Another remarkable cop drama in the line of -Ardha satya/ Shool/ Sarfarosh and Ab Tak Chhappan. Though hard-hitting and realistic, it is definitely different in the sense that here more than protagonist waging a war against system or dealing with the rampant corruption or getting into a jingoistic, heavy dialog baazi he rather gets into the nitty-gritty of nabbing an underworld Don of UP. Also it exposes the nexus between politicians, administrators, businessmen, mafia and the police quite effortlessly. To don both the caps of writer and director is nonetheless a rare feat for a débutant and ad filmmaker turned film director Kabir Kaushik comes out with flying colors. The cinematography (R.A.Krishnaa), editing (Amitabh Shukla), art direction (Narendra Rahurikar), locales, the dialogs, sound design (Biswadeep Chatterji), stunt sequences (Parveiz Fazal Khan), music (Daniel B. George) all deserve a special mention in giving film a required rawness and creating a tense environment. The film manages to strike a fine balance between realistic cinema and mainstream cinema, which is an uphill task, and come across as an intelligent film. Though it has some flaws too like the overall tone of the film is far too serious than is required and tempo drops at places. It is sad to see honest cops dying one by one. Even the end is depressing. Among performances, Arshad Warsi is fabulous in his underplayed mannerisms (his best till date). Portrayal of Villain (Sushant Singh) as a cool headed guy who does not loose his temper in worst of situations, matches rightly up to him. Others are equally competent though Mahima Chaudhary's styling needs to be toned down a bit. Thankfully there are no forced songs in the way of narration. This film adds to the list of new cinema emerged in past few months which is a welcome relief from the tried and tested path and will definitely be remembered as one of the best films released this year.
