Warrant Web Review:
Criminal. Imagine you are driving peacefully on the not-so-busy roads of your city. You have the seatbelts on and are driving way under the speed limit. Your phone is safely inside your pocket, there is no music playing, all the rules have been followed, and you have a wide smile on your face. Suddenly, you see the siren of a police car, and you are asked to pull over. Now… you know there is nothing wrong that you have done, and you also have all your papers in place. And yet, you might break into a sweat, think of a million answers for questions you have not been asked, and mentally scroll through your phone’s contact list for someone influential. That is the power of policing, and in most cases, this is a reflection of fear, and not anything else. Because we have been continuously told that come what may, the system always wins, and the muscle of this system is the police. And it is this police system that forms the premise of debutant director Vignesh Natarajan’s police procedural, Warrant.
The series, streaming on ZEE5, follows the coming-of-age story of Koattai Karuppusamy, played by director Prasanth Pandiyaraj in his debut acting turn. Despite starting with a case of custodial violence and police brutality, Warrant takes time to get into the serious zone. Koattai is a reluctant cop who learns to be a ‘good’ cop by making every mistake in the book. But these errors are flimsily written, and riddled with subpar performances. In fact, Warrant isn’t sure what it wants to be for the longest time. Although set in a world similar to that of Prasanth’s breakthrough series, Vilangu, Warrant has more in common with the 2016 Abrid Shine-Nivin Pauly film Action Hero Biju. Warrant is also about an overarching case, and multiple smaller cases, but since it is a web series, there is so much fluff that is added to extend it over eight long episodes.
That is where the series starts painting itself into a corner. When you show a reluctant cop becoming a hardened one thanks to the system, ideally, the audience should feel bad about this descent into depravity. However, that doesn’t really happen because the character is written in such a haphazard and hurried manner that we aren’t really convinced about this transformation. Apart from an earnest Arul Doss playing a senior inspector in the police station, and Jayaprakash as the head of a commission investigating a case of custodial death, almost none of the actors are convincing. Their stilted performances are a distraction, and the writing doesn’t come in handy either. But all is not lost in Warrant, as they finally get to the point in the last couple of episodes where the series finds its heart and soul.
However, till we reach that moment in the series, we are bombarded with scenes involving the normalisation of custodial violence, cops treating the letter of the law as a joke, and how easy it is for the system to win. These scenes make us numb to the final revelation, and it doesn’t have the necessary impact. It doesn’t help that this ‘revelation’ comes from a character so random to the narrative, and a performance so unconvincing that it is just boring. Just as Koattai takes time to get used to the police station and its machinations, Prasanth takes time to convince us of his acting chops. Over the course of eight episodes, there are moments when Prasanth seems to have gotten a grasp of the character, but largely, he is out of sorts. Even seasoned performers like Balaji Sakthivel and Kaali Venkat are handed a raw deal, and in a seeming act of defiance, they put up sleepwalking performances that take the series nowhere.
Director: Vignesh Natarajan
Cast: Prasanth Pandiyarajan, Kaali Venkat, Aruldoss, Namritha
There’s a line in the series that goes, “Avangala adikradhu miratta dhaan kaaya padutha illa (We beat the accused only to instil fear in them, not to injure them).” But how do you know which kick, blow, or punch crosses this line? That is the problem with this series. While the concept of trying to humanise the police is understandable, the series makes you wonder if this is the way to do it. The series gets it decent when it is about this cop trying to understand how the system works. The series deals in detail with how policing isn’t flashy by any stretch of imagination, and it is, more often than not, a lot of walking around, asking around, and being shuttled and shunted around from one corner to another. These scenes had the potential to be really interesting, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what it takes to be a police officer on the lower rungs. But, Warrant isn’t sure where to place itself in the spectrum of seriousness. Should it go all in to be a gritty drama, or rein it back in to be an offbeat dark comedy? Unfortunately, despite the promising premise, it ends up in the middle of nowhere.
Also, the various investigations Koattai conducts in his attempt to become a legit cop are pedestrian. Barring a single detour where he genuinely proves he has the ‘instinct’ to be a cop, we never see it happen again. That entire stretch involving a thief and Koattai is laughable at best, especially the way the latter investigates his whereabouts, and the way the criminal deals with this. Also, the coarse language used throughout the series remains unnecessary. Again, it isn’t about the necessity of profanity, but the delivery of the same.
Oh, there are two songs and two romantic tracks that are two of the most criminal aspects of this crime series. These romantic tracks do a great disservice to the women of the series. Apart from this, the series is just too choppy and all over the place. The series doesn’t have too many memorable dialogues except for that last showdown, which is a saving grace, for sure.
As the final credits roll, Warrant gives you a powerful dialogue about policing, and what it truly means to be a police officer. And it can make you believe that Warrant does have its heart in the right place. But… When you have an emotional monologue about solidarity, and the need to stand by each other at times of extreme duress, and to never forget that there is no place for betrayal in a family-like system… it shouldn’t be made by a cop to cover up brutal institutional violence and the resultant custodial death… Now, that’s criminal.
