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I'm not sure what's worse- that master filmmaker Polanksi fails to pull-off a return to form with material obviously this personal, or that this film proves that there now is such a thing as a "Holocaust movie," a genre unto itself with its own very familiar conventions centered around an absolute and very REAL horror? While I'm sure the latter problem is something of one of the great aesthetic/ethical crimes of the current cinema for someone like Jean-Luc Godard, for the filmgoer it means stodgy drama and lack of emotional identification first and foremost. And how depressing to see Polanksi continue his twenty year streak of duds !

What can i say, this is one of the most layered movies of all time, by your fifth viewing the movie becomes a comed. Each moment is soo full of meaning, and whats more, its more than one meaning, also its probably the most entertaining film by Kubrick to my taste--featuring one of the great screen performance from malcolm McDowell. Even the ending is left to some interpretation. Its trippy. Truly if 2001 was a space odyssey, ACO is a mind odyssey. Probably his most influential film on me.

This is more of a cinematic monument than a truly great film. Admittedly, the film loses some steam midway through, but the experience is breathtaking early on and then again towards the end, as the guides witness a 19th c. ballroom dance. Sokurov's final image is as poetic as any film image this year, and the film will surely be remembered.

A famous entrepreneur of the 1940s by the name of Billy Rose once told Welles "Orsan quit! you'll never top it". Who would have thought that he was on the dote with what he meant? No film I can think of has a more flawless ensemble, a more driving and intriguing story told in a more elegant and beautiful way. After finishing a film like Citizen Kane, you never forget it.

Its innovative structure, its flawless cinematography, its flawless editing, and its near flawless performances. Profound statements on memory and historical rememberance. Almost flawless on every imaginable stratum I could possibly think of. It may seem that I have abstracted the term "flawless", but I am only giving credit to where its due. Welles has crafted a masterpiece for all times, and its my favourite Orsan Welles film after Chimes at Midnight -- another masterful work of art by Orsan Welles. Even after 62 years of its premier in New York, Citizen Kane still stands out as the only film conceptualized and consummated too perfectly.

What a great film!

Without a doubt, Ram Gopal Verma is "the" most talented and innovative filmmaker in Bollywood. He is cut above the rest. His direction is just outstanding, almost to the point that he gets his work soo much noticed that it makes the viewer believe that the film's greatest commodity is its direction.

Performance wise, Ram Gopal Verma extracts the best performance from Ajay Devgan, and quite possibly the best performance of his career. Being the main evil character of this Hindi Film, you won't hear or see him in any loud actions which is usualy a norm amongst antagonist in Hindi Films. In Company, Ajay Devgan's character gets his evil and powerful character noticed through his creative thinking, clam and quietness. Ontop of that, his look and appearance in the film is fantastic. He almost looks like an evil character out of Martin Scorsese gangster film. Truly, Ajay Devgan has given another National Award worthy performance. Vivek Oberoi is superb. Being his first film, he acted like a true professional. At some times, he reminded me of Manoj Bajpai from Satya. Even Vivek's overall look and appearance in Company was great, something new that maybe others will shadow in there films to creat that Indian Natural Born Killer look. Mohanlal is just Mohanlal. His onscreen presence if full of electricity, he reminded me of Amitabh Bachchan. Despite the fact that he had weak hindi dialogue delivery, his onscreen presence makes up for it, and a few scenes containing an interaction between him, Ajay's character, and Vivek's character were really powerful through dialogue.

Sandeep Chowta's background score for Company is really up-beat and catchy, it really uplifts the overall classy look of this gangster saga. And i just LOVE the dialogue that plays in the back "Sab Ganda Hai, Per Danda Hai Yha! Sab Ganda Hai, Per Danda Hai Yha!" (*SPOILER*)For those that have seen the film, have you noticed that everytime someone gets killed in the film, you would always see someone light up a cigarette afterwords, I don't know how this was a metaphor to anything related to the killings, but it was something really interesting which I noticed(*SPOILER ENDS HERE*).

Hemant Chaturvedi's cinematography is brilliant. The different angles he used with his camera to shoot many portions of film really makes the film looks something unique and special. It was as almost as if I was watching the hindi version of Steven Soderbergh's Traffic.

The interval climax of Company was so appalling, one of the best interval's I've seen since Gupt.

HOWEVER, this film is not even close to being flawless, which is unfortunate since its coming from Ram Gopal Verma. The film had bad editing (Chandan Arora). Some of the interesting features I saw on the pre-promotion of this film were not on the final product. And the script/story wasn't too strong as compared Anurag Kashyap's previous scripts for Ramu. There were some inconsistency in the film's story. IE.(*SPOILER*) Antra Mali going to Hong Kong to convince Ajay Devgan to change his mind on killing Vivek Oberoi, and when Ajay Devgan refuses, she herself gets killed when attempting to kill Ajay Devgan. This was not needed in the film, as later we find out something new develops between Ajay and Vivek's characters.(*SPOILER ENDS HERE*)

As far as I'm concerned, Ram Gopal Verma should stick with Anurag Kashyap, his scripts are far more convincing with excellent character development, and much more flawless story telling. And who better to bring them out with prefection but Ram Gopal Verma, and we've seen it happen in Satya and Kaun?

Overall, is this film better than Satya? NO WAY!! As good as Satya? Close, but not quite. I'd say it's the second best Gang-related film ever made in India thus far. And it's on the same level as Sarfarosh, interms of quality. Thus, Satya still remains Ramu's best film, and it seems that the only one who can compete and overlap Ramu is Ramu himself, with the help of a strong script writer (Anurag Kashyap), which was really missing in Company. On the plus side, Company is an example of Very Good(unique) Indian Cinema filled with top noch performances, excellent cinematography and dialogues and above all, great direction. These factors have uplifted the good(but not great) script. Company- A Law & Order Enterprise.

Rating: 9/10 (a classy gangster-saga)

SPECIAL NOTE: Although this film is based on a true historical character, however, the film is not intended to depict a documentry on the real Asoka's life/journey as was in reality. Most of the film is highly dramatized for the entertainment value. This film does however provide very basic information about the actual Kalinga War and asoka's transformation from a hindu to a buddist.

Synopsis-

Asoka (Shahrukh Khan) grows up fascinated with a voilent weapon and hopes that it will in return bring him great power and respect. The setting of the story is in the 2nd century B.C. in the kingdom of Magadha of south central India. Eventually Asoka grows up to be a great furious fighting warrior winning many wars and battles thus expanding the entire Mauryan Empire. Asoka's goal is to become the new head of the throne which was currently headed by his elder brother Susima (Ajith). Susima, whom becomes extremely jealous of Asoka quick rising fame and power, try's many indirect attempts to have Asoka killed before he reaches the throne but sadly for susima, he fails at all attempts to have asoka killed. Asoka's journey later continues when he is asked to leave the Kingdom of Magadha by his mother Dharma (Subhasini Ali) and for him to go in his own path. Asoka decides to go to Kalinga, on his new journey, he meets a wise buddist who tells him that his journey is larger than just heading the throne of Magadha. Asoka also meets and falls in love with a strange women Kaurwaki (Kareena Kapoor) also known to be Princess Kaurwaki of Kalinga. As the story develops more, Asoka and Kaurwaki get married but on the day of their marriage, Asoka is asked to return to Magadha as news makes him aware that his mother is very ill. As the entire story from here unfolds, things take a real big turn, as Asoka does indeed become larger than just retaining the throne, he also loses his communication with Kaurwaki and her younger brother Arya (Suraj Balaji) and the story leaves you with a shocking and questionable ending.

Technicality-

This film has dynamite Cinematography (Santosh Sivan) & Art Direction (Sabu Cyril), its easily compariable to the likes of Santosh Sivan's other great works such as The Terrorist and Mina Nair's Kamasutra and almost to the likes of Peter Pau & Jian-Quo Wang Chrouching Tigers, Hidden Dragon. For a commerical bollywood film, its cinematography & art direction is the most exotic & decadent works in reccent times and it actually makes one believe that the setting was indeed the second century B.C. of Ancient India. One can also easily debate weather Santosh Sivan's cinematography alone had a message of its own inrelations to the story. He is perhaps one of India's most thought-provoking film cinematographers ever. However, technicality, these are perhaps the films two biggest plus points. As good as that area is, other technicality ares strongly disappoint just as well. A. Sreekar Prasad's film editing & Sandeep Chowta's background musical score is very poor. Many times through out the film, it felt that the story was being rushed and that each scene wasn't shown with full justise. This is hard to believe, as A. Sreekar Prasad has done some excellent film editing for previous films such as Dil Chahta Hai and The Terrorist. Even most of the songs were not shown with proper starting and/or ending, I've even noticed that bits of each song was deleted inbetween to kick forward the movie ahead. Only thought that comes to my mind when realizing this is, Why? Which brings me to the background musical score by Sandeep Chowta, there were some parts in the movie where background score was loud and annoying and I felt that some scenes would have turned out to be better without any background music just so that the scene can be simple just as its setting, by adding the background music made the look of those certain scene unrealistic and more of a fantasy, which is a total turn off. Even some action fighting sequences (excluding the Kalinga War) were poor. However, the Kalinga War itself wasn't the works of anything original, I spotted a few scenes which were ripped off from Hollywood movies such as The Patriot & Gladiator. Though I totally don't disrespect the entire Kalinga War scene, as it is one of my favorite scenes of the movie.

Performances-

Shah Rukh Khan is really good, Asoka is perhaps his best performance since Mohabbatein and Hey Ram. He is especially good in the second half of the film as his character takes on some major changes and Shahrukh Khan does good justice to each transformation. His performance is bound to get him a nomination for best actor in most award ceremonies next year. But it is Kareena Kapoor whoes performance suprises the most from the entire cast, this is her best attempt at acting since her dabute. She had a very challenging character which took many twist and turns, and she played it perfect to the T. She too is bound to get a nominee for best actress for her performance in Asoka at most award ceremonies next year. Other commendable performances should go to Suraj Balaji, whom portrayed the cute, innocent yet brave little younger brother of Kaurwaki. Also, not to mention Rahul Dev and first time newcommer Hrishitaa Bhatt for there commendable performances. And Johnny Lever, whom as always provides great comic releif.

Overall Thoughts-

The film's greatest trademark are its Cinematography & Art Direction which hold really strong from start to finsih, and this was easily expected from this film because you have two masterminds working on it side by side. The first half of the film is so-so because of its poor film editing. But thank goodness for the second half, the story really begins to catch attention, and the main performances really begin to appeal to the eyes. Santosh Sivan's overall direction is good, although his work in the Terrorist is easily superior than Asoka in the direction department. So does Asoka have a repeat viewing value? I would say that it does in most cases, mainly thanks to its overall look and a strong second half film for its saviour. However, A bit of more depiction of Asoka becoming a buddist would have been more appricated. Though it is not the best film of the year (2001) and it cannot be compared to the quality of Lagaan through its story telling, but its definilty one of the top five films of 2001. But one thing I cannot stop addressing enough of is that, from the point of view of its Cinematography & Art Direction, Asoka is a true classic, its definitly a visual feast to the eye.