Phone
Booth
be
damned.
Knock
Out
goes
into
places
that
the
supposed
source
of
inspiration
can't
even
dream
about.
Forget
what
you've
heard.
Forget
the
flak
and
fury
about
copyrights.
Go
see
Knock
Out
for
the
engaging
edge-of-the-seat
treatment
that
writer-director
Mani
Shankar
has
given
to
the
collectively
comatose
conscience
of
the
nation.
The
breathless
political
thriller
starts
off
as
just
another
day
in
the
life
of
a
high-profile
wheeler-dealer
Bachu
(Irrfan,
definitely
going
through
a
bad-hair
day
in
more
ways
than
one)
who
expedites
multi-score
scams
for
the
powerful
(and
therefore)
corrupt
politician.
Bachu
makes
the
cardinal
mistake
of
getting
into
an,
ahem
ahem,
phone
booth
for
a
bit
of
pow-wow
with
his
powerful
friends
in
the
government.
That's
when
trouble
begins.
Knock
Out
builds
up
into
a
walloping
slash-of-life
swipe,
sometimes
savage,
elsewhere
satirical,
at
the
monstrous
levels
of
corruption
that
has
seeped
into
our
political
and
everyday
life.
The
facts
seem
to
be
on
the
director's
fingertips.
He
confidently
takes
us
through
a
startling
labyrinth
of
false
leads
and
blood-red
herrings
that
suggest
a
deep
and
disturbing
link
between
the
growing
disregard
for
the
common
man's
needs
and
a
simultaneous
growth
in
the
graph
of
corruption
in
Indian
politics.
Mani
Shankar
creates
an
arresting
format
of
dialogue-based
interaction
between
the
unkempt
Bachu
who
becomes
symbolical
of
all
the
middlemen
in
the
business
of
political
who
unwittingly
end
up
selling
chunks
of
our
nation
and
its
conscience
to
unscrupulous
politicians,
and
a
mysterious
Vigilante-styled
one-man
anti-corruption
bureau
played
by
Sanjay
Dutt.
Dutt's
entry
into
the
volatile
cat-and-mouse
chase
signals
an
adrenaline-pumping
momentum
in
the
plot.
He
doesn't
have
much
movement
to
do
until
the
climax
when
he
locks
limbs
with
a
martial-arts
stuntman
with
panther-like
agility.
Yup,
this
is
what
Dutt
should
be
doing
more
often.
His
anti-corruption
voice
is
supported
by
some
hard-hitting
dialogues
on
how
the
British
colonizers
cleaned
out
our
coffers
in
150
years
while
Indian
politicians
have
done
the
same
in
70
years.
The
rhetorics
are
woven
into
the
gripping
plot
without
stressful
attempts
to
sound
like
the
nation's
conscience.
The
patriotic
pride
of
Mani
Shankar's
treatise
on
corruption
and
redemption
emerges
effortlessly,
to
merge
with
the
larger
and
more
immediate
responsibility
of
the
filmmaker
to
entertain
the
audience.
What
starts
off
as
a
thriller
in
a
phone
booth
builds
up
into
a
riveting
morality
tale.
Besides
Dutt
(magnetic)
and
Irrfan
(interesting)
incidental
characters
who
show
up
at
the
venue
of
the
bizarre
hold-up
also
create
a
high
interest-level
in
the
goings-on.
Sushant
Singh
playing
a
cop
who
won't
succumb
to
corruption
(and
therefore
lose
his
life)
and
Apoorva
Lakhia
as
a
ruthless
immoral
establishment-monster
are
just
two
of
the
characters
who
lend
a
blend
of
immediacy
and
topicality
to
the
relentless
chase-phase
that
the
film
assumes.
There
is
a
restrained
rabble-rousing
element
in
the
storytelling.
The
anti-corruption
statement
never
comes
in
the
way
of
telling
a
story
that
in
many
ways
defines
the
enough-is-enough
attitude
of
a
nation
on
the
brink
of
damnation.
Like
the
character
that
Dutt
plays
director
Mani
Shankar
has
always
depended
on
technology
to
sustain
his
cinema.
His
earlier
well-scripted
film
Mukhbiir
suffered
for
the
lack
of
a
decent
budget.
Knock
Out
is
done
on
a
level
of
high-intensity
credibility.
It's
not
so
much
the
method
and
craft
as
a
heart
that
genuinely
beats
for
a
corruption-free
India
that
gives
Knock
Out
a
flavour
of
pulsating
patriotism.
Watch
it
to
get
seriously
entertained
while
creating
a
world
where
a
politician
ironically
named
Bapu
(Gulshan
Grover)
goes
on
an
international
rampage
at
the
cost
of
the
national
exchequer.
Not
just
a
film
with
a
heart,
Knock
Out
has
a
conscience
too.
Story first published: Monday, October 18, 2010, 12:15 [IST]