Anger about the politican. Review on Madaari

Madaari isn't the first Hindi film to advocate a brand of vigilantism that borders on the fascist. Nor is it likely to be the last.

But its point about the deadly distortions of democracy is terribly laboured and sketchily articulated.

Terms like instant justice, kangaroo court, media trial, rule of law and ideal voter are bandied about.

They do not eventually add up to much because the tale of loss and retribution that Madaari sets out to narrate is lost in a heap of cliches.

Besides its distractingly loud background score, the film's biggest drawback is the superficially defined character of the abducted boy(Vishesh Bansal).

He is projected as a bright kid who knows his onions better than most lads his age.

That would have been perfectly fine had he not been as precocious as he turns out to be. An eight-year-old holding forth on the Stockholm syndrome is a bit much.

I hate you, the boy says to his captor at one point in the film when the former is laid low by a stomach bug. The latter retorts: "Your hate doesn't matter. My hate. it matters. I could be much worse."

In another scene, Nirmal Kumar declares: "I will not wrap up my story. I will leave it incomplete."

He carries out neither of the two threats. He never directs his coiled-up rage at the boy and he also takes his tale to its logical end.

Unfortunately, by the time Madaari gets there, the hero's life and death gambit turns into a disappointingly tame, mechanical rigmarole.

But all said and done, Madaari might be worth the price of a multiplex ticket solely for Irrfan's flawless one-man show.