Cast: Bobby Deol, Anup Soni, Joy Sengupta, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Hitesh Bhojraj, Sameer Paranjape

Director: Atul Sabharwal

Rating: ***

The police system is a coin with two sides, one side is the law and the other is order. Sometimes to maintain order one needs to break the law. When order's maintained the system functions properly. 'Class of 83' starts with this narration showcasing the time when Mumbai was plagued by underworld gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Iqbal Kaskar and Chhota Rajan. The film is a work of fiction and is loosely inspired by a book titled 'The Class of 83: The Punishers of Mumbai Police' written by S. Hussain Zaidi(2019)

The film starts with the drop back of 1982 Police Training School, Nashik, where five friends who are more focused on life's practicality rather than believing in theoretical lessons. Their life takes a different path when Vijay Singh (Bobby Deol) who is shunted to punishment posting as the Dean of the police academy decides to punish the corrupt bureaucracy and its criminal allies in return by training five lethal assassin policemen. For the experiment, he releases these five men as 'anti-bodies' into the police system. Will he be able to make the group prominent to encounter specialists who have been credited with bringing back the rule of law in the city? Will these five policemen be able to follow their dean's instructions or will choose the path of bureaucracy.

Helmed by Atul Sabharwal, he has brilliantly captured the essence of 80's Bombay with great detailing. In today's context and with a humble budget it is not easy to create sets but also the outdoor locations as after watching the vintage cars, costume designs, and big film posters will transport you to that time. The credit must be given to Mario Poljac's cinematography as it is exquisite, the attention to period detail is perceptible.


One of the drawbacks of the film is that it is primarily focused on the clash of egos and police department hierarchy but fails to touch the surface level of storytelling which is shown in the original book.

Bobby Deol's performance in the film has proved himself as an actor despite casting alongside two gifted contemporaries Annup Sonii (high-ranking politician) and Joy Sengupta (police chief). Bobby delivered one of his best performances and tried his best to showcase the emotions, anger of Vijay Singh.

Viju Shah's original music score goes well with the director's unadorned storytelling while the background music retrieved the 80's essence.

Overall, somehow this film reminds you of 'Fear City' an American true crime web-series about New York City's Five crime Families and FBI. Moreover, the country audience loves to watch policemen like Chulbul Pandey and Singham and this film serves the harsh reality of this corrupted world. All in all, the filmmaker couldn't manage to tap into the heart of S. Hussain Zaidi's world and barely presents an outer cover of the story.