Class of '83 movie review: Loved the frills, missed the 'feels'

Class of 83On NetflixDirector Atul SabharwalCast Bobby Deol Joy SenguptaRatingLondoners call their cops Bobby Bombay Police is often called Indias Scotland Yard Bobby Deol plays a Bombay cop And that is the only inspiration I can think of for casting DJ Waale Bobby his last films being Race 3 Housefull 4 in the role of a quiet officer shunted to head the Maharashtra police academy because he found himself at the intersection of government and the underworld in pursuit of a major donLets check off the apprehension first Bobby D as the Academy dean for the first time on the small screen pulls off the look and feel of someone simultaneously frail and majestic rather well Suits him no doubtClass of 83 is based on crime journalist S Hussain Zaidis novel of the same name It is as the title suggests set in the year Maggi came to India and India won the cricket World Cup Neither is referenced Im just trying to place 1983 in my head while the film itself does a fine job of interspersing stock outdoorfootage from the decade mdash matching coloursvisuals with the sets created mdash to make it somewhat look like a parallelarthouse film of the same vintageYou spot posters of films Hero Justice Chaudhary Nastik Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro in the background An 80s Bombay cop in an Enfield Bullet simply equals Om Puri in Ardh Satya for all Foreground could well belong to say Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro the Saeed Akhtar Mirza movie where the line Apna time ayega first appearedThe backdrop is the same Textile mills in Bombay are closing down With the rise of the unemployed young you sense a steady supply of cheap guns on hire for the citys underworld This also makes Class of 83 the nth film on the Bombay police plus underworld mdash the hardest subgenre to pull off Every aspect of it mdash perhaps between Parinda 1989 and Ab Tak Chhappan 2004 mdash has descended into clicheacuteIm mentioning so many movies because this is in many ways a movie about the movies in hindsight rather than the people in it Especially when you notice inspector rank policemen debating advent of capitalist economy and decline of socialism over an adda at the local crab jointWhere can you specifically place the film in real life though At the phase when encounter specialists cops in Bombay became a thing mdash tasked with killing off criminals outside the purview of law Not that the movie overtly takes a stand on statesponsored vigilante justice it does lend it a lot of filmic authenticity with Westernstyle few good copsmen surreptitiously trained by the frustrated dean to take on the system rotting from within Some of the police academy scenes unrelated to the 80s Police Academy franchise are killer Practically every policeman out on the beat in the world outside the classroom is sold out The crimesyndicate is doubly protected by the stateWatch the trailer of Class of 83 hereDo you see how this tallies with Netflixs last release Gunjan Saxena with general folk and the armed forces irked over portrayal of the Indian Air Force in it Does it make sense for Mumbai Police to similarly go after this movie Do you realise how well be left with no fiction only hurt sentiments to nurse if we went that routeClass of 83 attempts to pack in tonnes into 90odd minutes This is great for a global release But plotwise it is so staccato and leaves so much to be desired that at no point do you feel particularly pulled in by any of the lead copcharacters I couldnt even tell one from the other Theyre doing the system justice by literally putting their necks on line for itWould it matter or shatter my heart if they copped it Perhaps not Certainly not in the same way that it would if we were watching one of those threehour long seamlessly emotional chorpolice dramas from the 80s This feels distantThat said where this scores is in its counterfactual history mdash meaning a whatif situation arising out of a set of wellknown facts Every movie inevitably with some real elements is counterfactual for sure But this is about a top politician named Patkar A Mafiosi with the last name Kalaskar What if Kalaskar didnt settle abroad for good Or his nexus with Patkar could be overcome still It changes a lot of things if youre into Bombay and its politicsIt is this bit of history that gives all the movies moodiness in moments setting lighting and production design firm legs to stand on mdash never mind the lack of adrenaline And while Bobby Deol is cast against type Class of 83 helmed by director Atul Sabharwal is par for the course Sabharwals underrated directorial debut Aurangzeb 2013 with the feels of an LA Confidential no less had something interesting going on in Gurgaon Can say the same for this Very interesting is correct no moreKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news