Flying cars. Whistle-prompting slow-motion entries. Catchy background scores. Rohit Shetty’s OTT debut Indian Police Force has all the ingredients of a classic Rohit Shetty film but fails to cook up a wholesome plot. Testosterone-driven entertainment? Yes. Engaging? Not in the least. The Sidharth Malhotra-headlined crime thriller co-starring Shilpa Shetty and Vivek Oberoi, streaming on Amazon Prime Video, is cliched from the get-go.
A two-and-a-half-hour film stretched into a seven-episode show
A young Muslim man, with a traumatic childhood, is indoctrinated into waging war against India. He starts planting bombs in different cities and ends up killing over 500 people including a top Delhi Police cop. This prompts a special team led by Gujarat ATS officer Tara Shetty (Shilpa Shetty) and IPS officer Kabir Malik (Sidharth Malhotra) to embark on a mission to nab the terrorist.
This tried-and-tested storyline is familiar enough to make almost every sequence predictable for the viewer. Also, there is a song in the second episode featuring Sidharth and Isha Talwar, Kabir’s romantic interest who only appears in flashbacks and hardly has any screen time.
Poor acting and duh one-liners
The first episode begins with a big-screen-like entry of Vivek and Sidharth flaunting their police uniform and similar-looking shades. They stand upright with their chest out and belly tucked in even at parties and while spending time with family. ‘A cop can be identified even if he is not in uniform,’ says Mukesh Rishi, who plays the Delhi Police chief, in one of the scenes, probably justifying the stiff body language of Rohit Shetty’s cops. The rest of the film’s dialogues are as flat and uninventive as this. Sample this: before setting out to catch the terrorist, Sidharth’s Kabir says, ‘Dilli ka launda hoon, utha kar le aunga.’
Shilpa Shetty is a prop
Shilpa gets her share of action sequences in a male-dominated series but has been reduced to a side show. Her character, ATS officer Tara Shetty, is referred to as ‘Shetty’ by her batchmates and colleagues. She is strong, athletic, authoritative and witty, but not a part of any of the show’s important scenes. Instead of joining her team for the final mission, Tara waits in Delhi to see them return. She is also writing a book which includes a chapter on Kabir’s heroics. In this cop world, Shilpa is just another glamorous face brought in to glorify the main male character.
A not-so-intimidating antagonist
Zarar, the terrorist who sets off the bombs (played by newbie Mayyank Taandon), gets beaten up, first by Vivek’s Joint CP Vikram Bakshi and then by Kabir. This villain is also a lover boy who is eventually betrayed by his partner. The character draws sympathy but fails to instil fear.
No cameos from other cop universe characters
By the end of the second episode, Rohit Shetty’s cop universe fans might be praying for a Singham to break in through his SUV’s gate, or a Sooryavanshi to jump off a chopper. No such luck. In one of the scenes, Kabir tells Tara that he aspires to become like Singham and Sooryavanshi. But that seems unlikely after the debacle that is Indian Police Force.
