Police Public (1990) Revisited

POLICE PUBLIC (1990) revisited 

Director: Esmayeel Shroff

Cast: Raaj Kumar, Naseeruddin Shah, Kabir Bedi, Poonam Dhillon, Raj Kiran, Arbaaz Ali, Shikha Swaroop, A K Hangal, Vijay Aidasani, Prem Chopra, Ajit Vachchani, Reema Lagoo, Ila Arun, Tej Sapru, Sudhir Dalvi, Rakesh Bedi, Mahavir Shah, Sargam(Sp.App.), Disco Shanthi (Sp.App.)

Now Shroff belongs to the category of filmmakers whose work I find either extremely delightful or terribly trashy, something like Raj N. Sippy. This 30 year old murder mystery thankfully belongs to the former category atleast in my opinion. 

The plot revolves around the mysterious death of a young woman who is part of an politically inclined influential wealthy family on a chilling hill station. While the in-laws dismiss it off as an freak accident, the “witnesses” claim it was suicide, but the investigating CBI officer firmly believes it was a murder! An explosive thrilling investigation follows to track the murderer. 

The film was promoted as a true story from the cbi filed of Kerala, and was a remake of the Malayalam thriller ‘Oru CBI Diary Kurippu’(1988). No doubt a lot of people would shrug off this film as trash, but the pace, slick direction and Raaj Kumar’s thunderous dialogues uplift an otherwise hackneyed screenplay. The red herrings popping up are intelligently engulfed in the storyline, minus the four unnecessary songs( two raunchy item numbers and two romantic songs copied from Pakistani classics), this film is a lovely monsoon bedtime watch. 

For lovers of retro Bollywood cinema, this movie is loaded with Raaj Kumar’s stylish aristocratic dialogues, ‘Kauwaa Oonchai Pe Baithne Se Kabootar Nahi Ban Jaata’ ‘Sher Ki Khaal Pehen ke aaj tak koi Aadmi sher nahi ban saka’ ’Toofan mei hum apni khushi chahte hain, Jaan hatheli pe liye jee jaate hain, Tum Woh ho Samundar jise khaa jata hai, hum woh hain jo samundar ko pee jaate hain’ these are just few of the several Seeti Maar dialogues in the movie.