Madaari ticks many boxes.It has a lead actor, Irrfan Khan, whose name is testimony to his talent.It has a script that made Irrfan pick up the phone in search of a director.It has a director, Nishikant Kamat, whose potential is interesting.It has moments, excellent moments, that strike a chord with you - that make you smile, that make you sympathise.In particular, Irrfan with his son.There are some really, really nice moments between Irrfan and Vishesh Bansal, who plays the lad who is kidnapped, the politician’s son.Irrfan at the hospital, tortured by memories you don’t see, as he waits for Bansal to recover from food poisoning.But these moments are few and far between. They are not adequate to make you feel the rage the film intends.Madaari does not make you cringe. It does not make you angry. It does make you, at least for the few hours that you are in the theatre, want to stand up and do something about the system.It is not a film that will stay with you as you, in your day to day routine, succumb to the pressure and become part of the corruption that ails our system.At the end of the day, it does not even make you applaud the protagonist or his journey.It was a film that needed defter handling.Stronger performances.Better editing.It needed someone who could look at the film as it was being made and say, ‘No, this is not working. Let’s relook at how we are handling this.’It needed to be a film that was not overwhelmed by the fact that it was an Irrfan Khan starrer.Because a film like Madaari is a film that needs to be made.