Gangaajal Review

When the purity of truth and justice is sullied in the murky waters of the criminal-politician nexus, a hero in khaki shall rise. Or so goes the great Bollywood legend. With Gangaajal, Prakash Jha seems to hop, skip and jump alternating between the path well-trodden and the one that's 'different' - story-wise, that is.

Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar (Ajay Devgan) is posted to rural Tejpur, where law and order is a thing of the past, forgotten by the local populace as well as the men in green. Amit is advised by his superior to deal with things with 'love and affection', if he wants a smooth time of it.

Inspector Bachcha Yadav (Mukesh Tiwari), like most of the police force, is also on the payroll of local don Sadhu Yadav (Mohan Joshi). But he's basically a good 'un gone bad due to circumstance. SP Amit makes his intentions and affiliations (or lack of them) crystal clear to his reluctant deputies. Seeing his conviction, the juniors stand up and take the fight to Sadhu Yadav, his immoral son Sunder (Yashpal Sharma) and their cronies.

Allright, so we, the dumb audience, get the basic idea man - good cop, bad town, corrupt superiors, local goondas and laconic subordinates resigned to their fate. It's all been done before. What's your point, director? The point, mi impatient amigo, is the protagonist himself.

SP Amit will go to great lengths to do everything by the book - even when it comes to reigning in his over-zealous deputies who have finally found their long-lost genitals. I mean, these guys have been oppressed by their condition for so long, they've forgotten what it means to be an officer of the law. To the audience's and the Tejpur locals' delight, they finally start kicking some ass and giving the baddies a hard time and what does Amit do - threatens to court martial them!

The good-at-heart Bachcha Yadav is given a second chance by Amit Kumar, and he proves himself by tricking and capturing Sunder. While Sunder gets out of jail, Bachcha and other officers go berserk and brutally blind two of his cronies, pouring acid into the wounds and calling it 'Gangaajal'. Man - no wonder there's such a controversy about the name.

The gory act is completely condemned by Amit, but surprisingly praised and supported by the public, who are sick and tired of the Yadav bullies. Here begins a mass hysteria - vigilante justice sort of thing where the use of 'gangaajal' becomes the preferred punishment for criminals. However, when Sunder gets to Bachcha Yadav and kills him, the now stale catch-Sunder game begins all over again, meanders through further subplots and eventually reaches the climax.

The father-son Yadavs are finally cornered by an enraged mob who decide to 'gangaajal' them, but who should come to their rescue but SP Amit. He gets to do his American President-in-the-face-of-disaster speech, and law and order prevails.

Set in Bihar, the characters are all fictitious (yeah, wink wink). Personally, I thought Shool was far better as a film and far more effective in telling the story it set out to tell. Gangaajal just has so many deviations that while trying to fit them all in, the director runs out of steam and seems to lose track of the main story. For the most part, you have this vague feeling that something's happening but can't really put your finger on what's the point of what's happening onscreen. There is gratuitous violence and more than enough colorful language to keep the audience morbidly interested.

Ajay Devgan is quite good, but he seems to have done this movie on his breaks from Qayamat - an SP with hair stylishly dyed brown?? He also smokes way too much onscreen, and needs to change his stance and urgently seek the services of a top notch dentist. Mukesh Tiwari, Mohan Joshi and Yashpal Sharma all do really well. Gracy Singh is just there to be the cop's wife - we all know what that means in terms of a role, right?

Gangaajal was never meant to be an entertainer. In its genre, however, it's a decent film, albeit not classic material. Serious, brooding and pretty violent that it is, I'd say have a really light meal (if you must) and prepare to get cleansed, one way or the other!