Over the years, Hindi films with strong confrontation have always been successful at box office , especially those inspired by true stories. But, for that, to make the character of the hero or heroine more stronger, there always existed a very strong artiste who played the negative role. This has been happening for more than 60 years now. In the film ‘Mother India’ Kanhaiyalal did portray the strong negative character. Pran played many negative characters very effectively. Ajit played the most cruel villain opposite many top heroes & then there were many like Jeevan, Amjad Khan, Amrish Puri, Prem Chopra, Danny , Gulshan Grover and others who helped the hero of the film look stronger. But, thereafter we saw some of our heroes playing negative characters themselves and the film makers glorifying their image.
However, with the arrival of films inspired by true stories, once again there was good scope for heroes taking on the challenge from the law breaking corrupt & cruel negative characters played by villains like Prakash Raj and many new comers. But, the character actor who played a negative role 20 years ago as Kallu mama in the film ‘Satya’ has once again emerged as the new powerful villain in latest released Hindi film ‘Raid’ directed by Raj Kumar Gupta. In fact, Saurabh Shukla in the role of a corrupt powerful MP from U.P. Rameshwar Singh has portrayed his character so effectively that he has made the hero Ajay Devgn stand tall with his honesty and conviction, while exercising his duties as D.C. of Income tax Department, while carrying out the biggest raid in the country, in the house of this MP.
The film’s screenplay is well written, except for the scene little before the interval, when the hero played by Ajay Devgn allows the MP to leave his house, so as to enable him to tap his sources to stop the raid. This was only to extend the screenplay with more dramatic happenings, what we have been watching in action films of the recent past. The film is however set on the backdrop of 1981 period and hence care has been taken to present the characters accordingly. But, what is good about this film is the confrontation between the hero and the villain in almost all the scenes, when they face each other. Songs were really unnecessary in this film, but the director thought of offering some scope to the lead actress Ileana D’cruz, who plays Malini, the wife of Ajay Devgn in this film. Another good thing about this film is the selection of other character artistes, who look very natural, including the family members of Rameshwar Singh and especially the old mother of Rameshwar Singh played by Pushpa Joshi.
All in all the film is good as it is technically well made, with good cinematography by Alphonse Roy. But, it belongs to two main characters played by Ajay Devgn and Saurabh Shukla. For Saurabh Shukla, after ‘Jolly LLB-2’ , this one of his best performances so far. The film would certainly inspire those honest Government employees, who exercise their duty with honesty without fearing any pressure from corrupt politicians.
Rating ( ***1/2)