One of silver screen’s favourite avatar across the globe is undoubtedly the role of a cop. It is he who ‘legally’ fights the villains, bringing them to justice. With cinematic touch, reelistic cops in lead, are more fitter and they hardly miss their targets. Most of all, the hero cops do not come at the end of a crime scene. Almost every popular lead actor in Indian cinema would have portrayed (at least once in his filmi lifetime )a cop flashing his gun wearing the khaki. Sandalwood is no exception when it comes to these officers. From legendary actors to the present lot of star heroes, they have all donned the costume and mouthed khadak punching dialogues.
While khaki is back in full force in Sandalwood with few stars playing the cop on the big screen including century star Shivarajkumar in Tagaru prior to his fantastic Killing Veerappan. The most recent example is that of Rakshit Shetty in his upcoming Avane Sriman Narayana. Bengaluru Chronicle ‘reports’ on police trending in Kannada movies.
“Filmy cops are one of the most loved characters on silver screen. They investigate the toughest of cases while a majority of them are honest. This is what the audience loves to watch in movies too. While there are no creative limitations, it is romance, drama, comedy and adventure which tops the genre. The main reason behind the love for khaki which keeps returning is the percentage of successful movies with star cops. Once a movie or two proves a hit at the box office, more such movies are made with cop-centric themes,” says director Santosh.
Recent films like Mr. Airavatha, Pataki, Killing Veerappan, and the latest one being Tagaru have won the hearts of the die hard fans. The trailer of Rakshit Shetty’s Avane Sriman Narayana which shows him in a police officer’s role with a lighter (comedy) twist to it has grabbed a lot of eyeballs on social media. It appears to be the local version of the popular Chulbul Pandey from Dabbang starring Salman Khan. However, the team has not revealed much about Rakshit Shetty in the humorous police role.
When it comes to women police officers in Kannada movies, only a few has managed to become popular. Though several actresses have donned the role, Malashree stands out and after her is Ragini Dwivedi. “My fans love me in action roles especially when I play the khadak police officer. After portraying some hatke roles, I am back as a special cop in MMCH. I loved playing it,” Ragini said at the audio launch of the movie. Her film Ragini IPS is one of her popular films as a police officer.
One of the major changes in the act of protecting law by the heroic cops is that they make the audience laugh! “Many assume that the job of a police officer in real life is very serious. In fact, it is, but as humans they too encounter funny incidents. Mixing some amount of humour in a serious tale is a great relief. It is why most of the makers and dialogue writer make sure to add the fun bit too. Pataki was one such movies starring Ganesh which was a complete comedy,” film writer Venkatesh sums it up.
