Dirty Politics (Hindi)
Director: K.C.Bokadia
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Anupam Kher, Jackie Shroff, Mallika Sherawat, Atul Kulkarni, Sushant Singh, Ashutosh Rana, Govind Namdeo, Rajpal Yadav
First, what a terrific ensemble! The cast is a dream wish list for any filmmaker in the country who prefers actors to stars.
Yes, it also has Mallika Sherawat but even she has raised her game to not look out of place in the company of such seasoned actors. It also helps her that the actors themselves have dropped their game, given how dated the film feels.
Dirty Politics , that often feels like a poor man’s Raajneeti , given the scores of extras crammed into every frame, should have rightfully been called The Eighties .
Every bit of this film — story, structure, sensibility, stunts and moral — is from an eighties film. But then what else can you expect from the director of Aaj Ka Arjun and Phool Bane Angaray ?
While the veteran actors try hard to pretend that they didn’t sign up to do this film for money and fail, it is actually endearing to see Sherawat at least try to get it right.
She tries to get the Rajasthani accent right, uninhibitedly makes out with Om Puri a few times, and gets her thumkas going to inject the film with zest and energy.
But it’s a lost cause in a generic film that even uses The Dirty Picture template: Small-town girl with ambition rises in her field, and uses men with her body before they consume her completely.
After all, Sherawat was the original sizzle-queen before the likes of Vidya Balan and Sunny Leone took over the kind of roles she was doing. And she does hold her own a fair bit in her brief role before it rains clichés.
If you are in the mood for some B-movie fare, do check out Dirty Politics .
Unless you prefer the Bhojpuri release of the week promisingly titled Patna Se Pakistan .
SUDISH KAMATH
Dirty Politics
Genre: Drama
Director: K.C.Bokadia
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Anupam Kher, Jackie Shroff, Mallika Sherawat, Atul Kulkarni, Sushant Singh, Ashutosh Rana, Govind Namdeo, Rajpal Yadav
Storyline: When an estranged mistress of a politician goes missing, honest investigators team up to bring dirty politicians to justice
