Good Cliche

He plays Subhankar,an upright and honest police officer who is the media’s blue-eyed baby because of his strategy of eliminating mafia groups with his manipulated ‘encounter’ killings. But his colleagues in the force are jealous so the police commissioner (Biswajit Chakraborty) packs him off to a north Bengal posting to Sundarpur.

Little do they guess that Subhankar has an axe to grind with the two mafia leaders of Sundarpur,who organised the cold-blooded killings of his older brother (Neel Mukherjee),father (Santu Mukherjee) and mother. He also chances upon Preeti (Sayantika),the pretty daughter of the corrupt local police officer Abani Roy (Shyamal Dutta) and discovers that she was his childhood sweetheart.

Thankfully,the romantic angle is minimised in favour of the action and the violence,executed,enacted,cinematographed and edited impressively by the team with special marks to Joy. He looks suave in a black leather jacket,five-o-clock shadow on his chin and a gelled,shining hairdo. Never mind that in reality,cops hardly dress up like this. But then,this is celluloid drama so we let it go. He does very well in the central role except the facial grimaces that seem a tad overdone. Sayantika’s beautiful face registers little more expression than a block of wood. But she should shape into a beautiful leading lady in a better role under a director who can draw it out of her.

The song-dance sequences shot probably in Bangkok are an eye-sore because the ugly skyscrapers and the local junior artistes spoil the visuals instead of enhancing them. Dipankar De tries to inject some credibility to his astrologer-mafia leader role with a dose of humour and some lecherous scenes.

The story is hackneyed to the n-th power of repetition,coincidences and flashbacks. But the way the director has packaged and presented his hero and the stylised manner in which Joy has essayed the character credits the film with three stars instead of one. Kudos are also due to cinematographer Manoj Kumar Misra,who does a wonderful opening scene and Rabi Ranjan Maitra who edits the film. Jeet Ganguly’s music carries his signature.

The Nachiketa number is very good though superfluous and the same goes for the Maula maula number. One wonders what made Mithun Chakraborty agree to do a cameo. His presence does nothing for the film.