Reported By:
| Edited By: Meena Iyer |Source: |Updated: Dec 16, 2017, 02:15 PM IST
Monsoon Shootout (Crime)
Critics Rating: 2.5/5
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Neeraj Kabi, Vijay Varma, Tannishtha Chatterjee
Direction: Amit Kumar
Duration: 1 hour, 32 minutes
Language: Hindi (U/A)
Story: On the day he joins the police force, a rookie cop, Adi (Vijay Varma) is reminded of his father’s advice, who had told him, “Betaji, in life you will always encounter the right path, the wrong path or the middle path. It is up you to decide which one to take.’’ The dilemma that Adi faces on account of being reminded of daddy’s wise words is the crux of this crime thriller.
Review: If you like cinema noir, you may give Amit Kumar's crime drama, Monsoon Shootout, a chance. It’s not really great cinema but it’s got some novelty. A simple interpretation on a cop’s predicament to shoot or not to shoot is shown with three different narratives. And of course, each narrative has a different ending. When Adi encounters Shiva (Nawazuddin), he can’t decide whether to shoot the dreaded criminal down or give him a chance at getting justice in a court of law.
Even as Adi himself goes through his conscience calls and tries to think the matter through, the screenplay introduces viewers to multiple characters, most of who are grey. With the exception of senior police inspector Khan (Neeraj), who believes in following orders, most others have ulterior motives. A senior lady cop is ambitious enough to shake hands with the Minister to get her own thing, the minister uses local hoodlums to threaten the builder community, the local hoodlums use the crazy Shiva to hack their victims…in other words, everyone is morally bankrupt. The one guy who is pushed around is the rookie cop, who is new to the crime branch.
As we said at the start, the film has grime but it lacks grit. Seeing three different versions playing out in a matter of 92 minutes gets tedious. Nawaz and Neeraj are in decent form, while the other actors are competent. But the hero of this film is cinematographer Rajeev Ravi who has used Mumbai’s unpredictable downpour wonderfully. The cat-and-mouse chase between cops and criminals, played out mostly against an overcast sky, definitely adds to the mystique that is needed for this kind of a murder mystery.
