Is Madaari the biggest dark horse of 2016?

“Baaz chooze pe jhapta utha le gaya…kahani sachchi lagti hai lekin achchi nahi lagti.”

“Baaz pe palatvaar hua...kahani sachi nahi lagti...lekin khuda kasam bahut achchi lagtee hai.”

Ok, my frontbencher gut is super excited ever since I saw the trailer of ‘Madaari’. And remember you read it here first that this is the biggest dark horse of 2016 and I will be very surprised if this one does not rake in strong numbers at the box office.

The trailer of Irrfan Khan-starrer is creating ripples and is garnering accolades; will this film set the cash registers ringing or will it nose dive? The film is all set to release on June 15

Never before have two lines of interesting plot revealed with such impact. Delivered with cold ruthlessness filled voice of a man, who is possessed with seeking retribution and it was delivered with an earthly ferocity, which only Irrfan Khan is capable of.

This man has arrived big time. Pitted against him is the controlled energy of Jimmy Shergill. His simmering dissent was in full flow in the Tigmanshu Dhulia classic ‘Sahib Biwi aur Gangster’.

The trailer does reveal to us that this is a cat and mouse thriller between a by the book cop and a man, who has set no rules for himself. That is always a simple premise to work on; it is the presenter, who can make all the difference. This one is brought to us again by the man who is slowly evolving as the king of this genre.

Nishikant Kamat has two stellar achievements under his belt in the “Good guys’ vs Bad guys’” genre. The first one is ‘Force’. This one was a big surprise winner of 2011. It pitted John Abraham against one of our coldest confident menacing villainy of Vishnu played with such casual efficiency by Vidyut Jamwal.

Too bad he switched into hero mode with ‘Commando’ but in ‘Force’ Vidyut completely takes away the show from John Abraham. Vishnu has no rules he will strike any which way to make a point.

The point is I rule the city don’t mess with my den. Yash (John) and his bunch of cops get into a game of strikes with him from where only one comes out alive. ‘Force’ is a well-made thriller watchable event today on a lazy Sunday noon.

The other one, which ranks on a pedestal according to me, is ‘Drishyam’. This one is a story of an underdog, who quickly braces himself and becomes the anchor around a happy go lucky middle-class family of a sleepy sea beach town binds itself.

The reason he has to be that anchor is when in unavoidable circumstances the son of a top cop is killed by his wife. Vijay (Ajay Devgan) has a capable adversary Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) -- a woman, who is a ruthless cop and a mother blind enough not to see her son’s dark side.

‘Drishyam’ was the most thrilling controlled “cat vs mouse” on the Indian screen. Where you discover in the end that we got the characters of both the cat (Tabu) and the mouse (Ajay) wrong. ‘Drishyam’ is a chess player’s delight.

The beauty of both these movies is the high stakes, where both the parties involved get into an all or nothing fight. You stay with the underdog obviously but the power of the dark guys in both these movies is scarily chilling. That is what Kamat brings to the table in both the movies.

There is another thing that makes me wait for ‘Madaari’. We are all underdogs. We love it when we hear tales of a wrong being set right against the powerful ones.

We like it when people stand up and take the fight to those who become insolent and uncaring when they get power. ‘Madaari’ is the tale of that avenger who comes asking tough questions and will take his answers any which way.

‘Madaari’ feels like our own story though maybe not as tragic as the one which is shown on the screen. Therefore, while the nation is absorbed into a debate on the censorship of a film, which has a trailer offering us nothing beyond cuss words, yes I am talking ‘Udta Punjab’. I would rather not fly. I am walking to walk the rope with this ‘Madaari’ and counting minutes for June 10 to watch the film.

By:Rahul Deo Bharadwaj