What Mumbai cops think of Bollywood's portrayal of them

The image of the policeman in the movies needs a clean-up.

Evidently, the image of the policeman in the movies needs a clean-up - and fast. A while back, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a plea, in one of his public addresses, exhorting filmmakers to portray cops as "smart" lawkeepers.
In fact, by and large, the police force, especially in Mumbai, has constantly complained that they are depicted in poor light. Down the decades, the average cop - constable or commissioner - of the Bollywood screen has been corrupt, trigger-happy and in hand-in-glove with criminals. Not surprisingly, then, to redress the balance in favour of the police constabulary and high-ranking officers, Salman Khan recently announced the production of a TV series that will go on air around the year-end.
The various episodes will detail the occupational hazards faced by the police. Nope, the lead roles will not be enacted by professional actors but by achievers from the Mumbai task force. Propagandist element apart, the project does seem to be unusual since it will, let's hope, depend more on fact than fiction. Whether Khan himself will feature in the series as an anchor has not been disclosed yet.
Meanwhile, the ensemble cast of the detective anthology C.I.D. - led by the fine character actor Shivaji Satam as a feisty assistant commissioner of police - has earned the status of the longest-running show ever on Indian television.
Its first episode was aired way back in 1998, and it still continues to captivate viewers on the prime-time slot on weekends. Incidentally, in 2004, the show entered the Guinness Book of World Records for its single-shot episode that spanned 111 minutes. Whether the series produced by Salman Khan can equal its popularity, of course, remains to be seen.
Ever since the invention of cinema, thrillers relating to crime and punishment have been a given across world's film-producing centres. Like Hollywood, Bollywood has belted out the genre without any let-up. Indeed, a police station with the inspector's office furnished with a functional desk, a chart of statistics, portraits of legendary political leaders and the paraphernalia of handcuffs and prison-cell keys, has featured in every second B-town film.
For years, the police officer often with a covert agenda of his own, was played by the late Jagdish Raj in 144 movies, a record-breaking feat of typecasting, which was also recognised by the Guinness Book. The actor slipped into the khaki uniform with such ease that he was irreplaceable. If Raj had a rival in this sphere, it was Iftekhar, who added a suave and smooth edge to scores of parts which, on paper, seemed strictly hackneyed. Yet, one of his most accomplished acts happened to be in Deewaar (1975), not as a cop but as a devious industrialist.
A cross-section of Mumbai cops I've met over time complain that the uniforms donned by the cops in the movies do not take authenticity into account. Also, in reality, policemen cannot sport long hair and neither do they burst into songs while driving official cars. Point out that these are but dramatic licences and they say, fine, but why ghetto-ise them as ruthless encounter specialists or as acolytes of political heavyweights? There are "bad apples", they admit, but why place the majority of them in the same basket?
So do the cops have any favourites among their counterparts on screen? They give a thumbs up to Amitabh Bachchan (Zanjeer, 1973), Shashi Kapoor (Deewaar, 1975), Vinod Khanna (Amar Akbar Anthony, 1977), Om Puri (Ardh Satya, 1983), Manoj Bajpayee (Shool, 1999), Aamir Khan (Sarfarosh, 1999; Talaash, 2012) Ajay Devgn (Gangaajal, 2003; Singham, 2011), Nana Patekar (Ab Tak Chhappan, 2004), Akshay Kumar (Khakee, 2004) and Salman Khan (Dabangg, 2010).
Not all the favourites conform to the squeaky-clean image. As a sub-inspector puts it, "We can accept criticism and we do enjoy seeing the lighter side of us, as in Amar Akbar Anthony. But that is rare. Moreover, which human being doesn't have shades of grey? All I'd request is don't make us out to be totally evil, please!"
Occasionally, a woman cop has been made the pivot of a movie. Some examples: Hema Malini (Andha Kanoon, 1983), Dimple Kapadia (Zakhmi Aurat, 1988), Vijayashanti (Tejasvini, 1994), Rani Mukerji (Mardaani, 2014), Tabu (Drishyam, 2015) and Priyanka Chopra (Jai Gangaajal, 2016). These don't seem to have a recall value among the police force though, most of whom state, "But where's the time for us to take a movie break? We watch most of them when we can snatch a few hours at home on television."
Right. So one thing seems to be certain. When it does air, the Salman Khan-piloted television series is more than likely to attract viewers from the Mumbai police force. And you can bet they will also be its most trenchant critics.
wknd@khaleejtimes.com