A minimum-fuss crime drama

the scribe does. A subtle illustration of a power-shift that says so much about the socio-economic equations of Mumbai.

The journalist’s character remains a kind of sutradhar. By the end of the film we really don’t know who is in the crime folds for the money and who’s there for the power.

who has shown some sensitivity in handling the man-woman relationship, chose to make this film is mystery solvable only by the actors who agreed to be part of the endeavour.

FiLm: Teri Meri Kahaani

CaSt: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra

DireCtOr: Kunal Kohli

Hence our ‘hero’ Pratap (based on a real-life encounter specialist) is shown to kill criminals, extort money from builders and businessman and hobnob with the powerful and profance. And yet he returns home to a loving wife (Neha Dhupia) and a daughter. The father-daughter scenes are done with a tremulous tenderness.

Sonu invests immense emotion in these scenes. His performance takes him through several moral dilemmas. years pass. Sonu’s body language expresses the deplorable shift in power equations. Here’s a performance that again proves this underrated actor’s unimpeachable versatility.

“When you are slipping you either fight back or you keep quiet,” he tells his journalistfriend, played by Amit Sadh. They share keema-pao at an Irani restaurant. Where the cop used to pay, now, years later,

Maximum is a film that’s far more in-charge of its out-of-control sharp-shooting cops than it seems. yes, there have been any number of films about encounter cops. But this one gets at the underbelly of desolation and isolation of such cops as effectively as Shimit Amin’s Ab Tak Chappan There are some brilliantly executed shootouts.

A layered sharp and sagacious look at the internecine world of encounter cops, Maximum is a minimum-fuss crime drama where the characters are so austere in their emotions they somehow seem to be constantly shadow-dancing with their conscience.

The performances by sonu and Naseer Shah propel the plot to a gripping summit. But there isn’t enough of Naseer. Vinay Pathak as a UP politician and

Amit as a journalist, both trying to make sense of Mumbai’s confounding cosmopolitanism, add considerably to the film’s powerful personality.

For Sonu Maximum is a new beginning.

FiLm: Maximum

CaSt: Naseeruddin Shah, Sonu Sood, Neha Dhupia, Amit Sadh, and Vinay Pathak

WRITeR-DIReCToR: Kabeer Kaushik