy with my major issue being with the transition cuts that felt far too abrupt. Director Aditya Datt has a marked improvement from gis previous debacle Crakk but is that saying too much? Crakk was a new low and so the only way for him was upwards. Having said that, this is just a relative comparison, for the direction isn’t great here in Bad Cop as well. It is almost a rehash of the 70s without having any soul, and constantly searching for its identity, just like the protagonist on the show. While there were major issues with the characterization, even the staging wasn’t great, wherein the director fails to leave a mark.
Performances
The performances are a mixed bag here by the ensemble cast. While Grusha Kapoor, Krunal Pandit and the late terrorizing entrant on the show Palle Singh as Bala have their moments to shine, the writing lets each of these characters down. Deepak Kamboj as Raghav isn’t exactly intimidating either and he doesn’t quite leave a mark. Aishwarya Sushmita as Kiki looks pretty and does show sparks of brilliance here. I was baffled that the promotional campaign of the show featured extended interviews from Anurag Kashyap(who by the way is my favourite director and I could listen to him all day) who hardly has a screen space of any meat. His character of Kazbe is reduced to being a caricature that just doesn’t create an ambience of fear around him. Harleen Sethi as Devika was the best actor on display, often being well-restrained and creating a stir even in emotional outbursts. She was also successful in keeping some major flaws of her character at bay, even as she managed to hold fort while chaos ensued around her in the garb of mediocrity. Likewise for Gulshan Devaiah who essays the role of Karan and Arjun(his second twinning outing since Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota), and he does a good job. The only gripe for me was related to the writing of both his characters who had similar traits but different names. There was no real differentiation in terms of portrayal majorly due to the sketchy writing, that lessened an otherwise solid act.
Conclusion
The first season of Bad Cop is a pulpy ‘half-baked’ potboiler that runs out of steam at the finish line. It sizzles to begin with but nosedives soon after with its insipid writing, thereby resulting in a watch that just did not have any payback by the end of it. Available on Hotstar.
