Cops hop, spin like tops, even as your interest in them drops. You’re back in those encounter skirmishes days — kicking off in the year 2003 — when arbitrary killings of underworld denizens, in the backalleys of Mumbai, had become as common as a bout of flu. Aachhoo.

To be fair, director Kabeer Kaushik’s Maximum, does kick off promisingly, with a script that seems to be inspired by the chequered careers of the so-deemed “encounter specialists” Pradeep Sharma and the late Vijay Salaskar. Indeed, at the outset, this recapitulation of an era that was, hooks you with its cool production design and flashes of action. Inchoately though, sluggishness sets in, with a cloudburst of cliches, a tempo on crutches, and close-ups of top echelon police officers seething about their denied promotions and duty portfolios. Glower, glower.

Indeed, Kaushik seems to suggest that a bad cop is preferable to his worse peer. Twisted morality that, supporting the lesser over the greater evil. For the nice-nice quotient, an idealistic TV channel reporter, an outspoken Mrs Cop and a knee-high girl whose shoe laces are forever coming undone, buzz around the men in khaki. Plus, a cop’s Shakespeare-quoting father features in a quirky scene showing him reciting the bard’s words on the Marine Drive balustrade, as the monsoon sets in over the city. How timely is that!

Any resemblance to the fact that Sharma’s father was an English professor in real-life, you presume, is entirely coincidental. Be that as it may, the screenplay offers you no new insights or dramatic situations than the ones already seen in Kaagar, Ab Tak Chhapan and Ram Gopal Varma’s inexhaustible takes on the underworld. Inevitably, then, that oppressive feeling of the deja phew, incites you to wonder — why another addition to a sub-genre that’s been flogged to pulp? Surely, Kaushik, whose career graph ranges from the excellent Sehar to the utterly forgettable Chamku and Hum Tum aur Ghost, could have invested his skills on an untried subject. Eeesh.

Anyway, so there you are, fulminating with this thirtyish, trigger-happy cop (Sonu Sood) who boogies with beer bar bombshells, plays cutie pie with his sari-enwrapped wife (Neha Dhupia) and dotes on his shoe-laces-challenged daughter. He is not beyond corruption, threatens a real estate tycoon whose stubble grows thicker than an Amazon jungle, and has a loyal band of sidekicks in mufti. Law and behold, cops like him just wanna have fun.

Meanwhile, you meet Trigger Cop’s superiors (Mohan Agashe, as usual displaying his Machiavellian Ghashiram Kotwal visage) and two or three Coplanders who have their own litany of grievances against the police hierarchy. And brrrr, there’s a snow-haired encounter champion (Naseeruddin Shah), too, who swirls a tumbler of whisky (or rum) before the eyes of the younger E-specialist, and drawls, “Would you like a glass of water?” Mean, so mean.

To put it plainly, then, Sony Sood must go through hoops — including shame and suspension — to match his wits and revolvers with Naseeruddin Shah. Or attain maximum power in maximum city. The post-intermission section set in the year 2008, however, becomes repetitive, mawkish and one big jabberwocky fest. By the way, there’s a beer bar item number for glam-sham relief. And you thought those lager parlours were banned around… Now either you’re wrong, or it’s just a matter of dramatic licence.

More than any other element, the slow unfolding of the plot is the fatal flaw. On the upside, Kaushik is a smooth, savvy technician, extracting fluid, marvellously lit camerawork from cinematographer Krishna Ramanan. Moreover, the set décor is eye-catching and detailed. The editing depends excessively on the mandatory Mumbai skyline and traffic shots for transitions from one scene to another. Also the camera swinging in from left or right of frame constantly becomes a drag.

Mercifully, the dialogue isn’t bombastic, remarkable for such casual lines as, “In this city, you’re either at the top or you keep your mouth shut.” The music score is passable.

Newcomer Amit Sadh is likeable as the TV journo despite an underdeveloped role. If he suddenly starts sketches pencil portraits on a train, that point isn’t followed up at all. Naseeruddin Shah is wasted, he doesn’t have sufficient footage or script characterisation. Whatever’s assigned to him is carried out with the normal Shah-trademark effortlessness. In a more elaborate role, Sonu Sood does have his moments of intensity, thanks to his fiery eyes and swift body language.

Only hassle: frequently Sood delivers his lines of dialogue with deafening pauses. At least in two scenes, it takes him an eternity to complete a sentence. Perhaps he took his role of an yawncounter specialist much too literally. Which is why Maximum may be recommended, if at all, for grabbing that quota of 40 winks.