Risk: Nothing new to offer

Director Vishram Sawant returns with another underworld based film after the engrossing D. This time he opts to narrate the story from a cop's point of view. There is no doubt the film is fairly decent with some good scenes but the problem is that we have seen it before in other versions. In fact, Risk looks like a sequel to Ab Tak Chappan, as it is loosely based on real-life Mumbai encounter specialist Daya Nayak.

Suryakant (Randeep Hooda), a tough and honest encounter specialist has become a major hindrance to Mumbai's underworld-politician nexus. Suryakant is hell bent on finishing the undisputed underworld don Khalid's (Vinod Khanna) gang and the rival gang headed by Naidu (Zakir Hussain). Bangkok-based Khalid is not only aided by Mumbai's top cops but also the scheming politician Deviki (Seema Biswas). When Suryakant is not shooting gangsters, he meets his lady-love Shradha (Tanushree Dutta), a singer, who is frustrated with him as beyond an occasional hug, they hardly indulge in any romance.

Suryakant lands up behind bars for taking on the might of Khalid and realises that the only way he can fight against the underworld is to take the risk of playing the game as per their rules, not his.

Hardly are you into the film that you get a sense of déjà vu with sequences seen before umpteen times. To Sawant's credit, the narration is gripping, but only in the first-half, losing some steam in the second-half. The love angle between Hooda and Dutta is very weak. The best part of the film is that there is just one song and dance
number, a rarity in Bollywood films.

Khanna has got a very good role in his comeback film and has delivered a convincing performance. Hooda's body language is in sync with the character of an encounter specialist and has delivered another credible performance after D. But he has been continuously slotted in grim-looking, no-nonsense roles and has to look at different roles to prove his versatility. Dutta has nothing to her credit barring the colourful Hichki number. Hussain lends very good support but at times goes over the top. Biswas is effective. The editing is sharp and the background score leaves an impact.

Bollywood nowadays is looking to enter unchartered territory with novel scripts, but Sawant's Risk is nothing but another cops-and-gangster flick. The excellent performances therefore, is a relief.

Critic's Warning: Violent scenes and invectives. Not suitable for children.