Sarit Ray's review: Policegiri

Policegiri is less of a movie and more of a business idea. The commodity being sold is Sanjay Dutt, an ageing star with a sizeable, and presently nostalgic, fan following. So it opens with a statement of solidarity towards Dutt, and a collage of his photographs. Sarit Ray writes

Policegiri
Direction: KS Ravikumar
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Prachi Desai,
Prakash Raj
Rating: *

Policegiri is less of a movie and more of a business idea. The commodity being sold is Sanjay Dutt, an ageing star with a sizeable, and presently nostalgic, fan following. So it opens with a statement of solidarity towards Dutt, and a collage of his photographs. Short of shooting time, and quite clearly, ideas as well, a decade-old hit Tamil film, Saamy, has been shoddily rehashed with flavouring shamelessly borrowed from Dabangg and Singham.

Dutt plays a seemingly corrupt cop with Herculean strength and an overtly divine name (DCP Rudra Adityadevraj). He’s more of a gun-toting sheriff out to rid a hapless town of its outlaw, a don named Nagori Subramaniyam (Prakash Raj). Raj, of course, is creating a Bollywood career out of playing caricature-ish supervillains, a space that belonged to Gulshan Grover or Shakti Kapoor in the ’90s.

Things explode from the word go, villains crash through glass with incredible frequency and Dutt punches, kicks, shoots and shouts, sometimes all at the same time. However, the 50-plus actor no longer has the physical agility or the biceps of a Salman Khan or an Ajay Devgn. So he keeps his fluorescent shirts on. Thank god for that.

The women in such potboilers are invariably irrelevant. So you have Prachi Desai as the insipid love interest. It might still have worked if their pairing looked a tad more glamorous and a tad less young girl-sugar daddy.

The music is bland, and the south-inspired action repetitive, giving you little to take away (headache notwithstanding). Policegiri is entirely forgettable. And that may be a good thing.

For the audience, as much for Dutt’s reputation.