Shool - 1999

No two views about this: Manoj Bajpai is the best thing that's happened to Indian cinema lately. Especially in the field of acting. After a power packed Satya and a refreshingly edgy Kaun, Bajpai displays strange new histrionics in Shool. This time, a classical study in restraint and the art of underplaying. Inspector Samar Pratap Singh may be a 1990's avtar of Inspector Vijay Verma of Zanjeer.

But his anger is his own. His torment his own. And his reactions are his own. Roaming through the scarred landscape of interior Bihar, where which doesn't work is law and order, the punctilious cop tries to kowtow his bookish knowledge. He sticks to principles, ideals, honesty and the law of the state. Naturally, he ends up as the sore thumb in a socio-political order that revels in compromise, chaos and lawlessness.