Policegiri – A Complete Review

Besides cinematic thirst, KS Ravi Kumar directed “Policegiri” was awaited for Sanjay Dutt, who had shot the movie in the last few days of his independent life, before entering in to the prison term. And the outcome is that, though the film is not a likable one, but it is completely a Sanjay Dutt film.

Starting from the days of ‘the angry young man’ in the 70s, Bollywood has come up with this popular subject many a times in ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Singham’, ‘Dabbang’ and a lot in this category. In these type films, the pivotal character is a tough cop, who plays the good man. But the definition of “good”, changes each time and the character comes up with his self-drawn set of notions to set everything right. Yes that is the popular way in Hindi cinema and the audience has given their nod to this experiment in the films that we are watching since years.

Coming to the plot, ‘Policegiri’ is a cop film where Sanjay Dutt plays the rough cop Rudra to stand against the black empire of super goon Nagori Subramaniyam the mafia, played by veteran south actor Prakash Raj. Prachi Desai has romanced the old Dutt as Sehar in the film.
DCP Rudra is transferred to a new police station that needs to take care of the law and order of a city, pierced with crime and corruption. Akin to many other Bollywood movies he gets the task to do away with Nagori from the scene to set the things right again. However, the cop has his own set of rules as well as code of conduct to execute his duty, which is in some way identical to Draconian principle. He just wants to bring law and order back.

About the title, ‘Policegiri’ is not a word in use, but Sanjay Dutt reportedly suggested this one, when the producers were interested to give it the name ‘Thanedar 2’, the sequel of a popular movie done by Sanjaya, years back. But this title was finalized and the same thing can also be smelled in the outcome of the film after release. I mean, there is ample of ‘Sanjay Dutt-ism’ in the film and so the movie will be loved only by his fans.

Coming to performances, Sanjay Dutt must be commended for his performance but he further deserves a standing ovation for brilliantly executing the role, shooting in those days, when he was living a sorrowful life and was in a depressed mood, because he was supposed to proceed for the jail term in few days.

Prakash Raj is brilliant once again. He has been seen as the villain in most of the Hindi films, when those are re-made in Hindi. And he is no doubt the best. His “I don’t claim to be Mohammad Rafi in singing, but I am Mohammed Ali in my brute power,” is the dialogue that you can take home.

Prachi Desai is gorgeous and beautiful in the film. But she has not any big task to perform in this Police film that shows a lot of action but just to tap to the tunes of ‘Chura Ke Lejaa’.

Overall, the film does not play well with the audience and some Sanjay Dutt fans only may love to watch it.

Director: K S Ravikumar
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Prakash Raj, Prachi Desai

TNI Rating – * & ½ (One and Half) Stars