Agni IPS

In the 90s, there was a spate of films in Bangalore which were about local gangs wielding machetes and harassing women. Pretty bad films overall. In this mêlée came a small bout of efforts which showed ultra aggressive policemen protecting the commoner and the culture of the land. The memorable ones were those starring Sai Kumar, a voice artist turned film actor.

He came with anger and words. He would take down whole criminal gangs all by himself in the morning and still find time to lecture drunk young people in the evening. A recurring theme of his films was of invoking nation builders of times gone by. Mahatma Gandhi's bust has a long scene with the lead actor. So frustrated is he with society's lack of morality that he blames freedom itself.

Sai Kumar chews this role up. To be clear, no one else would want to bite into this, for it is over the top and quite profane for a general release picture. But he brings to it a sense of theatrical charm and a quirky rhythm of dialogue that, if you understand Kannada, you'll find irresistible.

The rest of the cast is mere prop for him. I don't quite know why B Saroja Devi is acting in this. This is so not her type of movie. I also don't quite know why this needs a heroine, a sad mother archetype and songs (pretty ordinary ones at that). All this film needed was scenes of Sai Kumar humiliating criminals and arguing finer points of democracy with varied sculptures. That's it.

I find Police Story, a film that preceded this, to be better than this. But this is not too far behind if you can ignore the ludicrous side of things. Sai Kumar is in fine form, and that is all that matters.