Indian Police Force(Season 1)
Introduction
Thank God It Is Friday and we have a new spate of releases to cover this weekend, so let’s get started. First up, I finished watching the new Hindi show, the first season of Indian Police Force which is streaming on Amazon Prime. The show marks the debut of Rohit Shetty in the webspace and is an addition to the Rohit Shetty Cop Universe after Singham, Simmba and Sooryavanshi. Now we all are aware of how good a director Rohit is given his sensibilities of presenting his cops as superheroes. He definitely has sensed and is aware of the pulse of the viewers that has resulted in theatres turning into stadiums on the entry of their favourite character. This also includes cameos in his films which are well presented. But Indian Police Force did pose to be a whole new challenge because this was going to premiere directly in the webspace, and webspace requires a different set of skills and sensibilities to truly charm the viewers. On top of it, Rohit himself had admitted that he had failed as a director in his previous venture Cirkus. So I was on the fence as I stepped into the world of Indian Police Force, does it manage to impress, let’s find out.
Story & Screenplay
The first season of Indian Police Force follows the story of a group of cops investigating the personnel behind a chain of bombings that take place in Delhi. Will they be able to nail the perpetrator? The story is ridiculously simple and straight-forward with nothing new to offer in terms of its content. In fact, it is so banal that it reminded me of the 80s films that were filled with cliches along the way. And I haven’t even got to the predictable part of the drama that combines to make for a slog of a show. The screenplay standing at 7 episodes ranging from 30 odd minutes to 40 odd minutes is just so bad and at times unintentionally funny that I had my hands in the air almost to ridicule the mess that it was. Also, my forehead hurts from facepalming so often during this awful show.
The drama ideally required a good sense of world building along with the characters to truly entice the viewers and invite them into the cop world. And this is the major difference between the two mediums of cinema – the bigscreen and the webspace wherein the latter demands a slow and a steady narrative for all the flavours to reach the palate of the viewers. Instead here, the writers open with a VFX induced bomb blast that did not even remotely create an environment of tension to begin with. You are slowly introduced to all the characters who have no depth at all, something that is evident early on in the drama. And as they try and diffuse the remaining bombs, you know as a viewer that you are in for some real trouble.
The proceedings are so banal that I cannot recall even a single moment where I may have even moderately been invested. Yes, some action set-pieces are well shot but that is about it which is quite shocking given that this is a show helmed by Rohit Shetty who has an amazing track record and is known to sense the pulse of the viewers. Even an onscreen death of an important character doesn’t move you at all because I just wasn’t invested in the drama. Also, I wonder who from the OTT giant greenlit this project given that Amazon Prime has usually been a hub for consistently churning out good quality content. The goosechase here is almost like a video-game on easy mode where everything falls in the lap of the cops who just don’t have to stress about following the trail of a very indifferent antagonist who is nothing short of a joke.
There is absolutely no control on the writing as it jumps from one city to another without any sense of governance. The hop skip and jump approach is laughable and goes on for an eternity as the drama continues to get dumber by the minute. The ease with which the cops enter a foreign land, cause chaos there and enter through the border in 2X Youtube speed while being chased by a bunch of dimwit officials who had no identity of their own, was simply appalling to say the least. And the entire messaging was so preachy that it left me hurting my head! This, while I was patiently awaiting to make it alive by the end of the show! The writing is a hot mess here and banal in the purest sense of the word packaged in a screenplay which wouldn’t have worked even in the 80s!
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are campy and corny even while being in the mass masala entertainer space. And wait, there’s more! When was the last time you have witnessed a full fledged song with a lip sync in a webshow! That is the novelty factor of the show here – it dares to flaunt in an area where no one has. The BGM is loud but still passable as it atleast try to blend with the tone of the drama. The cinematography with tight close-ups featuring drone shots might seem good to begin with, but if every fight sequence did reek of a similar flavour then it was a huge issue here. The fast shots also can potentially end up giving you a headache of sorts due to its weird angles and tight projections. The editing is all over the place, and with one event occuring after another without any buildup, the entire show felt like a collection of events put together. The director’s chair is shared by Rohit Shetty and Sushwanth Prakash and the direction is quite poor to put it in a good way. This just did not seem like a Rohit Shetty product by a countrymile(atleast in the cop universe). Even the trademark Rohit Shetty car sequences just did not translate in a similar high unlike some of his previous works. The action sequences were unfolding in 2X speed straight from a Youtube video while the entire drama felt emotionless and banal. This is a huge red mark in the report card of the directors. Perhaps it is time for Rohit Shetty to get back to the drawing board and I hope he bounces back in style, like he always has.
Performances
The performances are just plain average by the ensemble cast. I was wondering on a side note that why are there actors repeated throughout the cop universe. I am unsure on why talented actors like Isha Talwar, Mrinal Kulkarni and Shweta Tiwari agreed to be a part of this universe while they had absolutely nothing to do. To give you a perspective, the screenplay would have remained unaffected even if their characters were chopped off. Sharad Kelkar as Jagtap is pretty good. Mukesh Rishi is decent as Jaideep. Vaidehi Parshurami as Nafeesa is inconsistent and she doesn’t quite nail her role like we are used to seeing her do so. Vivek Oberoi as Vikram is impressive but Shilpa Shetty as Tara Shetty just misses the mark with her act which felt superficial in many ways. I wasn’t convinced by her demeanor of a cop which unfortunately reflected in her act too. Nikitin Dheer as Rana is stoic and reduced to a sidekick despite his towering presence. Mayyank Taandon as Zarar is ridiculously average and I wonder what the casting director was smoking while casting him as the main antagonist. His lacked the aura in a performance that was so flat. Siddharth Malhotra as Kabir looks the part but is still inconsistent with his act. You need a certain kind of screen presence in such roles with a required set of expressions that was missing here. But he does impress in a handful combat sequences.
Conclusion
The first season of Indian Police Force is a new low in the cop universe packaged in a drama that is so trivial, predictable and banal that I had to slap myself a thousand times for going through this mess. May the ‘Force’ be with you for dealing with this d*gsh*t. Available on Amazon Prime.
