On The Trail With Inspector Zende!

"Inspector Zende" streaming on Netflix has been generally labelled as a comedy/thriller. The 112-minute long film features Manoj Bajpayee--a very intense actor who has played a cop many times during his remarkable career--in the titular role of inspector Madhukar Bapurao Zende of the Mumbai Police who had the rare distinction of catching the infamous serial killer, fraudster and thief Charles Sobhraj not once, but twice. Here Bajpayee appears in a lighthearted comic avatar. Jim Sarbh essays the role of Charles Sobhraj, who for some reason has been named Carl Bhojraj in the film.

The film opens with the news of Bhojraj's escape from Tihar Jail in 1986 after he treated the jail staff to kheer laced with sedative as a part of his birthday celebration. Zende had arrested him once earlier in 1971, so he gets assigned with the job of tracking Bhojraj.

As the hunt starts, visuals from Mumbai and Goa of the eighties do look delightful and refreshing. Zende, his teammates and their boss DGP Purandare (Sachin Khedekar), Zende's wife (Girija Oak), children and his mother, all of them look innocent straightforward people. It is endearing to see the policemen working without any modern security or surveillance equipment, and on a meagre budget. But the same cannot be said about Jim Sarbh's Bhojraj. He does not appear menacing enough to be an international serial killer. His long hair, moustache, and laboured accent reduce him to being a caricature, far from being the charmer that he was in real life. 

Chinmay Mandlekar, a well-known writer, director and actor mostly active in the Marathi entertainment industry has written and directed "Inspector Zende". Why he chose to make a film that focuses on the chase of a serial killer as a comedy is something beyond comprehension. The subject and its treatment do not match each other. 

While the film is mostly clean and suitable for family audiences, it is a pity to see an actor of Bajpayee's calibre being wasted in an average story and script. The jokes are weak, the direction is simplistic and the pace of the film is slow. This does not mean that Bajpayee is not suitable for comedy. It is just that a tame comedy is not enough to tap into his potential. 

To name a few instances from the film, police teams from Delhi, Goa and Mumbai clashing over claiming the capture of Bhojraj is mindless and childish. The fight sequence between Zende and Bhojraj in the middle of couples dancing in a hotel is funny, but it dilutes the importance of the moment and reduces it to a farce. Bhalchandra Kadam, a prominent comedian from Marathi industry playing one of Zende's teammates fails to make an impact. After watching the film, one is left with the impression that sometimes even when you have all the right ingredients, a tasty dish eludes you.

A Fun Ride On A Dupahiya!

Web series "Panchayat" was a favourite watch for most of us. We liked its clean humour, honest portrayal of rural life, and excellence in all departments of production. To even think of creating something in the same genre requires courage, conviction and confidence in one's craft. That it would be compared with its predecessor is a given. The makers of "Dupahiya" (Two-wheeler) have come up with a refreshing and enjoyable show in spite of this challenge.

The series is set in the fictional village of Dhadakpur in Bihar. A wedding is being fixed and the groom-to-be demands a dupahiya as part of the dowry. The fun ride on the dupahiya begins and continues in nine hilarious episodes, each marking a day in a countdown to the wedding day. Along with humour, there is suspense, thrill, song and dance, and drama; but no violence, bad words or skin show. 

The story also deals with adult literacy, women's empowerment, dowry demands, kleptomania and the bias in our society towards dark skin. But all of this is cleverly woven into the story without making it preachy or overly sentimental. The narration is fast-paced with top-notch performances from the main cast, and well-written lines delivered in the local accent. 

Sparsh Shrivastava whom we have seen and appreciated in Jamtara and Laapataa Ladies is in scintillating form. He gives an uninhibited performance doing bizarre acts. Gajraj Rao and Renuka Shahane are veterans, though Renuka appears to be a bit stiff and not so comfortable with the accent at places. The surprise package is Avinash Dwivedi, who apart from being one of the writers of the series, also plays the groom. His character, right from his dress sense to his mannerisms and his use of English words in a sentence is a laugh riot.

Most of the situations are amusing and capable of invoking laughter except the one involving Dollar, the owl. It is stretched, inane and not in sync with the rest of the story. Otherwise, most of the time it is wholesome entertainment, good storytelling and a welcome addition to the genre of rural comedy.

Dupahiya is streaming on Prime Video.