Raid
 
    
Director: Raj Kumar Gupta
Year:  2018
Music: Amit Trivedi
Duration: 122 minutes
Rating: 6.0
In America it may seem odd to make a tax collector and the Income Tax department the heroes of a movie as much as they seem hated by so many - but they are the heroes of this Bollywood film. It is based on a true story when in the early 1980s they raided the home of Sardar Inder Singh, a very famous and wealthy industrialist. A man who could not be touched for the power he wielded. Hiding your wealth was and likely still is very common in India and as we just found out from the Pandora Papers all around the world. Greedy people who never have enough. It also reminds us of just how much unreported corrupt money is floating around the world that we will never be a part of. Time for the Revolution. But Indians at least back in the days when offshore accounts were not so familiar tended to hide their wealth at home - in the form of gold mainly but also bank notes and jewelry. Every now and then here in Thailand a story hits the papers of a raid on someone's house - usually a police officer or a monk - and enormous riches are discovered. This is the story of one honest man and a raid. Just one raid that takes up the entire film. Played totally seriously with a bit of music playing over a couple scenes and not an ounce of comedy. It is compelling and fairly satisfying.

 



Inspector Patnaik (Ajay Devgn) has been transferred from one area to another because he plays the game straight. Won't be bribed or coerced. And so he gets shipped out. And his wife Malini (Ileana D'Cruz) has to set up home again. This time to Lucknow. He gets an anonymous series of tips that one of the most powerful men in the province is hiding black money in his home. Rameshwar played in wonderful sweaty dangerous fashion by Saurabh Shukla who is a small over weight balding man with the morals of a cobra. In perfect secrecy Patnaik and his terrified men show up and begin the raid. It is a huge house with a large extended family in it - all filled with bitterness towards the police - and using all their influence to stop the raid. But one of them is the informer.




For a full day they look, tearing apart mattresses and overturning dressers and find nothing. The Tax people look to be defeated and Rameshwar spits out threats of reprisals against them all for this insult. Then the informer gives them a little more information about one hiding place. Stacks of cash. They keep digging. Mountains of gold. At one point Rameshwar accidentally fires a shotgun into the ceiling and gold coins begin to pour down. Money just for the sake of money. The old mother complains, you wouldn't even pay for my operation and you have all this money. Even Indira Gandhi gets involved. There isn't really much of a story here - very straightforward - what you see is what you get and for a Bollywood film it runs short at less than 2 hours. Devgn has never been a favorite of mine - that Huckleberry Hound face of his - a dull plodding actor - I still don't see what Kajol sees in him!