Review : Risk

[amazon_link id=”B000NVIM4C” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Note : The edited version of this review appears at Planet Bollywood, here.

Rating : Above average (3.6/5)
Genre : Drama / Thriller
Year : 2007
Director : Vishram Sawant
Cast : Vinod Khanna, Randeep Hooda, Seema Biswas, Tanushree Dutta, Yashpal Sharma, Anant Jog, Makrand Deshpande

RISK : INTERESTING !

RISK is standard fare from the RGV camp; it’s shot pretty similarly, it’s dark and of the same genre. Grim, stark and realistic, it tells a story sans frills. Randeep Hooda returns after “D”, as a police inspector this time.

The film, I believe, is based on the story of the “encounter” cop Daya Nayak (and they do thank him in the credits). While other cops are in on the “take”, Inspector Suryakant Satam (Hooda) has a dirty but necessary job. He is busy ridding Bombay of gangsters and their hit-men. To do this, not only must he capture goons (lots of chases through small slum lanes) but he must kill them in fake “encounters”, the logic being that if left alive the goons might be rescued by their political bosses. In this he has the support of his immediate superior the DCP (Shiv Subramaniyam). The DCP’s boss, the police chief is a venal man controlled by the Chief Minister Devki Vardhan (Seema Biswas), and her mafia benefactor Khaled Bhai (Vinod Khanna), who controls his slice of the underworld from Bangkok.

The politicians are hand-in-glove with the criminals, the Home Minister Sarang (Anant Jog) siding with South Indian gangster Naidu (Zakir Hussain), with Devki and Khaled pitted against them. In his work Inspector Sattam must tolerate such politicians, but when he goes after CM Devki, he is implicated in a false murder charge, and finds himself suspended and behind bars. His superior promises justice but the law must take it’s course. The now helpless and frustrated Suryakant realizes that the only man who can get him out of this dangerous predicament is his arch enemy Khaled Bhai . . .

The film’s story is pretty cut and dry, and the plot simple. There’s lots of action, and some of the scenes get gory. The film has a fast pace – very befitting the good-vs.-evil theme. The director’s treatment is efficient – he wastes little time in getting to the point, and thus the film does hold your interest.

Sawant assembles a good cast. Hooda fits right into the lead role as the taciturn cop. Stony-faced yet expressive, he is quite the efficient actor. He comes across as a stoic and steel-willed character, with little to say. Charismatic Vinod Khanna returns ater a long absence as Khaled Bhai and does a good job as the soft-spoken don. Yashpal Sharma plays Khaled’s impulsive and rash younger brother Arbaaz, and Makrand Deshpande Khaled’s right-hand man Hari. Seema Biswas is the conniving politician Devki, making trips to Bangkok to appease “brother” Khaled. Tanushree Dutta, considerably fattened up (is she heading for the Southern film industry a la Khushboo ?) plays Sattam’s love interest Shraddhha, and doesn’t really have much of a role.

Sawant employ’s the angular techniques he used in D, this time to reflect the dilemmas faced by an honest cop, sinking in a sea of dishonesty. The film hurls towards it’s climax, with little time spent on humanising it’s lead character. Inspector Suryakant does have a mother and a paramour, but that side of him gets swept away in his commitment to his work. Although this is a good film, it lacks the personality of the other cop film that I can recall – Shool, has. Still, even with an over-done genre, and cop versus hoodlum stories sprouting up like weeds, Risk is quite an interesting film, and well worth the watch.