Indian movies follow a tradition of showing our police officers in one of the three roles – Corrupt, Competent, Conscientious. If the cops are aligned with the villain of the movie, they are absolutely corrupt. If the hero of the movie is the Police Officer, they are competent. And in cases where the police is to be shown as helpless, the cops are conscientious but can’t do much. They do switch roles in some of the movies, Ranveer Singh as Simmba is corrupt but competent and due to some pivotal incident becomes conscientious. Similarly, Amitabh Bachchan in Shahenshah. He is corrupt in public but is conscientious in private.

Inspector Shyam Manohar, played by a faultless Ravi Kishan, is all three in Laapataa Ladies. He is corrupt, and that gets established in his introduction itself. He immediately names a price when Deepak and friends ask him to find Deepak’s missing wife. It feels as if at the turn of the millennium (the movie is set in 2001, India), law enforcement will work for you if you have the means. Some of the telling signals are when Deepak’s father advises him to go to the police station in an old shirt, so that the police gets the impression that they are poor. And that gets confirmed when the Head Constable (played by a delightful Durgesh Kumar, Bhushan of Panchayat) suggests that they should arrest the complainants on the charges of kidnapping. Ravi Kishan says, “Did you notice his shirt, he is abysmally poor. What will we get by arresting him?”

But, he is competent. It doesn’t take long for him to put two and two together and figure out that the missing woman from the other police station is the woman that he has in his area. Once he learns that the suspect is loaded with gold (from the village’s standard), he gets determined to solve the case. And he goes by the book. Interviews the woman, observes her while she does various things. He builds a case against her. When he has enough evidence, he detains her. His competence is aided by his corruption, and the promise of a big payout for him at the closure of the case.

Finally, in one of the greatest takedowns that I have seen recently, he turns conscientious. For him, the missing wife of Pradeep Singh (Bhaskar Jha as a local strongman) is a case to be closed, because there is a missing persons report. He gets Pradeep to the police station and hands over his wife to him. Case closed.

Not to be. She (Jaya, portrayed by Pratibha Ranta) doesn’t want to go with Pradeep and that is an entirely different case. During the back and forth between Pradeep and Sub-Inspector Manohar, Pradeep asks – “What non-sense is this?”

The camera angle is behind the Sub-Inspector over his right shoulder looking towards Pradeep, and the Policeman stands fully. You see Pradeep’s eyes going up to follow the rise. Then the camera pans to the front of the Inspector and he says – “We call it the Law. (Kanoon kehte hain isse)”. The menace in his eyes is enough to make Pradeep realize the shift. Brilliant cinematography, writing and acting.

These days when we have certain political camps in the Indian film industry, I was surprised to see Ravi Kishan in a movie produced by Aamir Khan’s production house. If you believe the stories in the media, Aamir represents the secular left in the political spectrum. Ravi Kishan is a Member of Parliament from the right leaning Bharatiya Janata Party, that too from the Gorakhpur constituency. The twain should never come together. But they came together and created magic.

Laapata Ladies is India’s official entry to the Oscars. I hope the overseas viewers watching the movie understand the nuances of time and geography. The movie is a heartwarming story with characters which capture the essence of rural India of the times. As I have written in my previous post, the movie is time well spent for you.