ENCOUNTER: THE KILLING
Cops too are human


Cast & Credits
Producers: Ajay Phansekar, Jairaj Patil,Shyam Shroff
Director: Ajay Phansekar
Music: Amar Mohile
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Tara Deshpande, Akash Khurana, Ratna Pathak, Dilip Prabhavalkar
Encounter is a word commonly used in newspapers to denote a run-in between the police and the underworld. No longer is it used in its other connotations. Hence, when a film is titled Encounter: The Killing, it is clear as day that it involves the aforementioned two parties. The opening scenes are rapid-fire action...after a series of killings, the four young shooters plan their getaway. This is interspersed with scenes of police investigation, a TV news crew report on the killing and grieving familial scenes at the victims’ house. This is where the similarity with the likes of Company, etc. stops.

One of the assailants, Martin’s nefarious activities is discovered by his family and he is handed over to the police. Inspector Sam Bharucha (Naseeruddin Shah) and inspector Avinash Marathe (Sanjeeva Dabholkar) extract information of the whereabouts of the rest of his gang. Instructions are given to arrest the three, but unfortunately, all are shot. Despite his long years in service, Inspector Bharucha has never killed anyone. Their families, save Lallya who was Bharucha’s quarry, claim the victims. The latter is all remorse as Lallya was about to surrender when the police party invaded their hideout. Bharucha persists with hunting down Lallya’s family. Enter the mysterious Punappa (Dilip Prabhavalkar) a former don, now bar owner. The second half of the film is where Bharucha and his team play a cat-and-mouse game with Punappa, who claims knowledge of Lallya’s family. After much badgering and cajoling, Punappa divulges the identity of Lallya’s family, but they deny their kinship to him. In the course of the film, Sam Bharucha discovers a potential bhai in his own house...his son.

The crux of Encounter is not crime and punishment, but the conscience-play police officers confront when they have to shoot at juvenile criminals. The writer-director Ajay Phansekar has attempted to portray the compassionate side of tough police officers. The first half of the film is about the killings, the getaway, the chase and the encounter all of which is portrayed with commendable camerawork and quick inter-cuts. Post intermission, revelations take the film on another track. Punappa and Bharucha spar with each other, a contest made possible by two fine actors... Naseeruddin Shah and Dilip Prabhavalkar, and it is difficult to judge who gets the better of the other.

Naseer’s Inspector Sam Bharucha is flawless right down to the bush-shirts he wears and the scooter he rides to work; a polished performance with subtle Parsi quirks (like massaging the shoulders to release tension). More vociferous are the colourful expletives he uses, casually. Dilip Prabhavalkar as Punappa is a perfect foil to Naseer. For the Marathi stage artiste’s first outing on the big screen, he makes Punappa a memorable character. Protruding front teeth, drunken swagger, and though of puny build, daring to flex his scrawny forearms in front of the police officers. He is all compassion when Sudhakar Rao (Akash Khurana) finally admits that Lallya is his son and crumbles in grief. A piece-de-resistance is the eponymous song, in which Prabhavalkar cavorts, in utter abandon. A small but effective presence is that of Ratna Pathak Shah as Lallya’s mother who makes-believes her son is in the US.

However, the police-media relationship is left unexploited and Kiran Jaywant (Tara Deshpande) plays a trifling part in the scheme of Encounter. Though, the scene where she is at her music lesson is skillfully interspersed with the action that goes on outside... with Inspector Bharucha observing both scenes from a vantage point. As the skirmish gets intense, the tempo also quickens.

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