Ram Gopal Varma has always been fascinated by the underworld. His obsession with Mumbai’s crime world again manifests itself in Nagarjuna-starrer Officer, where he focuses on rampant corruption in the police force.
Shivaji Rao (Nagarjuna) from Hyderabad is appointed as the special investigation officer to look into one Mr Narayan Pasari, who is believed to have connections with the underworld. The police force, however, is divided as many believe Pasari is the reason why underworld has been eliminated in Mumbai.
Shivaji, with the help of his team, starts investigating and finds out that there is truth to the accusations against Pasari. He finds a witness and confronts Pasari who is speechless. Shivaji submits proof and leaves the law to take its due course. And as this progression takes place on screen, the only interesting thing is the visuals. They are fluent and unique, but not flawless.
For instance, the title credit scene of Mumbai at night, moving fast and waiting for no one, indicates how the film is supposed to be perceived. The fact that the story doesn’t move at that pace drags the film down.
Certain shots are beautiful, but thanks to the obsession that the maker has with limbs, we see some unattractive armpits too. Throughout the film, there are shots of the fist or the movement of the legs that give a fresh perspective to clichéd scenes. One of the impressive scenes in the film is when Pasari is brought in to be updated about the investigation and finds out that the truth is out. The 360 degree pan as he comes to terms with the statement in front of him is remarkable.
Of the many things, one heard about Officer, the speculation that this was based on Hollywood film Taken was rampant after the song Navve Navvu was released featuring Shivaji and his daughter. RGV has, however, gone the commercial route and only used the daughter as a pawn to get the story to move forward.
After the interval, Shivaji turns from a predator into prey. Pasari manipulates evidence and has the department believe that Shivaji is a bad egg, and he is forced to become a vigilante.
It is not a thrilling cat and mouse chase, and drags on. As it does, I cannot but notice how Officer has no regard for public safety, especially that of kids — except maybe his own. In one scene, he trips over a kid who gets hurt because of his shootout, in another scene, one kid gets shot, but all Shivaji is concerned about is keeping himself and his daughter safe.
After sitting through 124 minutes of shootouts and mad lip syncs, Officer starts feeling like Ram Gopal Varma’s Twitter account — most of it does not make sense, and the tweets that do are mediocre.
Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC
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