After Satya, here’s another brilliant exposition on the Mumbai underworld by Ram Gopal Varma. But this one’s even better executed. In spite of the mandatory declaration ’’all characters in this film are fictitious, etc..’’ almost everyone knows by now that this film is loosely based on the Dawood Ibrahim-Chota Rajan saga. We have in Malik (Ajay Devgan) and Chandu (Vive Oberoi) two memorable characters. Ajay Devgan is simply superb as the cool and calculating Malik who usurps the the underworld throne from his boss. This must surely be his best performance so far. Equally brilliant is Vivek Oberoi as Chandu the small time gangster who makes it big in Malik’s company only to fall out with him later. This is one actor who is well on his way to superstardom. He’s really got what it takes. And then of course I just loved Mohanlal’s Sreenivasan, the soft spoken Police Commissioner, who tries to take advantage of the rift between Chandu and Malik to put an end to the Company’s ’ganda dhanda’
The movie has a neat script and taut editing. There is not one superfluous scene in the film. The almost documentary style narration is so good, it gives a very authentic feel to the movie. The tracks, ’khallas’ and ’sab ganda hai’ are really cool and are just right for the mood of the film.
This film surely deserves all the kudos its getting (I say that because before watching it, I wondered if all the hype about the movie was just that - hype)This is one of those rare movies that I would like to watch again in the theatre.