Inspector Zende
Introduction
In many ways, the new Hindi film Inspector Zende can be termed as a direct sequel to Netflix’s show Black Warrant, given how the story had ended in the latter. In a late scene from the show, you witness Charles Sobhraj drugging the entire prison including his inmates and police officers, and escaping his captivity. There is an interesting line of whimsical humour that was tagged to the end of the show, that invariably extends to the film Inspector Zende too. It is designed to be a face-off given how the film opens – paying a homage to cops characters offscreen, given that the year is 1986. As a parallel, even rooted gangsters on the streets of Bombay find references – invariably pitting them against the Mumbai Police. In the same breath, you are introduced to Inspector Zende (Manoj Bajpayee) patiently awaiting his turn in a milk queue, suddenly abandoning the queue after hearing the news of a jail-outbreak by a notorious criminal who goes by the name Carl Bhojraj (Jim Sarbh). You get a sense of the whimsical nature of the drama from the name of the criminal that reeks of a spoof, but hangs onto the seriousness of the drama by a thread! And as it turns out, this invariably works in the film’s favour although there are moments of clumsiness along the way.
Story & Screenplay
Written by Chinmay Mandlekar, the whimsical nature of the film Inspector Zende cannot be discounted. In an early scene, you see Zende having an electrician fix the landline at his police station, just because he is expecting a call from his superiors given his track record of previously nabbing Carl. The driving force in this scene remains its humour that erupts from the need to repair a landline at the police station – a direct reference to the commentary of a systems that is disjointed and needs fixing. And yet the whimsical nature of the drama is immensely controlled here – you see a good-natured DGP backing his group of underdogs to nag the notorious criminal who is in hiding, while choosing to have a secret meeting at Zende’s chawl.
It is hilarious how Zende who boasts of the main-character energy, doesn’t always thrive in it as an aftertaste – in a scene, you see him sitting on a tricycle given the lack of space in his room, in another, you see him following his boss to the end of a diving board. And yet in another, you see him imposing his authority moderately on a character who tries to imitate a phone ring in a playful manner. But Zende’s authority is limited to retaining the character and punishing him to keep replicating the phone ring, till the telephone is repaired. It is this streak that makes Zende grounded and affable, both at the same time. This trait extends to his motley crew too who are designated to nab the swinsuit killer – one just doesn’t laugh, another is too obsessed with the budget of the covert operation, and another being a middle-aged personnel who is often looked upon for humour.
The one criticism that I had was with respect to the characterization of Carl, who is suave and charming alright but a tad too one-dimensional. There are only two gears to the character – to charm foreigners into his trap, and ruthlessly murdering individuals. Given the whimsical tone of the proceedings which is set, the murders are sudden and moderately go against the grain of the narrative – not quite being entirely whimsical, and not being threatening enough to make a big deal out of them. This criticism even extends to a couple of arrests along the way before the trip to Goa, followed by their interrogation – the whimsical thread partially gravitates towards being moderately silly, be it in a sequence involving the cops threatening to hit a beehive on a tree beneath which a thug is tied up. The punch is moderately lost, even though the writing recovers lost ground later on.
The proceedings unfold like an ODI cricket match with a strong start in the powerplay and a decent flourish at the end, but moderately slow in the middle overs. But luckily, the innings never gets bogged down even as the underdogs enter a covert operation in nabbing Carl. The whimsical nature of the drama that was partly fading in the second act, finds its voice again, even when it chooses to offer a commentary on the competing police departments from various regions. There is a playful energy exhibited by Zende who crosses paths with Carl multiple times, but what is funny is on how he chooses to opt for disguises in order to hide his identity. If anything, the disguises make him stand out even more amidst the crowd!
There is also a hint of a subplot that threatens to be an emotional one, featuring Zende’s junior Patil (Bhalchandra Kadam) who freezes upon citing Carl at a ferry ride. Usually this plotpoint acts as an emotional payoff with the character sacrificing his life after being ridiculed by the protagonist. But here, the payoff is comical, almost infusing life into a middle-aged man who is looked upon by his colleagues for humour. A similar payoff is reverse engineered for Zende to nab Carl, linking it to his beloved wife Vijaya (Girija Oak) whom he fondly refers to as ‘Commisioner’. It is the grounded nature of Zende that helps him track Carl even before his police peers from other regions, all of which is attributed to the trait of Vijaya who keeps him grounded.
It is forced but whimsical alright, given an action set-piece between Carl and Zende that resembles a dance number. I wished there was a little more meat to a late plot-point of an ongoing competition that ends on a simplistic note, but I shall take this end anyday as opposed to something so atrocious in this week’s Hindi theatrical releases! A little homage at the end is a rather sweet one, ensuring that the movie accounts for the right amount of emotions and humour to make this a satisfactory watch.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are sharp and snappy while staying true to the whimsical nature of the drama consistently through the narrative. The music is the weakling here, never really pushing the drama into memorable bouts of nostalgia, either through the right amount of pulpiness, or alternately using the 80s cinema as a reference point. The same applies to the BGM too, that never quite elevates the written material, or alternately adding texture to the narrative through its zany and playful notes. Also, neither the Maharashtrian or Goan culture represented well through its music and BGM that doesn’t land seamlessly in the narrative. The cinematography is good although the production design comprising of yellow hues is rather one-dimensional. A little more imagination would not have hurt here, something wherein the lighting could have been played around with, in accordance to the whimsical nature of the drama (remember Monica, O My Darling (2022) ?).
The editing does well to quickly recover from the moderate low-points in the narrative, with an editing style that keeps you engaged and invested in the chase. And by doing so, it also keeps a check on the overall runtime of the film. Director Chinmay Mandlekar in his directorial debut manages to impress here, ably maintaining a stranglehold on the narrative while maintaining the whimsical tone of the narrative for most parts of the runtime. There is a deliberate attempt at being funny without overlooking the seriousness of the narrative. There is a fine line that the filmmaker treads on, and he is successful for most parts of the proceedings, resulting in a good outing by him.
Performances
The performances are incredibly good by the members of the cast. There is a certain amount of playfulness that actors like Devang Bagga (as Lalit), Ajeet Singh Palawat (as Tomar), Sukumar Tudu (as Tyagi) and Peter Delight (as David) cater to, and each one of them have their moments to shine while contributing to subtle bouts of humour. Sachin Khedekar as DGP Purandhare is sincere and earnest while subtly exhibiting bouts of dead pan humour along the way. Vaibhav Mangle as Fonseca is downright hilarious, and does such a fine job here.
Bharat Savale as Naik and Onkar Raut as Patekar are affable characters who leave a mark. Harish Dudhade as Jacob is a standout actor who is stoic with his expressions and laughs just once in the film. Bhalchandra Kadam as Patil is a character that no-one can take seriously, something that forms an interesting subplot in the narrative. And his sincerity and warmth are wonderful traits of his funny yet heartfelt performance. In fact, these four characters (along with Zende) share an unexpected moment of warmth (while keeping the whimsical nature of the scene intact) that makes you feel emotionally connected to these characters.
Girija Oak as Vijaya is incredibly good and she portrays her character with utmost earnestness, while having a solid contribution in the screenplay. Jim Sarbh is such a phenomenal character who aces the body language and dialect of his character Carl Bhojraj. Despite the writing making him one-dimensional, Jim infuses life into his character while never losing out on his whimsical streak, and always keeping you engaged with his performance. The show though belongs to Manoj Bajpayee who utilizes his grounded Family-Man humour to perfection as Inspector Zende. The sign of a great actor lies in his ability to understand the source material while always staying true to his character. Here, his performance could so easily have been a caricature but he adds the right amount of emotions along with dollops of whimsical humour to hold the narrative together. He is deliberately goofy, immensely enjoyable and evidently brilliant here in yet another towering act!
Conclusion
Despite being a little clumsy in the second act, Inspector Zende is a breezy and whimsical cop drama boasting of solid performances that makes for a good watch. It is not perfect but will still manage to keep you engaged through the narrative. Available on Netflix.