In the end Raid left me very frustrated. It’s promising and delivers many rousing moments, but it runs out of steam well before the finish line.

In all this to-ing and fro-ing, background music blaring to make up for the lack of real drama, even a terrific actor like Saurabh Shukla is left floundering.

With a tighter editing, slightly less focus on the wannabe love story and a lesser dose of melodrama, Raid could have been a gripping thriller.

Lacerating sanctimony of the honest babu…Raid wants to repair and energise our faith in the Indian sarkar and its attendant babus.

We have seen Raj Kumar Gupta deliver immensely engaging films such as ‘Aamir’ (2008) and ‘No One Killed Jessica’ (2011). ‘Raid’ pales in comparison. It is definitely worth a watch. Sadly, considering the theme, not as gritty as I would have liked it to be.

An honest Income Tax officer leads a team in a raid to find hidden assets of a local heavy, a political leader, at his bungalow called ‘White House’. The dialog is tight, the good guys are as smart as the bad guys are clever, the danger seems real and it’s money well spent when you watch this film. If only the thrill of watching money tumbling out of walls was not marred by silly songs and a whiny wife.

Watch this only if you want to cough up your hard-earned white money for a messed up crime drama that lacks tooth.