Indian Police Force (2024) Season 1 Review!!

Synopsis – Delhi Police Officer Kabir Malik battles an insidious adversary, Zarar, who has chosen the path of terrorism. The show unfolds a thrilling chase, capturing the relentless pursuit of justice and the sacrifices made in the line of duty.

My Take – Like his peers, filmmaker Rohit Shetty is known for his signature style of film-making, particularly in the action genre.

From over-stylized entry sequences, loud set pieces and earsplitting background scores to obvious Ray-Ban aviator promotions, slow-mo swagger and ramp-walking, and nods to service men, as a director Rohit Shetty has become a staple for blockbuster film-making and returns.

Having established the Cop Universe with Singham (2011), Singham Returns (2014), Simmba (2018), Sooryavanshi (2021) and the upcoming Singham Again (2024), now he expands his grandiose and dramatics to streaming with this latest Prime Video series, which he co-directed with Sushwanth Prakash, and adds a plethora of new faces into the mix.

And if you are expecting a mellowing of his established brand of cinema in his first OTT outing, you are going to be left disappointed.

Particularly as the seven episodes series is, for all intents and purposes, a slightly altered and a slightly toned-down version of a Cop Universe flick, in the sense, it revolves around an entirely predictable cat-and-mouse affair that wends its way through bomb disposals, police raids, gunfights, explosions and flying vehicles. It is like watching just another Rohit Shetty film just with a different aspect ratio.

Written by Rohit Shetty, Sandeep Saket, Anusha Nandakumar, Ayush Trivedi, Vidhi Ghodgaonkar and Sanchit Bedre, the series makes no visible attempt to be a gritty, granular portrayal of the men and women who make up the overworked security apparatus that battles day in and day out to keep India’s sprawling national capital city safe.

If anything is different here, it is this that the series isn’t as strident in tone as the films and pits an intrepid Muslim police officer against a radicalized youth out to wreak havoc across India. Sure, the narrative is thoroughly riveting and engaging, but its predictability and facile style prevents it from being the compelling police drama that it could have been.

The story follows DCP Kabir Malik (Sidharth Malhotra) of the Delhi Police, who along with his senior officer Joint CP Vikram Bakshi (Vivek Oberoi), finds himself grappling with a series of bombings orchestrated by the Indian Mujahideen. Tasked with leading a special cell unit assigned to unravel the mysteries behind the orchestrated chaos, the only clue they manage is a street kid eyewitness who helps them to sketch the perpetrator.

With the pressure mounting, they are joined by a key associate, Tara Shetty (Shilpa Shetty), Gujarat ATS chief and academy batch mate to Vikram, to weed out and stop the mysterious bespectacled mastermind, Zarar (Mayank Tandon), before he revels in more destruction and human loss.

Zarar, meanwhile, is living in the city as Haider as a perfume seller, and even carrying on a romance with his cohort-landlord’s daughter, Nafisa (Vaidehi Parshurami), determined to act out all elements of his plan, before joining his mentor and former madarsa teacher Rafeeq (Rituraj Singh) in Iran.

Indeed, those who are used to watching director Rohit Shetty’s big screen entertainers, this one will work as a harmless watch. The narration is straightforward, without twists and turns, and if one dives into expecting solid characterizations, and a well-researched plot, one is sure to be left disappointed.

And given that this is Rohit Shetty’s first foray into long-form entertainment, the show tries everything possible to stretch out its episodes and inflate time. The show is mostly a patchwork of clichés, at best an extended cut-and-paste job that juggles components from the director’s successful big-screen police actioners.

In Rohit Shetty’s Cop Universe the men in uniform are superheroes. They break, smash, and punch their way through one action set piece after another, emerging victorious at the end as good always triumphs evil.

Yes, this formula does work considerably well for his films but you need a lot more to sustain a show. The intention behind showcasing larger-than-life characters with an unwavering commitment to justice is noble, but the execution often lapses into forced moments.

Kabir is, in case you’re wondering, the first Muslim protagonist in the Cop Universe. He’s meant as a patriotic counter to all those misguided young boys who bomb hospitals and public places, fixated on their supposed blessed deaths. Kabir exclusively brings up his religion to chastise those who err in its name, but his personal religiosity, never comes into view. Towards the end, the series attempts to delineate how radicalism takes hold in impressionable minds. Yet it does so in vague, generic terms, that it feels half-hearted.

Nevertheless, the action scenes and chasing sequences in the show are neatly conceived, and they look terrific. The way they are captured by the cinematographers Girish Kant and Raza Mehta is pretty impressive. Especially the hand to hand combats are superb.

Another one of the standout aspects of the series is its pulsating soundtrack composed by Lijo George and DJ Chetas. The music complements the high-octane sequences and adds a layer of intensity to the narrative. The creators effectively use sound to amplify suspense and drama, enhancing the overall viewing experience.

Performance wise, Sidharth Malhotra‘s portrayal is notable, offering a convincing blend of grit and vulnerability, He gets the physicality, gait, posture, and the default economy of expressions just right for any young, aspiring police officer out there. Vivek Oberoi and Shilpa Shetty adds a dynamic element to the ensemble and inject freshness into the narrative. Mayyank Taandon leaves a last impression as a menacing terrorist.

In supporting roles, Mukesh Rishi, Nikitin Dheer, and Vaidehi Parshuramani leave a mark. Sharad Kelkar is delightful in a cameo, while Isha Talwar is wasted. On the whole, ‘Indian Police Force’ is a typical Rohit Shetty entertainer marred by a predictable narrative.