When Sadhu Agashe first arrived on the scene, he was a novelty. With his no nonsense attitude he made us develop empathy for the encounter cop. Many may not believe in his means but when he said like a janitor he is cleaning the garbage of the society, it spurred a debate. When director Shimit Amin presented him as a caring husband who feared his work could be ominous for his personal life, we realised that he might be heading special squad but he is as ordinary as any of us when it comes to emotions. Nana Patekar hid them skilfully behind that cynical expression. Perfection is unattainable in cinema but it was as close as it could be and perhaps that’s why Sadhu is etched in our memory even after a decade.
It was loosely based on the life of real life controversial cop Daya Nayak and the fact that of all the encounter cop sagas churned out by Bollywood only Sadhu stirred our imagination says a lot about the talent of Nana and Shimit. After ignoring for a decade, Nana falls for the sequel bait and we have a film which is a sad shadow of the original.
He is not the only one. In Hollywood Clint Eastwood kept returning as “Dirty Harry” till the fans gave him a clean chit at the box office and Liam Neeson took three shots at the gullible fans before being finally “Taken”. When you have Nana in the lead role it is difficult to make a boring film but director Aejaz Gulab has almost succeeded. Sequels are supposed to take the story forward. Here after the initial pretences, the story stagnates. Be it the camera angles or the plot points, it seems like you are watching a faded copy of the same film all over again.
Last time, it was his wife who proved to be the chink in Sadhu’s armour. Here it is his son.
The Home minister (Vikram Gokhale) wants him back to control the raging underworld war and Sadhu after initial reservations returns to the hot seat at the insistence of his mentor (Mohan Agashe). Once again he faces negativity in his office. Last time it was Yashpal Sharma; here the job is done by Ashutosh Rana, who is kept unusually low key so that the focus doesn’t shift from Nana. Gul Panag fills in as the dour crime reporter.
Like the algorithm that you have solved many times over when the premise of the system turning against its own cop surfaces all over again, the film begins to test patience. As the bullets fly left, right and centre, you already know the target. Nana knows this terrain well. He shoots his punchlines and bullets with equal conviction but somewhere down the line he also knows that like Sadhu he is also being compromised.
