Movie Review – Company

Prim and Proper, boon or bane?

It was part of my reverse Gangster trilogy of RGV. ‘D’ happened by chance and ‘Company’ was by choice. Even though I did the mistake of watching the last film of trilogy first, I didn’t want to spoil the best film by watching second. Let me save the best for the last. Anyways both ‘D’ and ‘Company’ would work as a standalone film. ‘Company’ felt lot more proper than ‘D’ but it’s not a compliment. Anyways how can you hate a film when you have Mohanlal with such eclectic charm?

The film has typical RGV moments but as much as I wanted to forget ‘D’ and watch ‘Company’ as a fresh film by watching a number of films in between, it didn’t help because I was immediately transported to RGV’s world. Every time I see his film and know about his off screen persona, I can’t help but think about how wonderful it would be to make a film of him.

Coming back to the comparison, even though ‘Company’ feels like a far more proper film than ‘D’, the rawness was slightly missing. Unfortunately as I have seen in the reverse, it was more appalling. But look at the beauty and the genius of RGV. To have made the movies in the chronological order would have been a far more achievable dream but to make a prequel and make it look raw was a tougher job. Even with a film as great as a Godfather 2, the Don Corleone flashback scenes look fancy at places but here, ‘D’ was total raw. I could appreciate it better after watching ‘Company’

Company starts with ‘Chandu’ (Vivek Oberoi) joining the Mumbai underworld and developing a camaraderie with Malik (Ajay Devgan), the leader of the gang. The actors as usual are RGV’s caricatures, which takes some time to settle but if you really want to a make a film in this style, after some years, as a period flick, it might be a lovely setting. Something which Mani Ratnam couldn’t achieve in ‘Aayutha Ezhutu’/ ‘Yuva’, where the characters would feel fabricated and glossy in spite of trying to look as local as possible. Here, it happens quite nonchalantly. Still the actors need to understand the world of RGV, otherwise, they don’t set in properly. Even in this movie Ajay Devgan wasn’t convincing, Vivek Oberoi in his non don, vulnerable parts was lovely but couldn’t emulate the same when he raises to the power. The ladies Saroja (Manisha Koirala), Kannu (Antara Mali) and Ranibai (Seema Biswas) to a great job, in the same ascending order.

It’s a film which could have faltered in the second half but RGV’s careful injection of double cross along with human emotions were superbly done, which raises doubts in us regarding what’s what. In fact it’d be curious to know whether the director himself could differentiate between the double cross and chance happenings. That’s how complicated the plot was.

It’d be a wholesome experience to edit a RGV film I guess, to get into the mind of director and know what he really wants. Even the songs would be cut differently and mostly overpowering. It would be impossible to really like songs from RGV’s film. That makes me want to watch ‘Rangeela’ which was like a breath of fresh air, even now. That’s due to the terrific chemistry between two opposite poles, Rahman and RGV.

Having said everything, if you want one sole reason to watch ‘Company’, it’s Mohanlal. Of course there are far greater films of Mohanlal but if there is an actor in this film who owns a scene it’s Mohanlal. How well can this man adapt to a film which comes from different sensibilities, in a different language. In fact his carefully uttered Hindi gives a feel of how it’d be if Dumbledore had been a villain. There are scenes were we feel more threatened by him rather than the gangsters. In ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’ he introduces himself as I.G.R Maraar, it makes us grin just by hearing his name, it’s something unexplainable, yet lovely. It’s the same vibe which he gives here too when he gets introduced as Veerappalli Srinivasan, an unfathomable Malayali.