Ek Police - Review

Kodi Ramakrishna is a veteran director and he had earlier brought out two big hits like Bharat Bandh and Ankusam with action and police stories in their backdrop. After a long gap, he had directed another police subject with Nagababu as hero. As usual, the story highlighted the police and there are many dialogues, which are nothing but sarcastic remarks on the police. Though the climax, which lasts for a few minutes claims that the police are superior than others, the entire film throws a bad light on them. By that time the audiences will fix in their minds that police are nothing but puppets in the hands of politicians as in reality it is impossible to happen the filmy end to such crooked politician characters.

ACP Jayachandra (Nagababu) is a sincere police officer. He could not control his emotion and wants to remain an upright officer. He will never backtrack or compromise in punishing the criminals. He leaves no stone unturned to catch the culprits or to encounter them. At one point of time, due to his emotional attack, an innocent (Ali) dies in the hands of goons. From then onwards, he changes his mindset and stops moving fast. Instead, he maintains cool and start gathering all the details about the culprit before going to arrest them are encounter them. He gets posted in Hyderabad. His wife Aruna (Lakshana) joins the college as a lecturer. There is another lecturer (Pruthvi) in the college, who has more social consciousness. When the leaders of government and the opposition quarrel over the privatisation of some sugar factories and 25 each from both the groups resign forcing the Election Commission to hold by-elections. The lecturer files a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the high court that holding of by-elections will cause a lot of expenditure on the exchequer and pleads for directions that no politician should resign and in case he resigns, he himself should bear the expenditure for the by-elections.

This point irks the politicians, who use goons and get him murdered. Incidentally, Aruna records the murder in her cell phone. By using the cell phone, ACP Jaya blackmails the goons and collects huge money from them. Not only from goons, he also collects money from the politicians, who abetted the crime. At the same time, he keeps all the evidence in a computer. Learning that the ACP cheated them, the students, who gave him the evidence, try to kidnap him only to find that the ACP is none other than their lecturer's husband and an upright police officer. The ACP chalks out a plan and gathers all the goons in one place and takes everyone into his custody. He keeps everyone in a secluded place. Realising the threat to them, if the goons were produced in the court, the politicians try to get them released with the help of a corrupt CBI officer (Satya Prakash). However, Jaya foils all those plans. As their plans foiled, the CBI officer kidnaps Aruna and make Jaya believe that she committed suicide. However, the group of students are informed that she is safe and she would be released only if they turn hostile witnesses. As a result, Jaya's argument gets defeated and the court recommends his suspension and at the same time hands over the case to the CBI officer. In the climax, Jaya realise that Aruna is alive and kill everyone with the help of people.

PLUS: Nagababu, though can't be called a hero of the film, has played the key role, albeit the title role. However, he has given a nice performance all through the film. The entire first half is stretched with unwanted scenes and only to make the audiences keep guessing whether the police officer is really sincere or corrupt. But for a few scenes in which Ali appears, the first half has nothing much to talk about. However, the film picks up momentum to some extent in the second half but the climax is very poor. It is very unrealistic.

MINUS: The director chose to highlight the corruptness of politicians and how they utilise the goons for their selfish needs. At the same time, the goons are highlighted as heroes who can dictate terms on the politicians. Though it is right or wrong in the reality, glorification of goondaism and politician is uncalled for. Though Lakshana has played opposite Nagababu, she has no big role to play. There are four young heroes and a heroine, but they are absolutely wasted by the director. Satya Prakash's role is also not etched well. The comedy is almost missing from the film, though the scenes involving the politicians has some sarcastic scenes. Music by Koti is average and the background score and re-recording is absolutely poor.

REMARKS: In a bid to give a message that police can do wonders if they are given freedom, the director has chosen a wrong path. He highlights the dark side of the police and the corruptness of politicians and the monarchy of goondaism, as a result the message almost is dead down. Moreover, the director has chosen a very old fashioned direction, thus missing any novelty. The scenes with college backdrop are also very poorly portrayed and the film can not attract either the students or the youth audiences, leave alone the mass audiences. The commercial success of the film is a big question mark and the chances are almost remote.

Cast: Nagababu, Lakshana, Krishi, Vijay Samrat, Bhushan, Dheeraj, Suryacharan Tej, Gayatri, Ali, Pruthvi, Satya Prakash, Dr Siva Prasad, Ashok kumar, Gundu Sudarshan, Visweswara Rao, Gundu Hanumanta Rao, Visweswara Rao, Kanumuri, Siva Subrahmanyam, Sadanand, Aravind, Koti, Ravi Acharya and others

Credits: Story - Vallabhaneni Janardhan, Dialogues - Swamiji-Vijay, Music - Koti, Camera - V Srinivasa Reddy, Editing - Nandamuri Hari, Art - JP, Presents - Baby Rushya Reddy, Producers - NH Bhaskar Reddy and MV Krishna Prasad, Screenplay and direction - Kodi Ramakrishna

Banner: NH Rushya Productions

Release date: November 28, 2008