Raid movie review: Ajay Devgn's thrilling war against black money is backed with powerful performances

After entertaining the audience with its rib-tickling comedy Golmaanl Again, Ajay Devgn is back on the silver screen with his next release Raid.

Helmed by Rajkumar Gupta, the movie deals with a serious issue of black money and is said to be a based on a true incident of 1980s high-profile income tax raid.

Ajay, who had previously impressed the audience with his fearless cop in Singham series, will now be seen as the Income Tax officer who is fighting against the corrupt system.

Apart from Ajay Devgn, Raid also stars Ileana D'Cruz and Saurabh Shukla in key roles.

With an interesting ensemble of cast, a gripping trailer and soothing music, Raid has already managed to create a buzz amongst the movie-goers.

So if you are planning to go for this Ajay Devgn-starrer, here we bring you a quick review about what the leading daily has to say about Raid:

Deccan Chronicle: Director Rajkumar Gupta makes an interesting chase between the protagonist and antagonist. The film has a perfect runtime of 128 minutes which makes Raid a decent one time watch. Second half is slightly dragged but it is backed by such engaging dialogues written by Ritesh Shah who has also pen the story and screenplay that it can be easily overlooked.

Predominantly in a male centric film like this, it has an apt space for the leading lady Ileana D'cruz considering she plays the role of a wife of an IT officer. Director hasn't put any unnecessary effort to show heroine or songs around their love rather they are in the sync of the plot.

India TV: Raid is well written. Director Raj Kumar Gupta’s work is praise-worthy but in this time when films are filled with wow moments and surprises, Raid misses a point here. Dialogues play a very important role as it stays with people even after they leave the theatre. Here Ritesh Shah does his job wonderfully. There are some amazing one-liners that will surely want you to whistle and clap.

Times Now: There is not much to the plot of the film as it revolves around a single raid, but it's Raj Kumar Gupta's direction and execution of various scenes that makes the movie worth. Ritesh Shah's writing has enough punches to keep you engaged. There is an intriguing factor throughout the film that keeps you hooked.

The underlining theme of trying to do good and how it actually pays is portrayed perfectly. Music of the film is good even if they could've do away with a song or two. The whole scene around Jhukh Na Paunga track is powerful and may leave you moist eyed.

Scroll: Raid coasts along on some smart ideas, among which is the suggestion that compared to the present-day rampaging corruption and brazen looting of public sector banks, the 1980s were a better place to be. The movie is set in 1981, before multi-crore scams became weekly occurrences.

Acting on a tip-off that Rameshwar Singh (Saurabh Shukla) has tonnes of black money stashed in his sprawling mansion, Amey (Ajay Devgn) assembles his team for an early morning raid that runs into the next day. The raiding team finds nothing despite ripping up mattresses and upturning idols, but luck begins to smile on Amey as the interval sets in.

Gupta works hard to inject a thriller quality to a cinema-unfriendly plot. Dark hints are dropped about a mole in Rameshwar Singh’s household, and his attempts to lobby for succor with former prime minister Indira Gandhi move the action out of the mansion, where much of the movie is set.

DNA: Raj Kumar Gupta (Aamir, No One Killed Jessica, Ghanchakkar) returns to the big screen after a gap of five years. Mercifully, the hiatus hasn’t made him rusty. He manages to go through this taut drama with the requisite speed, but with very few real surprises. Also, he doesn’t inspire great performances. The supporting cast is a complete let down with most actors looking like they swallowed castor oil but are still constipated.

With the exception of Ajay, there is not one noteworthy act. Ileana looks gorgeous in her sari and bindi avatar, but she overdoes her cuteness quotient. Instead of reacting like she is married to an IT officer, she behaves like she is married to a BSF jawan.

One knows that the perils of both the jobs, but an actor still needs a certain subtlety to show the difference between a uniformed man facing a bullet and the plainclothesman biting the bullet.