Web Series IPF: Disappointing and Just A Simplified Time Pass!

Rohit Shetty’s directorial abilities are at stake, as far as the supposed OTT version of his famed police franchise is concerned. The first and the best movie of the franchise continues to remain to be Singham (2011); even though the Singham sequels and other movies like Simmba (2018) and Suryavanshi (2021) are fairly gripping and absorbing. But Indian Police Force-Season 1 (IPF)  that release on Amazon Prime Video recently is not. Obviously, the ebullient director has not properly concentrated on developing the plot and the script. His favorite scenes of cars crashing and blasting in air, punchy fights and elaborate gun-fights and chases are all there; but he should’ve understood that such scenes, though very well shot, do not create the desired effect on the small screen as these do on the big screens of PVRs, INOXs, Cinepolis’s and so on. Even if we overlook this particular aspect, we’re in for further disappointment as the action drama unfolds.

There’s just no suspense in the cop saga as it goes on with the most predictable turns and twists. The main characters of the IPF—all cops—looked promising with Sidharth Malhotra, Vivek Oberoi and Shilpa Shetty carrying the story with élan and a likeable and endearing rapport between them as well as with the Chief cop played by Mukesh Rishi. But in a perplexing development of the script the character of Vivek Oberoi was knocked off, barely into the third episode, which knocked us off too as we were getting excited at having the trio with the tough cop Sharad Kelkar joining later (in fact, he came in the last episode) in the Seasons to follow, and the act also put paid to our hopes of watching Vivek’s wife Shweta Tiwari’s future exploits. One more similar casualty unfolded too—the dead wife of the hero cop Siddharth played by Isha Talwar putting up lovely flashback scenes with Sidharth, leaving us perplexed as to why she should be dead, because Kabir, the character played by Sidharth, doesn’t at all look like a frustrated, depressed and consequently a trigger-happy cop. I think the knocking off of Vivek and presenting a dead Isha Talwar are the two cardinal mistakes of Rohit, pushing a building-up lively drama to the dead wall. More resultant woe is still in store.

The killing of Vikram, played by Vivek Oberoi, has somehow deadlocked the story itself, because it led to the transfer of Kabir to an insignificant department thanks to some politics in the highest circles we are led to believe, and this has created a most unnecessary time-interval in the drama that was actually building up through the first three episodes. The sleeper-cell leader terrorist played by Mayyank Taandon has become triumphant and taken his time to reappear in a different city for another round of serial blasts as our hero Kabir keeps on struggling to join the investigations, even clandestinely.

Apart from the goings-on in the police circles the simplification antics are all there to watch: the kids with the time bomb and another kid helping to draw a sketch of the dreaded terrorist; one ominous-looking drug lord of Goa wanting to kill both Kabir and Tara Shetty (Shilpa Shetty) in his den, but not going for the guns at all, and finally escaping from his own den after the exhaustive fist-fighting utterly exhausts his army of goons; the dreadful-looking elderly woman who turns up with the main terrorist wherever be it and whatever be the situation; the main aide of terrorist captured alive is kept in an unguarded police van from where he simply runs away while the cops didn’t even bother to find out if the aide had any information about another bomb; almost all of the operations against the terrorist hideouts, ostensibly in collaboration of police and ATS, look simplified too by being devoid of any strong strategy and the terrorists keep on winning. Notwithstanding the patriotic fervor that never ceases to singe the proceedings throughout.

While we cannot escape from the rather obvious fact that the IPF is basically aimed at boosting the sagging image of Delhi Police, we also smell an elitist bias in the Series as all the hero-cops shown are from IPF (read Indian Police Service) with the possible exception of the tough bulky cop Nikitin Dheer whose affiliation was never clear, and all other non-IPF junior cops shown only manage to get the bullets from the terrorists. Maybe this bias is to be taken care of in the coming Seasons.

However, I don’t quite agree to the general criticism that the terrorist doesn’t look inhibiting and deadly. I think the character is very much in sync with the modern-day terrorists who are always highly educated, civilized, suave and just like the next-door boy. And Zarar alias Haidar does look ominous and chilling as he nonchalantly handles the time bombs and equally impassively places them at the crowded junctions. But again, what harms the script hard is his romantic angle built-up in unnecessary elaboration with his love, the innocent Nafisa played by Vaidehi Parshurami.

Rohit Shetty would do well to come up with much more gripping and mature Seasons in the future. With a stellar cast, though rather diminished, at his full command and with an explosive subject like this anything is possible for the better.