INDIAN POLICE FORCE Offers Nothing New To Any Bollywood Genre

Rohit Shetty’s biggest contribution to Indian cinema is great car chases and as an advocate for the stunt industry. His movies, however, are a totally different story. Shetty movies are big action blockbuster extravaganza of explosions not bound by the laws of physics. From action franchises like Singham to the comedy series Golmaal, Shetty movies are bankable, if not repetitive. He now ventures into TV with Indian Police Force, which acts as another extension of his Cop Universe films. But the series is too dull and formulaic to add anything to the existing universe Shetty created. Find out more in this Indian Police Force review.

Please note that this Indian Police Force review will contain spoilers for the Amazon Prime Video original series.

So Many Cops In This Rohit Shetty Universe

Image via Amazon Prime Video.

Just like how the YRF Spy Universe brought cinematic shared universes to mainstream Bollywood, Shetty attempted the same with his own brand of films, but before YRF. In the 2021 release, Sooryavanshi, Shetty retroactively merged all his action franchises into one shared universe. The movie saw a crossover with the Singham and Simmba franchises, with all three characters coming together to stop a bigger threat. But just like his movies, the ultimate end result was predictable and unexciting.

So now Shetty follows that up with a new Prime Video series, Indian Police Force, apparently set in the same universe. Siddharth Malhotra headlines the cast of the show with Shilpa Shetty and Vivek Oberoi. The series deals with how a local Delhi Police force responds to major terrorist attacks that threaten the safety of the entire nation. It’s the same old thing, all over again.

Indian Police Force Review Has Spoilers

Image via Amazon Prime Video.

The series sees Delhi police officers Kabir (Malhotra), his boss Vikram (Oberoi) and their Gurujat liaison Shetty (Shetty) respond to multiple terrorist attacks. The story also follows the terrorist himself; for what reason, exactly, is unclear. That angle doesn’t humanize him or provide context, it’s just follows him along so the audience can see that part of the story. For some reason. But, along with some odd choices, the series has absolutely no stakes and feels like an exercise in redundancy.

The story starts with an explosion in Delhi by a domestic terrorist named Zarar (Mayyank Taandon). This brings Vikram and Kabir to the scene as they are on the case. So finding and stopping Zarar from carrying out his plans is the entire crux of the show. But the story doesn’t actually ever discuss what those plans are. Zarar is just meant to be the typical copy-paste Muslim terrorist depiction. What his plans are, or what he wants, is never explored. Even at the end, it’s hard to understand why Zarar was such a major character. Why audiences followed his journey, through his love story and all, doesn’t make sense. In the end, Zarar got what he deserved, and was still the villain with surface-level development.

Even The Heroes Are Cookie Cutter Characters

Image via Amazon Prime Video.

Besides the issue with the major villain, even the Indian Police Force’s entire story is just as flimsy. The story actually offers nothing more than just police officers chasing a bad guy. That’s it. There’s no character development for any of the leads. So audiences can’t fully invest in them. Kabir gets a back story of a wife who passed away due to cancer, but after that set-up, his past doesn’t affect anything else in the rest of the show. Same with Vikram; he is set up as Kabir’s mentor, and then killed off by the second to third episode for no reason. If his death was meant to rally the team or something, they were plenty motivated even before his death. And let’s not even discuss Shetty’s character, who has absolutely no back story outside of coming up in the agency with Vikram. That’s it.

Indian Police Force is an empty-by-the-numbers show that feels like hundreds of other movies and shows that do it so much better. This series says nothing about the genre or adds anything interesting to it. Even the action sequences, Shetty’s signature, are dull and lacklustre. The performances are empty and straightforward, feeling very much phoned in. Making this show feel like a paycheque and nothing more for everyone involved.

Indian Police Force is now streaming on Prime Video.

What did you think of Rohit Shetty’s new series? Let me know in the comments below or follow me on X (Twitter) at @theshahshahid to discuss all things related to Bollywood.