Inspector Zende Movie Review:
If you ever get a chance to visit O Coqueiro restaurant in Goa, at the doorstep you will be greeted by a golf cap and blue-shirt wearing statue, which, at first, can seem like a cheap imitation of Dev Anand. It’s actually of Charles Sobhraj, India’s most mythologized serial killer. The story behind the statue is no less fascinating. At this Goan joint in 1986, Sobhraj, who was on the run after breaking out from Tihar jail, was apprehended by Mumbai police supercop Madhukar Zende. “Hello Charles, how are you?” Zende had asked the bikini-killer that fateful night of April 6. This wasn’t the first time Zende was meeting Sobhraj. He had trapped the Serpent once before in 1971.
Written and directed by: Chinmay Mandlekar
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Jim Sarbh, Sachin Khedekar and Girija Oak
Streaming on: Netflix
The anecdote bubbles with cinematic possibilities. A cop, a killer, a meeting after 15 years. What all transpired in their lives all this while? Did they cross each other’s minds? Zende’s fame wasn’t limited to Sobhraj. Among his achievements was managing mobs in Mumbai in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition and arresting gangster Haji Mastan. Loaded with this information, getting into Netflix’s latest Inspector Zende might be a disappointing experience. The film takes a slapstick tone which seems ill-fitted with the subject. It often feels like hanging out with a friend whose jokes haven’t aged beyond grade 8. Inspector Zende bounces off the base of a legendary story but, sadly, can’t soar beyond a punchline.
Manoj Bajpayee plays Madhukar Zende, a Mumbai police cop who is summoned to nab notorious killer Carl Bhojraj (name changed), played by Jim Sarbh. Bhojraj escaped Tihar while the prison staff were in dreamland after consuming a spiked kheer prepared by him. Zende, who had caught Carl once before, is tasked by the DGP (Sachin Khedekar) to repeat his feat. He assembles a motley group of policemen, who act more like SAB TV comedy actors than cops, to execute the mission. A tip-off takes this Monty Python tribe to Goa, where Bhojraj is lying low, waiting to bump-off any tourist, take their passport and escape to the US.
Inspector Zende can’t seem to decide what kind of film it is. It has no intentions of being a smart, detailed police procedural. It also lacks the chill of a hangout movie. What it tries to be is silly and jokey but its gags too are mostly bland. It often felt like a skit being played out for kids. With such weak material, even a seasoned actor like Bajpayee was grasping at straws. I observed him slipping into his The Family Man act at times but it all rang hollow. He doesn’t get to exercise his skills in a film whose idea of being funny is as ludicrous as a jack-in-the-box.
Sobhraj has been portrayed twice before, cinematically by Randeep Hooda in Main Aur Charles (2015) and slyly by Sidhant Gupta in the series Black Warrant (2025). Jim Sarbh’s impression of Sobhraj, however, is in the cartoonish zone, which fits in the overall mood of the film but doesn’t go beyond caricature. He is less Ted Bundy more Bugs Bunny.
Inspector Zende is a thin story, stretched like a senseless prank. It’s more annoying than amusing. It also isn’t gripping and feels inconsequential, something that you can play in the background while doing laundry. Its attempts at being funny consists of mispronouncing a French name Chantelle as ‘Chantaal’. My favourite character from the film was Jacob, one of the cops, who unintentionally became a stand-in for the viewer. Whenever somebody cracked a joke, everybody laughed, except him. “Why don’t you laugh, Jacob?” Zende would ask him. “I am laughing sir,” he replied, with a poker face. Jacob, however, does crack-up once, towards the end of the film. It is supposed to be the completion of a character’s arc or something. To me, however, it seemed like a chuckle of relief.