Raid Review: Saurabh Shukla and the ensemble cast steals the show

Starring: Ajay Devgan, Saurabh Shukla, Ileana D’Cruz, Amit Sial
Direction: Rajkumar Gupta

Foreword

The man who gave us gripping thrillers like Aamir and No One Killed Jessica, Rajkumar Gupta is back with yet another offering based on true incidents – Raid. The movie set in 1981’s against the backdrop of UP narrates the story of Amay Patnaik (played by Ajay Devgan) – an honourable income tax official, who has been transferred 49 times, before stepping his foot in Varanasi. His honesty and yearning to deracinate corruption and black money from the system pits him against the dreadful local politician Tauji (Saurabh Shukla).  After getting a tip from a mysterious fink, Patnaik along with his team raids Tauji’s ‘white house’- an audacious act not well accepted by the team and the villagers. Amay’s chase to locate the hidden black money from Tauji’s mansion amidst his family and the latter’s strategy to stop the raid forms the further storyline.

What works?

The casting is something that comes to my head first. Ajay Devgan fits into the shoes of the character. He is fearless, fierce and impeccable with his dialogue delivery. Ileana looks exquisite in the Indian get up. She doesn’t have much to offer in the script; nevertheless we can’t complain about it. The writers made sure to not push her into the story under duress, which works positively for the film. Saurabh Shukla is marvellous! You’ll understand his talent with the prominent impact that he leaves on the screen. We’ll need to write another article only to appreciate his performance. To be succinct, Saurabh fits into the character of Rameshvar so perfectly that one would be perplexed if he actually is the same personality in his real life too. While the primary cast is excellent it is the ensemble cast that steals the show.  Sheeba Chaddha as usual never disappoints and we would just love to see more of her in more films.  Amit Sial proves how promising he is as an actor. A special mention goes to the old actress, Pushpa Joshi playing Rameshvar's mother. She is the best part of the entire movie. Period! People who’ve watched this film will vouch for it too!
Kudos to Casting Bay for finding such real talents. The dialogues written by Ritesh Shah are clap worthy and you will hear a lot of whistles in the theatres, courtesy Shah’s impeccable writing. The songs are crisp and don’t consume too much time.

What doesn’t?

Despite commencing the content with its core content in focus, the movie drags a few bits. For instance, the sequence when Patnaik enters the white house for the raid. Also the story ties knots with threads of unnecessary and disappointing suspense. Especially subplots like – where Tauji hides his money, who is the informer helping Devgan’s character and the climax. All of these do add an edge to the narrative; however the eduction isn’t jaw-dropping. During the course of the story your expectations are built up only to leave you down in the dumps.

Epilogue

Raid is a realistic movie amidst the humdrum of Bollywood. It is not a regular movie but surely an entertaining piece with talented actors. With ear-soothing songs and to-the point storytelling, Rajkumar has done a good job. Though I’ll pick his last movie (No Killed Jessica) over this one, Raid is still a must watch.

Ratings

3.5/ 5.