Madaari Trailer Released A day After Nawaz’s  Chilling Raman Raghav

It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it, that Nawazuddin Siddiqui who is considered Irrfan Khan’s closest rival was seen  ripping the screen apart as the serial killer Raman Raghav in the trailer of film, just a day before Irrfan Bhai did his own vigilante’s act in the trailer of Madaari.

As far as impact goes, Nawaz has the edge at the moment. The Madaari trailer is way too staid and unwaveringly faithful to the anti-establishment genre. The aggrieved common man who takes the law in his own hand…We have seen Naseeruddin Shah take the part to the littoral of dry-eyed poignancy in Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday.

Madaari looks like a crammed compendium of all the film done on the grievances of the common man. That the common man is played with uncommon felicity by Irrfan is a master-stroke. It is always a pleasure to hear how Irrfan mouths  words of anguish , gives them a casual crust while secreting the pain in a veneer of dispassion.

Here when he barks into the phone about how his son was swallowed by the greedy sharks of the Establishment and now it is his turn to take back what was taken away from him, we sense the enduring anguish  of a man whom grief has turned fearless. In his ragged, shabby appearance as an Everyman on a rampage Irrfan gives every indication of being on top of the script, looking down on creation….

But like I said, the script seems stripped  of novelty.Also, the supporting cast specially the little boy who plays the kidnap victim, is unimpressive. Woefully the trailer gives away the entire plot. This is the story of a man who loses his son and takes revenge by kidnapping the Home Minister’s son. Does Irrfan kill the boy as he threatens to?

Do our cinematic heroes ever do the dirty deed unless it’s a Raman Raghav? Madaari looks like a cleaned-our sanitized prim and proper expose on corruption with Irrfan staging yet another potentially explosive performance as a common man who has had enough.

For the thrill of watching Irrfan interpret plebeian angst and because Nishikant Kamat is a director who can distil the drama of the damned into a dangerously potent brew, I can hardly wait to see Madaari.