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.

Movie Review – D

Raw and rocking

Ram Gopal Varma’s films are a charm isn’t it. Even though, this was not directed by him. Vishram Sawant only looked like he mirrored RGV’s thoughts because it looked very much an RGV film with raw, unruffled emotions. Produced under his banner and considered the last of his movies among Indian Gangster Trilogy the movie was to the point. As much as the emotions looked stripped, ‘D’ was all about emotion. Lethargic, third person type of emotion. With Randeep Hooda at the fore, he brings in a natural flavor to the type of movie which Ram Gopal Varma had wanted.

Just like any out of the box movie, it takes a while for the audience to settle. The initial few minutes are clumsy and intentionally made in that way. May be that’s an attribute to RGVs style of film making. We get to see a young man, Deshu (Randeep Hooda) coming back to his hometown for his mother’s death. Deshu is not really an emotive person. He feels that it’s just his duty that he had to be there for his mother’s death. It’s more of a compulsion for him than the love towards his mother. He sees a live death within few days and then again witnesses a murder which makes him understand that it’s not a fair world outside.

The acting for these sequences were pretty much Godard like. The emotions were not spoon fed for us to understand. We don’t feel curious to see what’s his life was going to become but we get driven by his life, as if like a passerby. As he gets humiliated by Mangli’s (Raju Mavani) gang, instead of confessing or joining the gang, he joins the opposite gang and takes his revenge.

Then all we see is his rise, which was in a way interesting. There were few interesting scenes where the dialogues can’t be heard, even though they continue to talk. Generally these would be implemented at some of the suspenseful points in the film and is one of the most irritating techniques but here it feels like fast forwarding an unwanted song. It was a relief because we don’t really want to get to the details of an uninteresting man. We just want to see the highlights. The music in those junctions too were appealing and elevates the mood of the movie, giving a retro punk feel.

The only point of the film which looks forced in the conclusion. Hashim Bhai (Goga Kapoor) becoming folly of the plans of two of his sons, Mukarram (Sushant Singh) and Shabbir (Yashpal Sharma) felt too convenient. A man of his stature believing age old tricks like this was not convincing. It’d have rather been interesting if he had acted as if he was supporting his sons because if he had not he’d have been killed by his sons. If he had, he would’ve known that his sons would be eventually killed because Deshu is no normal person. That conflict would have been interesting than having a plain old ending.

The film more than anything was ambitious and that was so nice to watch. Any budding filmmaker who wants to make a gangster film would be inspired and would think that they don’t have to always have a huge budget for such movies. In fact even the gun sound coming of silencer was done so soft that there was no big fuzz over anything. It’s a world which RGV has created and would remain forever like this, no matter what he does post that.