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Risk

Movie Risk Director Vishram Sawant Producer Parag Sanghavi Music Akbar Sami Cast Vinod Khanna, Randeep Hooda, Tanushree Datta, Seema Biswas

Deepa Gahlot

At various points in this film, characters say, �Itna to risk lena padta hai� (This much of a risk has to be taken), which makes you think, if that is so, why didn�t Vishram Sawant take a risk with a fresh subject and style? Sawant belongs to the Ram Gopal Varma school of filmmaking; his first film D about a ruthless don played by Randeep Hooda (laconic, deadpan), was not a hit, but the director�s work, was appreciated. However, if he makes his second film�Risk�with a stale subject and same derivative style, then he ought to be upbraided too. In recent times there have been a dozen films about upright cops battling powerful mafia dons. Risk takes direct inspiration from Ab Tak Chappan and Kagaar, but scenes from various cop films find their way into it, making the viewer feel a strong sense of d�j� vu. Earlier films about �Encounter Specialist� cops at least raised the human interest angle, Suryakant Satam (Hooda, again laconic and deadpan), the protagonist of Risk, shoots down gangsters mercilessly and goes after the Bangkok based head honcho Khalid (Vinod Khanna) with manic zeal. The director, of course, counts on the fact that audiences won�t have any problems seeing criminals with forgettable faces being gunned down one after the other, but after such scenes are constantly repeated, it gets disturbing. We do not have a system in which the police force is free and above board. The possibility of misuse of power to settle personal scores does not even enter the director�s mind. Suryakant sullenly tells a questioning superior (who happens to be corrupt) that he only kills gangsters, but what if an innocent bystander does get shot, who takes responsibility? Sawant is not even interested in serious and important issues, he is just content with dividing the world neatly into cops and thugs-- the former have license to kill, for the latter it is a professional hazard. They either get shot dead by cops or by rival gangsters, piling up a high body count. What is more annoying is that Sawant just dips into the pool of RGV actors, who play more or less the same roles that they have done in other films. The only new faces are Vinod Khanna (who deserved a better part in his much-publicized comeback) and maybe Seema Biswas as a politician-cum-don. Suryakant pretends to sell out and then nails the big don, after a convoluted and entirely implausible series of manipulations � is it that easy to kill the home minister and walk out undetected? There is no way of telling if a sullen Randeep Hooda has any talent, till he does a �normal� role. For that matter there is no way of judging Vishram Sawant�s talent, till he does a film that steps out of Mumbai�s underbelly. And out of RGV�s Factory mode.