'D Company' is now streaming on Spark OTT. Here is our review of the gangster drama.
Story
Back in early 1980s, gang wars on the streets of Bombay (erstwhile Mumbai) involved the likes of Haji Masthan, Kareem Lalla, Samad Khan and Alamzeb. When his brother develops rivalry with a gang, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar (Ashwat Kanth) takes it upon himself to metamorphose into a don himself.
Performances
Made in Hindi, the film casts less-known actors for whom the dubbing is all wrong. Ashwat Kanth is one actor who makes an impression despite the cacophony all around him. The camera focuses on his expressions only in the last segment of the film. The rest of the performances come undone by an intolerable sketchiness.
Apsara Rani performs an item number, while Naina Ganguly and Irra Mor are routine.
Technical aspects
Paul Praveen's background music is typical, while V Malharbhatt Joshi's cinematography is far from being inventive. RGV's films have been consistently basic when it comes to technical aspects. This film may have been made many years ago. So, you can imagine!
Analysis
The film's avowed goal was to narrate the rise of Dawood Ibrahim and his company. At the end of the 90-minute film, Ram Gopal Varma says that the actual rise of the D Gang and how it became the dreaded D Company will be narrated in the next episode. Episode? Whatever!
The frames are outdated, with the director failing to come out of the hangover of films like 'Satya' and 'Company'. The staging of the gang wars is not only lazy but also extremely hackenyed.
There is nothing edgy, and we never really understand how exactly Dawood rose from the ranks of a small-time goon. There are a couple of love tracks, which suffer from a certain RGV-esque touch. Naina and Irra's characters exist to show their love for their respective men.
Right at the outset, the film says that D Company became one of the most dreaded organizations in the world. Even America's CIA put it in its list of most-wanted. But the grand statements made in the introductory segment are forgotten by the director himself, who doesn't give a glimpse of the Company's awfulness anywhere.
Closing Remarks:
'D Company' is yet another proof that RGV is not tired of the same old gang wars and gun shots.
