“Monsoon Shootout” was released in theatres in India, not during the monsoon season, but in the winter of 2017. It had in fact been shown at the Cannes film festival way back in 2013, but like a grossly delayed monsoon, it arrived here only in 2017. There are some monsoons that make no sense to a meteorologist. “Monsoon Shootout” was a film that made no sense to me either as a meteorologist or as an average moviegoer. The camera did succeed in capturing some of the fury of the Mumbai monsoon. But besides that redeeming feature, there was nothing much in the film to write about.

The monsoon has been known to evoke emotions of love and romance, and it has inspired great minds to cerate great works of poetry and literature, music and dance. But the point that “Monsoon Shootout” is perhaps trying to prove is that the monsoon influences the base instincts of criminal minds as well. The film has louder gunshot echoes than the thunder in the sky. Instead of raindrops, there is blood splashing all over. There are more streams of blood than the rain water on the streets. Crime, lawlessness, killing, lust, greed, corruption, are all what the monsoon is shown to bring along with it.

Here and there, the film throws in some philosophy for a change. At regular intervals, there is a dialogue about the right path, the wrong path and the middle path. But the film apparently has not been able to understand the path of the monsoon. I watched the movie second-day-second-show. There were just ten people in the hall, including me!