Unlike the usual larger than life Bollywood cop’s director Chinmay Mandlekar opts for a comic tone with a bumbling hero. He mixes crime with comedy, and the results are quite good. In spite of some uneven writing Inspector Zende makes for a fun watch and a good stress buster.
Starcast: Manoj Bajpayee, Jim Sarbh, Girija Oak, Harish Dudhade, Sachin Khedekar and others
Genre: Comedy/thriller
Director and writer: Chinmay Mandlekar
Producers: Om Raut and Jay Shewakramani
Production house: Northern Light Films
Cinematography: Vishal Sinha
Music: Sanket Sane
Running time: 1 hour and 52 minutes
Streaming site: Netflix
Inspector Zende streaming on Netflix is based on a real-life story set in the period of 1970&1980’s. Madhukar Zende’s pursuit of the noted criminal Charles Sobhraj and the eventual capture in Goa. The story makes for a good dramatic fodder with a larger-than-life protagonist. But the tone adopted by Chinmay Mandelkar is more goofy than a serious drama. This approach has its positives and negatives. The good thing is that the film makes for a welcome stress buster. At the same time those looking for more intensity will be disappointed.
Jim Sarbh as Charles Sobhraj
The one-line story of Inspector Zende focuses on Manoj Bajpayee’s Madhukar Bapurao Zande. He is no supercop with flexing muscles. He is a middle-class Maharashtrian officer with no distinct qualities as such. The movie focuses on his pursuit of Carl Bhojraj (a flamboyant Jim Sarbh). Bapurao Zande’s eventual capture of Carl forms the basic premise of Inspector Zende
A strong aspect of Inspector Zende is the retro atmospherics. Director Chinmay Mandlekar along with his cinematographer Vishal Sinha create a lived-in world. The streets of Bombay with the bustling lanes and the police force operating with no fancy technology has been recreated well. The detailing is on point, and this includes the chawl where Zende stays too.
A lot of movie’s humor is situational emerging from the messy situations and undercover names like “Rushi Kapoor” and “Om Raut”. For the modern audiences the ways of Zende and his tribe may feel dated but the way these men operate fits the time period.
Refreshingly the movie doesn’t opt for the mainstream slapstick approach like Rohit Shetty and David Dhawan. Instead, it finds laughs in the small errors and the sheer absurd nature of humans. Thankfully many jokes land.
A standout moment in Inspector Zende is the scene where Zende finally crosses paths with Carl Bhojraj. Instead of a brutal showdown their encounter feels like an odd dance. Every punch and push feels like choreographed number. The scene comes across like a bizarre Tango between a cop and criminal. It’s both thrilling and funny in perfect synch with the movie’s tonality.
Manoj Bajpayee and Jim Sarbh
Mention must also be made of the husband-and-wife scenes. Girija Oak as Zende’s wife plays her part with lot of warmth. Her interactions with Manoj Bajpayee and specially the segment involving puranpolis is adorable. As Zende’s collogues Both Harsh Dudhade and Bhalchandra Kadam bring strong comic timing. Sachin Khedekar too brings in the required authority as the no nonsense DGP. Jim Sarbh as Carl Sobhraj plays his part with the right amount of deception and flamboyant attitude. As Zende Manoj Bajpayee slips into the part with practiced ease nailing the goofball nature. He does a very fine job in capturing the grit of Zende while also making the viewers laugh.
Apart from the uneven writing in some patches the songs composed by Sanket Sane is also a minus point. The tunes are just about serviceable nowhere close to good.
Final word: Inspector Zende is worth watching if you are fans of stories mixing crime with comedy.
