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Wednesday, April 24, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD DEPARTMENT
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***
Shoot at sight. Point blank. In different ways that`s exactly what Ram Gopal
Varma (RGV) and his characters do in Department.
While his cop heroes Sanjay Dutt, Rana Daggubati and their hazily sketched
compatriots (one of whom looks like Deepak Tijori) go on a cleansing rampage
against socio-paths, RGV goes on his own trip, shooting characters at angles
you`ve never seen them being shot. They don`t always look fetching with their
stained teeth and dirty nails showing up in embarrassing close-ups. So, who said
life in cinema is about postcard pictures?
Welcome to RGV`s world of muck and mayhem.
The one definite thing that must be said about RGV is that his exploration of
the nexus between the law and the underworld is ceaselessly seeking new modes of
storytelling.
Department is one breathless surge of aggression and violence. Shot
with cameras that capture the actors at their quirkiest and most candid, the
film is not for those who think cinema is all about style. RGV left his stylish
days behind in Rangeela and Company.
Repeatedly and mercilessly RGV dismantles all conventions of pretty storytelling
and aims for the jugular. The camera angles are often much too casual to be
considered `cinematic`. But breaking rules is a given in RGV`s cinema. He breaks
them in Department in a noisy rush of agitated images that go well
with the edgy fidgety characters.
Not all the characters work. Vijay Raaz as a whiny dhoti-clad gangster and
debutant Madhu Malini as a tartish sharp-shooter are a scream. The talented
Abhimanyu Singh has a tough time trying to maintain an equilibrium between the
two unintentionally comical evil doers. The dialogues these gangsters exchange
try so hard to be real they end up being howlers. It`s like eavesdropping on a
conversation between two pathologists.
The camera, manned by no official Director Of Photography (and it shows), goes
through the character`s legs, into their nostrils, over their armpits…in this
film about cops who do their own thing.
Department is a brutal film. There`s no room here for emotions. Even
when Sanjay Dutt playing a senior cop goes home his wife, played by Laxmi
Manchu, speaking in a strangely loud tone, he talks to her in unsentimental
tones. There`s more feeling in the two cops, Sanjay and Rana`s buddy-buddy talk,
in the line of duty.
There`s a long history in cinema of cops striking a rapport on the beat. Sanjay
and Rana are no Danny Glover and Mel Gibson. But then this is no Lethal
Weapon.
The action here is a strange mix of street aggression and stylized stunts. While
scenes of Rana chasing goons through claustrophobic crowded areas of Mumbai are
vintage Varma, the climactic fist-to-fist between Rana and Sanjay proves a
battle of unequal titans. One of the two actors being just too agile for the
other.
What grabs your attention in this oft-told tale of the cops resorting to
extra-constitutional means to `cleanse` the city is the frenetic pacing. The
characters are constantly on the move.
Even Amitabh Bachchan, while taking sardonic jibes at a `system` that is
corroded, is seen restlessly circling Sanjay or Rana, depending on which of the
two the wily wizened politicians is provoked into action.
Not surprisingly Amitabh`s netagiri provides the liveliest interludes in the
proceedings. He seems to behaving the most fun even when saddled with dialogues
that must have sounded far funnier on paper than they do in their delivery.
Among the rest of the cast, Rana with his restrained ruggedness stands tall.
What Department delivers is yet another RGV product that takes Hindi
cinema`s crime genre away from conventional storytelling. There are no
punctuations except exclamation marks, no speed-breakers except songs, which are
terribly screechy and grating with Nathalia Kaur`s item number hitting
rock-bottom, and no way out for these restless law-enforcers than to take the
law in their own hands.
The world of Department is anarchic, destructive and apocalyptic.
The narrative format imposed on the world of gangsterism is freewheeling almost
chaotic. Violence and death are written into the DNA of the characters.
Department tells a virile story with no patience for sappy humbug.
It`s not meant for those who think lovers laughing their way into death, as they
did in Ishaqzaade, are the last words in ruinous relationships. In
Department, the characters share a far more intimate bonding with
their guns than with their friends
The trailers of "Department" are already in theatres and the promotional clippings are ready to be aired on the small screen.Read More
'Department' not based on Mumbai cops: RGVFilmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has denied reports saying his forthcoming film "Department" is based on the real-life characters of the Mumbai police.Read More
`Department` focuses on conflict of interest in police department (IANS Preview)
Exploring
in his films the dark underbelly of the underworld is what Ram Gopal Varma is
known for. After making underworld dramas, the filmmaker puts the spotlight on
the dark secrets of the police department through his film
Department, releasing Friday.
Department focuses on a group of encounter specialists working with
the Mumbai Police force and their different perspective towards the underworld.
Concerned about the underworld`s increasing terror and other criminal
activities, the top cops along with the home secretary and the home minister
hold a secret meeting and decide to form a special unit called - The Department.
The team includes inspector Mahadev Bhosle (Sanjay Dutt), leader of the
encounter squad, and Shivnarayan (Rana Daggubati), an encounter specialist. Both
the cops have different ways of dealing with the gangsters.
While Shivnarayan follows principles and ethics, Bhosle is completely opposite.
The film shows conflicts of interest and struggle for power among the cops.
Apart from Sanjay and Rana, the film also features megastar Amitabh Bachchan as
gangster-turned-politician Sarjerao Gaikwad. Anjana Sukhani, Vijay Raaz,
Abhimayu Singh and Lakshmi Manchu form the rest of the cast.
The film has been extensively shot with the 5D and 7D cameras, and the filmmaker
fondly calls it rogue filmmaking.
Department is a hard hitting action drama and I wanted to apply a
completely new language of cinema in terms of both its camera work and
editing, said Varma.
The technology and methodology I adopted in the course of filming `Department`
is what I would call `rogue filmmaking`. Department has not been shot with canon
5D alone... it`s just one of the 7 types of cameras used.
It`s been shot in multiple formats with 5D, 7D Lumix Gopro Sony Nx5 and
60D... each camera was used for its own uniqueness in capturing a shot, he
added. Even Sanjay admits he was amazed to see the minute details that the
camera has captured.
Varma`s films are incomplete without a raunchy number and this time he has roped
in Brazilian model of Indian descent Nathalia Kaur to perform on the song
Dan dan Cheeni, which, he says, is a tribute to Tamil superstar
Rajinikanth. The song was earlier offered to Sunny Leone, but she couldn`t do
it.
A new version of Amitabh`s iconic song Thodi si jo pee li hai from
1982 release Namak Halal has been used. In this number, Sanjay
shakes a leg with the megastar.
Also Varma`s films are incomplete without controversy. Here too screen-play
writer Danish Raza filed a police complaint against the director for allegedly
not paying him his dues for the film.
Press Conference of Hindi Film Department Photo Gallery