Ram Gopal Varma, to date, has churned out two classic films in the gangster genre-SATYA and COMPANY. Despite offering new insight into Underworld and touching upon areas that have not been despicted before the film still comes across as a wanna-be. It is definitely not a patch on SATYA or COMPANY for that matter.
When D was announced, rumours went wild that the film was based on the life of Dawood Ibrahim while Varma claimed in each interview that D was a prequel to COMPANY which further enhanced the excitement given COMPANYS ’’cult classic’’ status.
As a director Vishram Sawant makes a reasonably good debut-but he is definetly not one of Varmas best proteges. While directors like E.Nivas (SHOOL), Shimit Amin (AB TAK CHAPPAN) and Sriram Raghavan (EK HASINA THI) proved they were a lot more than just mere RGV wanna-bes, Sawant has difficulty coming out of Varmas shadow and in the final result he ends up looking like a copycat/clone rather than carving his own niche.
On the flipside one must give Sawant credit for tackling a genre that the viewer has seen time and time again (PARINDA, VAASTAV, SATYA, MAQBOOL, COMPANY) yet still delivering a film that is thoroughly watchable and has moments of brilliance. While the first half introduce us to the characters in the underworld and how Deshu starts to slowly build his empire-it is the second half where Deshu starts taking over the Underworld and his rivalry with Shabbir and Mukkram which leave a hammer strong impact.
The following scenes do leave a lasting impression on the viewer..
The death of Raghav
The attack on Deshu straight after
3.The meeting at Hashimbhais house and Deshus consequent
- The climax scene when Deshu visits Hashimbhai one last time
Also given the complex nature of the film the manner in which Sawant unravels the entire film must be given credit. The film unravels in the most natural manner which is easy to follow from start to finish. One just wishes that Sawant had tried to make his own mark rather than coming across as a clone-on the whole NICE TRY BUT NOT QUIET MR SAWANT.
Randeep Hoonda in the title role is absolutely MINDBLOWING. The actor takes a complex character and delivers what a thoroughly convincing performance which will have the viewer hooked. His performance reminds one of the angry young Amitabh of the 70’s who expressed anger through his eyes(Amitabh in DEEWARR for example).His looks gels perfectly with his character and Hoonda makes perfect use of his eyes as well as expressions portraying a gallery of emotions. This can be called one of the BEST debut performances of 2005. No doubt the actors strongest point is his booming baritone voice and his delivery-his dialogues are simply outstanding and I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said Randeep Hoonda is D!
Chunky Panday too delivers a fantastic performance and stages a terrific comeback! Panday who after a brilliant performance in TEZAAB never got a worthy role to prove his worth..until now! As Raghav, Panday proves that he is talented and given the right role can deliver a worthy performance. His performance does seem inspired by Bhikhu Mhatre of SATYA and the relationship he shares with his girlfriend too has similar shades. But the comparison would be unfair as comparing Bhikhu Mhatre to Raghav would be like comparing SATYA to D.
Isha Kopikkar is effective in her short role and makes her presence felt. One wishes she had more footage.
Rukhsar too stages a comeback of sorts and manages to leave a mark. She looks gorgeous on screen with a killer body and her chemistry with Randeep reminds one of Amitabh-Parveen in DEEWARR.
RGV film always feature excellent performances from their entire supporting cast and D is no exception! Varma manages to bring to the screen a list of character actors/villians from mainly B-Grade cinema who either never quiet made it or never got their due. In a sense the film is a throwback to all these actors...
The most notable of the lot is Goga Kapoor who has been given a career-defining role as the ageing Hashimbhai. The actor is simply outstanding in a role that is truly underrated. The actors body language, intonation, delivery are all truly superlative.
Varma regulars Yashpal Sharma(SHOOL, AB TAK CHAPPAN) and Sushant Singh(KAUN, JUNGLE) leave a mark in their respective roles and play their parts efficiently as expected.
Smaller actors like Ishrat Ali, Deepak Shirke, Jeeva, too are flawless in their parts and manage to leave a mark.
Makrand Deshpandes voiceover is perfect for the film and his voice creates the right ambience.
Dialogues by Manish Gupta are FANTASTIC. Specially those delivered by Randeep Hoonda.
Like COMPANY majority of the songs in D appear in the background. The DHOKEBAAZ item number with Rajpal Yadav is interesting and merges in well with the film. The KHUDKO MAAR DAALA Re track sticks out like a sore thumb in terms of the narrative nevertheless is still enjoiyable due to the raw energy exuded by Chunky Panday and Isha Kopikkar and their dancing in the songs. The song is remenniscient of GOLI MAARI BHEJE MEIN and SAPNO MEIN MILTI HAI from SATYA.
Like all RGV films be it directional or productional the background scores are brilliant and D is no different. The background score by Prassana Shekhar enhances the graph of many scenes and even the movie for that matter. Sawant has merged the background score with his narrative to avoid unecessary ’’dialogue baazi’’. The music replaces the dialogues yet still manages to convey the message across.
Technically the film is superb as expected.
The cinematography is apt keeping the theme of the movie in mind and the bylanes, slums, and streets to utmost perfection.
The film has blood, gore and violence in abundance and action by Parvez Khan is keeping the genre in mind.
Worth a watch.