Yesterday, I called my local desi grocer "Raja" and requested him to hold the DVD of the new release film from Ram Gopal Varma's Production, the movie "D". He kept the movie for me and I was the first one to remove the shrink wrap on it. I just couldn't wait and had to see it the same night. The much awaited prequel to the super hit movie, "Company" the movie, "D".
Before I do the postmortem of the movie, let me break all the myths surrounding this movie. Firstly, it's NOT a prequel to "Company"!!! The main character in the movie, Deshu (played by Randeep Hooda) is somewhat like Malik (played by Ajay Devgan from Company). The idea (I think) was to make a film on how Malik became the way he was. Some characters in the movie are similar
like the mob-boss with the back-ache but apart from that this movie doesn't even compare to the likes of "Satya" or "Company" The story line was so bad that the movie did not move at all. Thank god it was only 107 minutes and I was counting each one of them after the first 15. All the actors in the movie were desperately trying to act!! Chunkey Pandey I thought would make a come-back after being re-launched under Varma's banner but, I am sure he will probably go back to where he came from. Goga Kapoor, Shushant Singh and Yashpal Sharma were the only ones who I thought were doing justice to their characters. The cinematography was decent but you'll notice that each scene would start with some dialogs and then eventually be muted with a background score taking over. I don't know what the problem was
did the dialogs lack substance or were they delivered so poorly that they had to be faded out and overlaid by background score? If you use this technique once or twice then it feels like a great directorial touch, but you use it for every scene and it's almost like watching a silent movie!!! The plot (or the lack of it) of the movie is very similar to the plot we have seen in all the gangster movies that came out lately. A guy from the slums (Deshu) gets into a gang and reaches the peaks in a very short period of time. The mob-boss who is Deshu's mentor appreciates his brilliance and hard work and promotes him to the level he deserves. The 2 incompetent sons of the boss get jealous of Deshu's meteoric rise and want him killed. That's about it. No twist, no drama, no substance, no message. Just plain repetitive scenes of gory shoot-outs which were so poorly choreographed that they didn't even look real! I had a lot of expectations from Randeep Hooda after seeing him in "Monsoon Wedding" but he was a big let down with his expressionless face and the monotonously-fake-hoarse-voice. If the idea was to cast Hooda to do the young "Malik from Company" or a similar character like that, let me be the first to tell you that he isn't even one-tenth as effective as Ajay Devgan was. I don't think there will ever be a Bikoo Mhatre (Manoj Bajpai) again or at least for some years to come. I feel that we have just had enough of these Mumbai-Underworld-Gangster flicks and we should take a pause for some time.
This was Vishram Sawant's directorial debut. I have no clue what made Varma give him a movie like "D". How does he scout out talent? I didn't see any in this movie for sure. OK folks, let me be clear
I am a great fan of Ram Gopal Varma. I love the movies he directs himself. "Satya" and "Company" are in the same segment with Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and Copolla's "Godfather". Even a horror flick like "Bhoot" could be put right next to William Friedkin's "Exorcist" but movies like "Darna Mana Nai", "Vastu Shaastra" and "D" were mere techniques of cashing out on the previous film's successes.
I think RGV has this formula nailed down! If he sees a good script that will get him a big hit, then he directs it. If he sees that the script lacks substance but could be profitable then he just gives it to one of his deputies with the lowest budget possible and all the B-grade actors that he can get for cheap. He promotes these movies like crazy with his name on the banner bigger than the movie itself and cashes out in the first week of its premier. He handles these movies like a business transactions more than the passion he has for making films which is evident in his movies like "Shiva", "Satya" and "Company". Varma called his corporation "RGV Company" initially then he changed it to "The Factory"
with movies like "D" coming out pretty soon he will have to call it "The Assembly Line". I still have some hopes from "Sarkar" though which opens on July 4th here in the USA. Thank God that Varma directs it himself especially when he has The Big B and soon to be the Bigger B in his movie.
If you have nothing else to do on a Sunday afternoon and you don't know how to kill time, I would recommend you watch this movie. You could learn a lot on how not to make a movie when you don't have anything to show. No points for guessing what my grade for this movie is!! Yes absolutely!!! It is "D"!!!
