Anurag Kashyap’s slow but steady downfall should be studied in film institutes. It’s truly spectacular that the man who made influential films like Black Friday, Gangs of Wasseypur, and Mukkabaaz and helmed a show like Sacred Games is struggling to connect with viewers. When he was at the top of his game, his political opinions resonated with people. Now, it sounds like a whole lot of noise. He frequently goes on social media to diss the artists who have given him their blood, sweat, and tears to turn his dreams into reality, while celebrating problematic artists just because they are the flavor of the month. Then there are his attempts at acting. He was great in AK vs. AK; I’ll give him that. But since 2016, he has been in around ten acting roles, and all of them have been varying levels of bad. And just when it seemed like things couldn’t get worse for Kashyap, he arrived on the small screen with Bad Cop.
Disclaimer: This review of Bad Cop is based on the six episodes that were provided to the press by Disney+ Hotstar.
Aditya Datt’s Bad Cop tells the story of twins Karan and Arjun. Karan is a police officer. He is married to Devika. They have a daughter together. However, their relationship has been hampered because Karan can’t digest the fact that Devika is his boss. They get into frequent arguments regarding Karan’s professionalism as well as his inability to be a responsible father and a loving husband. On the flip side, Arjun has led a life of violence and petty crimes. He is in a relationship with Kiki, and they go around posh hotels scamming rich people. While conducting one such heist, they witness a murder, which puts Arjun in the crosshairs of DCP Arif. In order to get out of this mess, Arjun gets in touch with Karan. However, a bunch of unseen assailants use this opportunity to gun down both Karan and Arjun. Only one of them comes out of it alive, and nobody knows if it’s Karan or Arjun. And the guy who is pulling all the crime-related strings, which connect the death that Arjun witnessed as well as the assassination attempt, is the jailed gangster, Kazbe.
Let’s get this straight: Bad Cop has nothing new to say. Gangsters are smuggling stuff that’s considered illegal. Politicians are backing these gangsters because they are getting a cut of the money. There are quite a few dishonest cops who are facilitating this crime racket. There are a few good cops who are trying to keep the streets clean. In addition to all that, there’s the protagonist, who is trying to avenge his presumably deceased twin brother. We’ve seen these plots and subplots a hundred times, and they have become stale. With all that said, I would’ve preferred a super derivative rehash of tired old tropes over this Anurag Kashyap-centric nonsense. The show has a bunch of writers, but it seems like Kashyap has just hijacked the narrative so that every other scene can revolve around him, even if his character doesn’t progress the plot in any substantial way. There are points in the show where it seems like Kashyap isn’t even following the script. He is just saying stuff on his own, and he doesn’t care if it’s fleshing out Kazbe or the world around him or not.
The ironic thing about Kashyap’s turn as Kazbe is that he has critiqued characters like him through the movies he has directed and the scripts that he has written. But here he is, reveling in the cliches of a character that is derivative as hell. He laughs maniacally. He dances maniacally. He bathes maniacally. He gets his beard shaved maniacally. He poops maniacally. There’s no nuance to the way the character is written or the way Datt chooses to direct Kashyap. Datt’s uninspired storytelling isn’t limited to Kashyap, though. Every other scene feels more like an obligation than a well of emotion, thrill, or suspense. The editing and cinematography are fine. The flashbacks are annoying. There are some ambitious flourishes during Bad Cop’s action sequences, which are kind of undone by the shoddy VFX and CGI. Still, I’ll commend Datt and the team behind the action scenes for trying to inject some kind of energy into the viewing experience by flipping the actors and the vehicles. However, every time the focus shifted from the lame drama and action to Kashyap, I struggled to keep myself away from the “sign out” button.
Even though it seems like I have critiqued Kashyap a lot, I don’t think it’s enough because his acting in Bad Cop is one of the worst things that I have seen this year. Now, I wouldn’t have minded it if this wasn’t the umpteenth time he was giving a performance like this and if he wasn’t going on mindless offscreen rants about the state of the industry. See, if you are good at your job, it’s okay if you’re arrogant. When you’re in your element, your critique of the profession you are in sounds educational. But if you are as bad as Kashyap is in the role of Kazbe, I think you need to shut the hell up, introspect about where you’ve gone wrong in your life, and seek to improve. And if you think that there’s no room for improvement, I think you should leave the limelight for others who are way more talented than you are. That brings me to show stealer Gulshan Devaiah, and other performers like Aishwarya Sushmita, Saurabh Sachdeva, and Harleen Sethi. There’s no denying that they are talented as hell, and they do make the show somewhat watchable. However, the writing around their characters is so bad that, no matter how hard they try, they fail to get you to relate to their journeys.
I have tried to put myself in the shoes of the casting director of Bad Cop to understand the thought process behind the casting of Anurag Kashyap, and I have failed to find the reason behind this decision. What did Kashyap bring to the role of Kazbe that no other actor could’ve brought? Did the algorithm tell the makers that Kashyap will get the eyeballs they need to greenlight a second season of this show? What is it? I don’t know, and I think I don’t want to know because I’m sure the answer will be as depressing as the act of watching this show. If it’s not clear already, please steer clear of Bad Cop. Go and watch some good crime dramas. Go and watch some of Kashyap’s old stuff. Heck, take some of his older projects and show them to him so that he finds his mojo again. If he is unwilling to accept his reality, though, suggest a good retirement plan for him and ensure that he stays away from anything that’s synonymous with entertainment.
