Class of ‘83 Review: The Class of ’83 will be able to fairly entertain you in its run-time. Though Bollywood already has had a lot of cop-based movies talking about loyalty to the police department, the dedication towards their work, etc. The Class of ’83 is a bit out of the league since it does not idealize the police department and strives to show its reality.
Class of ’83 is based on a novel of the same name by S. Hussain Zaidi. Zaidi has had a long career in writing and reporting on the gang-warfare and real-life crime in Mumbai. The plot in this novel of his is also not much different than the previous ones.
The plot of the movie unfolds against the backdrop of Bombay (then) going through a major churn. The cotton mill workers and their owners were being vanquished by the political giants and of course, the real estate sharks.
With the closing down of the mills in Bombay, there was ought to be an overflow of money. Legal money along with illegal money which was extorted through many ways like smuggling of counterfeit currency, and gold. All this overflow of money attracted many local leaders to develop different gangs in Mumbai.
In the starting scenes of the movie, we are introduced to the class of ’83 who are undergoing training at the Nashik Police training academy in 1982. Five back-benchers who are best buddies- Surve, Jadhav, Aslam, Shukla, and Varde are chosen by Dean Vijay Singh (Abhay Deol) for an extraordinary mission to cleanse the Mumbai police and order from within.
This was the time when serious instances of corruption had begun appearing and it was worrisome for Vijay Singh since he was the good cop of the department. But he was sent on a punishment posting by Chief Minister Manohar Patkar (Soni).
Torn between his own personal and professional failures in life, Vijay sets out on a mission to train the five friends in order to create a special squad that will work under no jurisdiction. He finds their independent streak of work very enchanting and therefore, deemed them best suited for the work.
As and when these young police officers join the police force, they get involved in the mission they were trained for. Gangster Kalsekar has been a nightmare for the Mumbai police department because of his high reaches in both the crime world and the government. If anyone tries to arrest him or press charges against him, they are sent on a punishment posting like Vijay Singh.
Because of all the firewalls around him, it is near about difficult to reach him. The students of Dean Vijay Singh set out on a killing spree, trying their hands desperately at killing anyone vaguely related to Kalsekar in a bid to reach him.
Amidst all this, there is a mention of another gang gaining importance in the city of Mumbai- the Naik gang. Now begins the gang war in which both the gangs set out to bribe the already corrupt police department. Shukla, Jadhav, Varde, and Surve- all of them get their hands dirty in this corruption mud. There is also a rift between them since half of them start working for one gang while the other half starts working for some other gang.
All of this makes Class of ’83 a fun watch. The mention of Datta Samanta, the mention of the escalating terrorism in Punjab, and the trail of AK47s entering Mumbai have given a very realistic touch to the Class of ’83.
The strong sense of realism coupled with the vivid use of colors, especially in the shooting scenes will help you get the natural picture of the 1980s Bombay. The use of Marathi language frequently also adds to the regional diaspora of the movie.
In the class of ’83 review, I would like to say that what attracts most as an audience is that the plot is told in a very undidactic manner, the narrative of Aslam is used in the movie to fill in the gaps for the audience. It is often seen that the cop-based movies generally assume a didactic and preachy tone after some time into the movie. It sometimes gets too much for the audience.
Also, the use of normal conversational language and giving a skip to the heavy dialogues synonymous with these movies is applaud-worthy. The absence of severe action scenes that are a bit unbelievable for the audience has also added to the overall realistic nature of the movie.
Strong performances have been derived out of all the characters. It will be fairly easy to say that all the actors play their part perfectly. Bobby Deol being the forerunner with his greying hair and the sharp demeanor of an honest police officer is a fresh thing for the audience. Others like Joy Sengupta, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Bhupendra Jadawat, Anup Soni, Sameer Paranjape, Prithivik Pratap, Ninad Mahajani, Ravi Singh, and Hitesh Bhojraj have also been great in their roles.
But in the Class of ’83 review, the screenplay by Abhijeet Deshpande lacks some vital moments which could translate the movie into something very impressive. The screenplay sometimes seems flaky as, in some parts, some forceful attempts have been made to make the characters have a background story.
The tight editing by Manas Mittal and Nitin Baid has made the class of ’83 a very precise and compact movie which is a good thing. Mario Poljac’s layered lighting service and fluid camerawork as a cinematographer have created mood-enhancing, evocative atmospherics.
FILMING OF THE BATMAN MOVIE TO BE RESUMED IN SEPTEMBER
The background score by Viju Shah has managed to complement the overall screenplay very efficiently.
AJAY DEVGN IS GOING TO PRODUCE A MOVIE ON GALWAN VALLEY INCIDENT
Class of ’83 does not manage to get fully in tune with its audience, but it surely manages to provide entertainment to its audience in a compact manner. You can watch the class of ’83 if you are interested in the cop drama and also if you have missed Bobby Deol in a long time now. The class of ’83 review will be entertaining for you and a bit informational also since it shows the reality of Bombay from the 1980s.
The class of ‘3 is currently streaming on Netflix.
11 MOVIES OF IRRFAN KHAN YOU MUST WATCH
