As you get out of the theatre, you feel you've seen a sleek, racy, supercrisp Hollywood action movie. None of the baggage that the typical Hindi commercial films have: just two hours, no songs—not even an item number—subdued acting, tight editing, no overwrought emotional crescendos. As one viewer told me, "It's so delicious it leaves a good aftertaste." Ab Tak 56's plot is simple and based on the real-life experience of Mumbai's controversial encounter cops. Reel-life Sadhu Agashe (Nana Patekar) heads the crack "special force" team whose job is to track down criminals and eliminate them in either real or fake encounters. And they are backed by their police commissioners (except the last one); even the politicians dare question them only sheepishly.
What makes AT56 eminently watchable is that most events are not exaggerated or unusually dramatised. Daya Naik, a real-life encounter cop whose activities the film is rumoured to have been inspired by, has told the media that, just like the first scene of the movie, he found it difficult to kill a scared man. So, he would make him laugh and then shoot him. Others have admitted they pick up known criminals, question them, and then bump them off just the way AT56 shows it. It's an open secret that they keep a count of the people they have killed, as does Sadhu's immediate junior, Imtiaz. The refreshing and essential factor: Patekar has not been allowed to overact. Even when his wife is killed, his reactions are subdued. And, so contrary to what you would expect, the interactions between Dubai-based don Zaheer and Sadhu are hilarious.
The one thing that doesn't gel perfectly is the twist in the tale, the anti-climax. Zaheer knows everything about his rival gang and the actions of Sadhu's team, except one critical fact. The Dubai don bases his strategy to woo Sadhu on a wrong presumption. Then, there are the minor inconsistencies. How come no policeman, except Imtiaz who is killed by his own men, dies even in real encounters? How come Sadhu just walks out of the don's home and no one stops him? How did Ramgopal Varma produce a movie that's even sleeker than Satya, Company, Bhoot, Ek Hasina Thi...?
US Top 5
1. The Passion
2. Secret Window
3. Starsky & Hutch
4. Hidalgo
5. Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
INDIAN Top 5
1. Ab Tak 56
2. Munnabhai MBBS
3. Khakee
4. Insaaf: The Justice
5. Love in Nepal
Courtesy: Film Information
