Cocaine Review: Hindi Crime Thriller Done Right?

Jalal is a diligent cop in Mumbai, a city that sparkles on the surface and rots underneath. A powerful cartel runs the cocaine trade with the wink-and-nod approval of corrupt officials, and Jalal has spent years trying to stay above the slime. Then his brother gets targeted by the cartel, and suddenly our hero's moral compass starts spinning like a broken ceiling fan.

Enter Ali, played with oily menace by Ashok Samarth, and Nissar Khan's Jahir Pathan, two cartel figures who understand that the best way to control a righteous man is through the people he loves. Jalal is forced into a nightmare of dualities - uphold the law on one side, protect blood on the other. Every choice costs him something. That's the engine of the film, and when it purrs, it's genuinely gripping.

Let's start with the obvious: Abhimanyu Singh is a beast. Dude has that rare ability to look exhausted, furious, and terrified all at once, which is basically the job description for a Mumbai cop caught between the badge and his baby brother. The film wisely parks the camera on his face during the quiet moments, and he sells every ounce of Jalal's moral erosion. When he's negotiating with cartel scum, you can practically smell the flop sweat through the screen.

Where Cocaine stumbles is in its sprawl. At nearly two and a half hours, it wants to be a sprawling crime epic - think Sacred Games energy - but Tiwari throws so many subplots at the wall that a few of them just slide off. The corrupt-politician thread feels like it wandered in from a different, soapier movie. And for a film called Cocaine, the actual drug stuff sometimes takes a backseat to family drama. Your mileage may vary on whether that's a feature or a bug.

Visually, though? The Mumbai texture is fantastic. The neon-lit back alleys, the humid night shoots, the way the city itself feels like a character with a rap sheet - that's the good stuff. Composer's score is a bit heavy-handed in spots, pounding the drums during scenes that were already tense, but it's rarely fatal.

The supporting cast is a mixed bag. Samarth brings real grit to Ali, a guy who seems like he'd sell his own shadow for a profit. Nissar Khan's Jahir Pathan is appropriately snake-like. But some of the smaller roles - the henchmen, the politicos - feel like they stepped out of an earlier, cheesier draft. And the dialogue occasionally leans on crime-thriller clichés so hard you could make a bingo card.

Still, there's a beating heart here. The brother dynamic gives the film stakes beyond the usual shoot-em-up fare, and the ending - no spoilers - earns its emotional punch even if it takes the scenic route to get there. If you liked Paatal Lok or Raman Raghav 2.0, you'll find plenty to chew on. If you need your crime thrillers airtight and lean, you'll be checking your watch around the ninety-minute mark.

Pros

• Abhimanyu Singh's ferocious, career-best lead performance
• Gritty, atmospheric Mumbai cinematography that drips with menace
• The brother storyline gives real emotional stakes to the carnage
• Ashok Samarth is a delightfully slimy villain

Cons

• 141-minute runtime with saggy middle sections
• Too many subplots, especially the political corruption thread
• Occasional clunky dialogue straight out of the cliché playbook
• Overbearing score in certain scenes

Cocaine isn't the clean, cut-to-perfection product its title suggests. It's more like a street-level batch - potent in places, cut with filler in others, but it'll absolutely get you where you're going if you're a fan of Bollywood crime dramas. Abhimanyu Singh alone makes it worth the ticket, and the film's sweaty, morally murky atmosphere lingers after the credits. Just go in knowing you're signing up for a long, messy ride through Mumbai's underbelly. For a movie about a substance that makes your heart race, it's fittingly uneven - but when it hits, it hits hard.