Debutant Avishek Rath’s yatra begins with the film

The Story: Directed by filmmaker Biranchi Narayan Panda, ACP Sagarika (Archita) cares only for justice. She might look like a girl-next-door but she is tigress in her khakhi uniform.

The story starts when somebody attempts to kill crook politician Madhav Patnaik (Mihir Das). Sagarika is given the charge of nabbing the culprit. In the meantime, her elder brother Jaggu, played by Prithviraj, dies in mysterious conditions. The fingerprints reveal that the person, who tried to kill Patnaik, is the same who killed Jagga. While Sagarika goes hammer and tongs investigating the case, her younger brother Karan (Avishek Rath), a broadcast journalist goes on to disclose Patnaik’s misdeeds. Colleague Chandini (Prakruti Mishra) plays Karan’s love interest in the film.

The Good: With Archita being the only star in ACP Sagarika, the film must be complimented for its bravado in having a heroine in the lead. Archita does a decent job, as a tough cop. Mihir Das as usual is brilliant. He plays a half comical and half corrupt politician with flamboyance. Though shot mostly in closed sets, Abhiram Mishra’s cinematography is excellent. Unlike Anubhav Mohanty starrer ACP Ranveer, ACP Sagarika’s editing is right on the money. Pappu Pom Pom in his cameo role leaves you in splits. The songs like Nian re ghia and Kati jaithiba kagajara gudi add to the narrative.

The Bad: ACP Ranveer, irrespective of his length and blatant mishmash of Bollywood cop movies, had only one star — Anubhav Mohanty. On contrary, though ACP Sagarika’s story seems original, the limited screen space of Archita is the biggest culprit. It’s virtually an Avishek Rath and Mihir Das film with Archita coming and doling out punchlines like Aain ra shasan pain mu be-aain kama kare once in a while. While Prakruti plays her part well as eye candy, debutant Avishek’s inexperience was overt in emotional scenes. Careless direction and lousy screenplay in the last half an hour mar the film beyond repair.

The Ugly: The set design uses stark colours as wall paints, which is irritating. Substandard visual effects could have been avoided with intelligent screenplay.

PS: With the story ending on a note that leaves a lot of scope for a new riveting screenplay revolving around the lady cop we all can expect an ACP Sagarika 2. We’ll wait and watch if Sagarika’s gun gets reloaded!

Pratyush Patra