Aan: honour lost in action

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br />Film: <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Aan - Men at work</span><br />Director: Madhur Bhandarkar<br />Cast: Khakis, guns, a plane and a helicopter<br />Verdict: <img src="/photo/720682.cms" alt="/photo/720682.cms" border="0" /><br /><br /><img src="/photo/720683.cms" alt="/photo/720683.cms" border="0" />As if the overflow of cop films wasn’t bad enough, we get to see a bad cop flick – again.Anyone faintly acquainted with the Bollywood cop film knows the ingredients and the plot by now.<br /><br />Throw in some corrupt politicians, menacing underworld men, a few good men in Mumbai''s crime branch, a rotten apple, chase sequences, item numbers in glitter at shady bars, lots of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">dishum dishum</span>, some smart-alecky dialogues between the corrupted and the candid and you have a cop film in place.<br /><br />Once in a while, you get a <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Khakee </span>(edgy thriller) and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Ab Tak Chappan</span> (strong character-based drama). And <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Aan</span> isn''t one of those. <br /><br />So, you have a few well-meaning disillusioned men in the crime branch who are all for encounters till they get a new boss, DCP Patnaik (Akshay Kumar), who goes by the rules.<br /><br /><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br /><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><br /><img src="/photo/720684.cms" alt="/photo/720684.cms" border="0" /><br /><br />The home minister, who wants a share in the business of a top industrialist, gets him bumped off by top gangster Pathan''s (Irrfan Khan) men. The cops are hot on the heels of the gang. The death of a policeman (Paresh Rawal) in a bloody shootout leads to a change in Patnaik''s “no-encounter''� policy<br /><br />Along the line, there are a few more changes of heart after some homilies about honour. Some chases, abuses, dances and encounters (lasting over two hours) later, good prevails over evil. <br /><br />There are a few feeble attempts at humour by Paresh Rawal, a few crowd-pleasing action scenes and dialogues but the best they add up to is zilch. Director Madhur Bhandarkar (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Chandni Bar</span>) says he wanted to do a total masala film. <br /><br />Masala it is, but we would have liked some meat too.</div> </div>