Mumbai 2003, a maze of local trains, throbbing crowds, big land deals and intense politics. And in the center of it all, a volatile story. Two cops, one journey and a struggle for power, maximum power. But they are not alone in this game, there are other players. The conspirators moving at every level. Taking the dream through layers of emotions and betrayals to an unpredictable climax.
... Read moreMumbai 2003, a maze of local trains, throbbing crowds, big land deals and intense politics. And in the center of it all, a volatile story. Two cops, one journey and a struggle for power, maximum power. But they are not alone in this game, there are other players. The conspirators moving at every level. Taking the dream through layers of emotions and betrayals to an unpredictable climax.
With a film like Maximum, you go in with your hopes pegged on one person, and one person only, Naseeruddin Shah. You settle down to watch the film with fingers, arms and legs crossed hoping to have a decent time. However, Maximum proves to be a film so unsalvable that even an actor like Shah fails to help its case. It's a pity, for Kaushik's Sehar remains one of the most solid cop movies in recent years.
Plot
It’s Mumbai circa 2003 and the police have their grip hold on the city thanks to their ruthless encounter killings. Pratap Pandit (Sonu Sood) heads his team of policemen, informers and small time thugs in cleaning up the crime syndicate in Mumbai and filling his pocket as well.
Another cop trying to beat Pratap at the number game is the senior police officer Arun Inamdar (Naseeruddin Shah). While Pratap has the support of minister Tiwari (Vinay Pathak), Inamdar has another minister (Mohan Agashe) by his side.
How these two cops use encounters and the politicians for their benefit is shown in the rest of the movie.
Performances
Shah’s character is probably the one that has been given least importance and hardly any screen time, and considering the film is partly about him, it’s quite ridiculous. He is hardly there and when he is, his dialogues are annoyingly cheesy.
Sood’s character is conflicted. Is he good? Is he bad? Is he a family man? What he comes across as is a cop who likes to have fun with guns and thinks it is okay to go and sleep with other women as long as he takes care of his wife and kids too. It’s fine to have shades of grey but if the main character is portrayed as a jerk, it’s a little hard to feel sorry when bad things happen to him. His performance however, quite decent.
Neha Dhupia’s character Supriya Pandit is, in her own words, the perfect ‘Hindustani aurat’ who is singularly devoted to making her husband’s life easier. Irritating description of self aside, Dhupia has acted quite well and looks beautiful in the traditional Indian avatar.
Overall
Maximum is a dry and insipid fare.
