Review of the Indian Police Force: Neither radical nor rousing in style

The unstoppable police officers of Rohit Shetty make an awkward, if not completely unsteady, entry into the world of online series. They target the guy known as “India’s most wanted terrorist”—a young man who seems to be as simple-minded as he is cunning. The resulting suspense lacks authentic heat and dust and is cliched.

For all intents and purposes, Shetty’s fourth Cop Universe film, Sooryavanshi (2021), has been somewhat modified and toned down in Amazon Original Series Indian Police Force. If there’s one thing that’s different, it’s that the tone of the seven-part series isn’t as militant as it is in the movie. In order to sow chaos throughout India, it throws an adventurous Muslim police officer against a radicalized teenager.

The show seems to have no intention of portraying the men and women who comprise the overburdened security machinery that fights day in and day out to maintain the safety of India’s expansive national capital city in a gritty, detailed manner. It never really has a chance to rise beyond the ordinary because of the clunky and uninteresting way it plays out.

Indian Police Force, which was written and directed by Rohit Shetty from a plot and storyline by Sandeep Saket and Anusha Nandkumar, commits the grave mistake of aiming for banal thrills and surface-level gloss rather than intense, realistic reality.

Though there are plenty of action scenes, shootouts, and chases in the program, it lacks a lot of the thunder and high-pitched bluster that one would expect from the Cop Universe. But it doesn’t always make authenticity better. The show isn’t the engaging police drama it might have been because of its simplistic look.

Given the old material they are stuck with, the main cast members—Sidharth Malhotra, Shilpa Shetty, and Vivek Oberoi—don’t really bring anything new to the table. They act as if they are invincible and full of bluster. Their rhetorical barrage is hollow, and their confidence is strained. The crew does experience tragedy at a critical moment, yet they continue regardless of the risks they are exposed to while doing their duties.

In a world where Singham, Simmba, and Sooryavanshi all exist, the main character Kabir Malik (Malhotra) is the first Muslim police officer. This serves as a balancing act for a script that ultimately cannot see beyond easy and well-established binaries.

When many explosions shake the city, one of Kabir’s closest friends, Tara Shetty (Shilpa Shetty), the head of the Gujarat ATS, is called in to assist the Delhi Police Special Cell. Vikram Bakshi (Oberoi), Tara’s fellow academy graduate and his superior in the police, provides a solace when things go tough. An unflappable Rana Virk (Nikitin Dheer) is also on their side.

It is implied that Kabir is impulsive and prone to disregarding rules, even though we never see him lose his temper in a major manner. He is, however, forced to work in the police force’s housing department in the first scenes of the show, a position for which he is obviously uninterested. He can’t wait to go back on the field.

When explosives detonate in a different location and intelligence reports indicate that Goa may be the next target, Kabir deduces that Zarar (Mayyank Taandon), the mastermind behind all of the terror incidents, is the same guy. He persuades Jaideep Bansal (Mukesh Rishi), his employer, to give him the case.

Shilpa Shetty and Vivek Oberoi, co-stars of the Indian Police Force, send birthday greetings to Sidharth Malhotra, 39.
The main suspect has moved to Darbhanga, Bihar, changed his identity, and wed Nafeesa (Vaidehi Parashurami), a young student. However, as the search starts, Zarar and his allies won’t have many places to go since the police are launching a clandestine cross-border operation to capture the terrorists, assisted by an undercover secret agent named Jagtap (Sharad Kelkar, who appears late).

In contrast to Mumbai Police Joint CP Kabir Shroff (Jaaved Jafferi) in Sooryavanshi, Kabir Malik’s name does not immediately reveal his religious affiliation. Thus, the intrepid cop presents himself as a real Muslim, courageous, and just while the terrified terrorists he catches claim that their acts are a response to the wrongs they and their families have experienced.

Others exist. The parents of two terrorist brothers have rejected them. Their mother tells one of the police officers, “Do not spare them.” The father of a young lad who got lost and ended up in a sleeper cell says he won’t go to Haj using the money his wayward son gave him. And a young lady who faces the possibility of having her whole life turned upside down decides to make a “patriotic” stance at the price of her happiness.

Despite its efforts to maintain equilibrium, the Indian Police Force contributes little to our knowledge of how policing really functions in a busy Indian city that requires constant observation due to the many risks that threaten it.

At best, the program is a prolonged cut-and-paste job consisting of tropes that are mixed together from the director’s popular big-screen police procedurals. The narrative of men (and a woman) in uniform who risk their lives to serve their country is pieced together in a colorless and sterile manner.

The Indian Police Force is a somewhat dull and predictable game of cat and mouse that involves bomb disposal, police raids, gunfights, explosions, and flying vehicles. It is neither striking in style nor novel in approach. It seems like viewing a different aspect ratio version of another Rohit Shetty movie.

The remark “not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims” lets the listener know right away where this is all going to end. It’s been exhausted by it. Consequently, the program doesn’t really provide value for the money.

Indian Police Force has the appearance and feel of a big-screen production that has inexplicably ended up on a digital platform. This is due to the film’s predominant use of drone/fly-cam shots that swoop over the city skyline, frequently taking in the tourist attractions of Delhi and Goa, intercut with street-level action involving the police officials tackling serious personal and professional challenges.

Indian Police Force is happy to serve you traditional action blocks and pursuit scenes, but not the type of comprehensive picture of a city on the brink that Delhi Crime provides.

Force is the most important quality that the Indian Police Force lacks. Playing out like a script, the Prime Video production is as dull as chalk. Only devoted followers of the Cop Universe should attempt it. It is sorely lacking in new creative energy.