Raid | Bollywood Movie | Views and Reviews

This weekend I got a chance to watch Hindi Film Raid, and here are my unbiased views and reviews for the same.

Director Raj Kumar Gupta gave us some good films like Aamir, No One Killed Jessica and Ghanchakkar in the past. When he is teamed up with Ajay Devgan (who writes his name as Ajay Devgn in film credits) who is known for his intense acting, the expectations went obviously high. People are more curious to know if it is Singham like film setup in Indian Revenue Department (Income Tax).

Let us take a brief look at the plot of the movie:

Book Plot:

Amay Patnayak an honest IRS officer is appointed as a deputy director of Income Tax department in Lucknow. He is soft spoken and determined fellow. When it comes to his work, it is like worship for him. He takes his job seriously and it affects his career also seriously. In last 7 years he was transferred 49 times! And he know that it is a matter of time when based on his hard-against-tax-invaders approach he will get his 50th.

But, it doesn’t stop him doing what he is going to. One fine day he encountered accidentally with Rameshwar “Rajaji” Singh a.k.a “Tauji”, a well-known, well-connected, powerful politician. In a few days of that incident he got some anonymous tips about a large amount of undocumented wealth linked with Tauji. He, knowing the background of Tauji, rather than playing a blunder, investigates the matter. Once he was sure that the tip was indeed correct, he meets the informer whose identity is disclose at the end of the movie. The informer asks Amay to take actions (i.e. raid the house of Tauji) and the key information will keep reaching him when needed.

Of course, Amay needs to take permissions from the superiors and he know that such politicians have planted people in government offices also. We are also introduced to one such officer during the course. The team is informed that they all needs to be ready for a raid next morning, the place was not disclosed. He doesn’t disclose it in the morning also.

He keeps his team driving to a location where they can false assume wrong targets! At a specific time, he asks his team to turn the caravan around and visits Tauji’s place. Tauji was never approached by any bureaucrats in such a manner, so he tries showing his influence, but, he got to knew that Amay is not going to oblige. Eventually the raid stars and goes on and on, without him getting any remarkable amount of wealth from the house. Tauji was very confident that the raid is going to be a disaster for Amay because he hid his money in the overseas banks.

Tauji, however, didn’t knew that his family members are greedy like him, and they hid a large amount of money within the house.

As you can predict there goes some dramatic dialog sequences and eventually a large amount of wealth was found from the house.

Once the raid is complete, you got to know the identity of the person behind it. But, will you be curious to know his/her identity, well, it is up to you?

For a thriller, to touch the nerves of the viewer, the script is the most essential part. Inspired from a couple of real life incidents (read real income tax raids) happened in India, this movie is a work of fiction. There is a disclaimer there in the beginning of the film, and we know how seriously we need to take it :), right? Though, it is a work of fiction, you can trace the routes to the actual incidents. I would suggest you to watch this interesting video uploaded on the public domain of YouTube by “The Lallantop” which tries building links to the possible real life raids:

The script is interesting but at times you feel that it is not as gripping as it should be. There comes some dull moments also. The romance track of income tax officer doesn’t make much difference. Now, with the moves like a Wednesday and others, it is proven that it is a myth that a Bollywood movie must have songs. The songs are not very good. Of course they are good to ear, but only one or two has the repeat values rest of them can be passed. You yourself can hear the jukebox and decide:

At a few places you will feel that the song disturbs the flow of the story. Anyway, the entire family track of the income tax officer is not out of the context, and you may not find it much disturbing. At the same time, the absence of the same couldn’t have any adverse effect on the film.

Raid, you can consider as a action-less (in terms of physical actions by the protagonist) version of Singham. The protagonist is played by an intense actor and he tries to put a life in that character. Somehow, it looks like a piece of cake for him. Yes, we are talking about Ajay Devgan. Some catchy dialogs are there and some moments are there which makes his presence felt, but, frankly speaking, it is not what Ajay’s hardcore fans will find enough.

Illeana tries playing a role which is different from her persona, but she used to don such characters in film. She acts with ease and makes her presence felt.

Saurabh Shukla is the scene stealer. If there is only one character you need to chose from the film, it is his. He plays is effortlessly which you will enjoy. Actually, there are moments in the film where you will like him even more than the protagonist. It is out and out Saurabh Shukla film, no two thoughts on the same. You will again feel that his acting metal is not used up to his caliber, so far.

Gayathri Iyer makes her presence felt and so does Sulagna Panigrahi. Amit Sial leaves a mark and he seems to be a horse of the long race. We are looking forward to him for future performance. Age is just a number and Pushpa Joshi proves it. At the age of 80+ she makes a debut and in face you will remember her. Rest of the actors does their bits honestly.

The wardrobe and the locales are chosen wisely and we must give the due credit for the same. The background music adds to the positive side of the film.

Summary:

Overall a thriller which you can watch with your family which could have been better. It has some nice moments but you will expect more from it. No doubt, you will love watching it for once.