With kids away for a night-out, me and my wife made a plan late in the afternoon to go watch the Ajay Devgan starer RAID.  Around 5 pm when I booked the seats the hall was nearly empty with hardly 10-15 seats booked by then. We were so looking forward for a quite movie night.

So wrong we were!! As we entered the theater it was nearly full with family, children, groups and transvestite for company. Not that it made any difference but it only reflected that the it’s a hit movie and also the immense fan following of Ajay Devgan.

The movie is set in the eighties in the badlands of Uttar Pradesh where an recently posted honest Income Tax Commissioner gets a tip off on the undeclared and hidden wealth of Tauji aka Saurabh Shukla: A Member of Parliament, strongman and Mr. Money Bags contributing to the coffers of his party and how the hero does the necessary background checks and gets the permission of the Finance Ministry to raid Tauji.

The movie is all about the search of the hidden stash, the family dynamics, insider tip off, the honesty of the public servant. Besides all this it is about the heightened self image of the politician and the power he imagines he can yield and this self image is what takes him from Finance Secretary to Finance Minister to even Prime Minister Indira Gandhi amidst his threat to topple the UP Government and none coming in the way of the honest IT officials.

The movie belongs to three persons:

• First and foremost is Ajay Devgan who plays the brooding, honest officials who stands his grounds in front of immense pressure.
• Second it’s the Tauji played brilliantly by Saurabh Shukl. You can feel his terrorising effect that he is so used to deliver to anyone coming in his way be it an outsider or even his family members and eventually realising that he is being betrayed by his family and also the fleeting nature of power.
• Third is the Amma ji, the toothless mother of Tauji with an acid laced tongue.

The persons sitting next to me was so engrossed in the movie so he was literally jumping in his seats when the gold coins starts falling from the roof or when there is a confrontation scene between the main protagonists and also he completely ignored the call of his child to go the restroom.

Ohh yes !! there is a heroine too Ileana D’cruz who plays the dutiful supporting wife who by the way we are told doesn’t wear a mangalsutra (So!!) and is wasted in this minuscule role but I guess she does get to be a part of a hit A list Film.

With the running time just around 2 hours its fast paced, enjoyable and completely worth a watch.