please farce

An Inside Story is the obligatory English suffixal decorator for a movie called Police Force[sic], starring Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon, Amrish Puri, Mohan Joshi, Govind Namdeo, Alok Nath, and Raj Babbar. An ambitious description of the film includes several apocrypha like it's being based on a book called "Carnage of Angels" (scroll down and there's a response from "Dilip Shukla" the director of the film -- ? -- refuting this claim). Essentially, this film is the new avataar of an old Akshay Kumar flick called Vidroh {see also: Screen's Ali Peter John waxing effulgent praise and hope}. Dilip Shukla used to be an editor, but that doesn't speak much for this flick itself. If you want dessicated formula product, look no further. Everything hammers déjà vu down your spine. An ambitious police trainee (SI trainee badge number 26) is transformed by vicious political machination into a vigilante, while his principle-driven mentor (Puri) looks on helplessly. Anand-Milind dish out dollops of classic 80s/90s punchy musical numbers that echo and foreshadow classic Nadeem-Shravan, could masquerade as Govinda numbers, and clearly belong in the collection of B-soundtrack afficionados. The silly plot and all other junk aside, here's what you can look forward to in this sorry piece of work:

* The first song of the film o mere yaar kar de ishaaraa (dil churaayaa aap ne) ends with a weak attempt at a vertigo zoom!

* Amrish Puri's catch-phrase is you bloody jokers

* A multiplex is screening Deewangee and Leela

* Raj Babbar goes into the stratosphere of ham with his performance as the corrupt Ratan Sethi (correction: R-A-A-T-A-N, mai.n ##double A## likahtaa huu.N). The first time we see him is at a flower exhibition ("real-lee gawd's kree-ay-tion is phan-tie-stick. eats-grate")

* Rami Reddy returns to spout classic lines like apanaa ekiich: ##deal## me.n ga.Dba.D nahii.n, kaam me.n ##doubt## nahii.n and idhar ek ##police##waalaa muulii kaa pattaa suu.Ng le to saare ##department## ko zukaam lag jaatii hai.

* That the police station is a set is clearly indicated by the board outside that reads "POLICE HEAD QUARTER". Gruesome, what?

* There's this attempt at solidarity as Akki assists a Gujju shopkeeper, Raj Babbar visits a Maharashtrian home and speaks Marathi (yikes!).

* Asha Lata turns in a Lata-Mangeshkar performance as she shrieks and shatters the biosphere as Akki's mother (little wonder he decided to join the Police Force: anything to get away from manic mama!)