Director: Madhur Bhandarkar Music: Shamir Tandon Lyrics: Sandeep Nath
Story and Screenplay: Madhur Bhandarkar & Manoj Tyagi
The word corporate at first impression gives a feeling of something very lustrous, glossy and decent having systematic and clean culture. But really the corporate world is so? This question has been raised by Madhur Bhandarkar in his latest movie “Corporate”. Though CII, FICCI and corporate world have expressed big differences with Madhur’s point of view, but they can’t deny it totally as most of the events shown in film are just shadows of real events from corporate world of India. Whether it’s a share-market scam by Ketan parekh or Harshad Mehta or Cola-wars, most of the indirect references can’t be rejected. Madhur has touched upon disinvestments, acquisitions, collaborations, business awards; almost all buzzwords of this world.
So here comes the 4th one in series of thought-provoking movies after Chandni Bar, Satta and Page 3. (barring the masala movies “Aan” and “trishakti”). And the second common factor in all these movies is that the story is told as seen by the eyes of a female protagonist, so the films also talks about both woman empowerment and woman exploitation. These movies uncover the glossy but extremely dirty world beneath dance bars, politics, celebrities and corporate world. And this is done with the balanced blend of sarcasm, humor, real life incidents and substantial story. But the mild difference in this film is the protagonist herself is not in white but gray shades which make the character closer to reality. She is also engaged in unethical practices to win the race in the cut-throat competition like others. Madhur’s movies bring the crude and cruel realities of the selected worlds within world artfully which makes the product lively and engrossing as compared to many art-movies which are considered boring by masses.
So the movie goes like this. The 2 big corporate houses of India, “Sehgel” and “Marwah” are in business of food products. They are involved in extreme rivalry to become market leader. Vinay Sehgel (Rajat kapoor) heads the sehgal group. He is a ambitious and shrewd businessman who can go to any extend for profits and capturing market. He is supported by his CEO talented managers played by Harsh and Bipasha. Nishigandha (Bipasha) is smart and ambitious woman. Dharmesh Marwah (Raj Babbar) is owner of the rival industry. He is superstitious, traditional but equally corrupt as his rivals. Marwah group CEO role is played by Sandeep Mehta who is sexually attracted towards Nishi and tries to come closer even though they are from rival companies. And Nishi takes advantage of this fact to steal documents about a new soft-drink project from him.There is one more important character in the film, Ritesh. He is brother-in-law of Vinay Sehgel and love interest of Nishi. He failed in business abroad and now again returning to India to hold a good managerial position in Sehgel groups. As Sehgels have got the secret details of Marwah’s project they launch a similar soft-drink project before marwah’s to make there position in market. But there studies shows strong present of pesticides in there drink. Looking at the fat profits involved and there reputation on stake (after extensive advts.), sehgel is impatient to launch the project. The soft-drink is launched and becomes a major hit in market. Marwah wants to cover his loses and uncovers and blow the pesticide issue. Now Nishi is made scapegoat to take charges of illegal practice of Sehgal. After some more twists the rivals have ceasefire agreement with negotiations of minister Gulabrao and stock broker for win-win situation. Vinay Apte plays the role of corrupt but polished minister Gulabrao who can switch loyalties very easily to maximize personal gain. He is ready to sell a PSU to anybody who can offer maximum bribe to him.
The film has many small but strong characters. Minisha and Sameer Dattani are young executives in office of Marwah who are pass-outs from MBA colleges and has rosy picture of corporate world in mind. There feelings are portrayed subtly from there eyes and body languages when they witness the real ugly face of Corporate world. Lillete Dubey works something like a TV anchor but she is also involved in fixing meetings and deals of corporates and politicians. She shows her acting talent in few minutes assigned to her where she let her frustration go in front of her driver in drunken state. Her sorrow is being referred as a glorified pimp (which she is in the movie). There are drivers and peons of these powerful people who cracks satirical jokes on the hypocrisy of there masters. (this is a thing which Madhur repeated after Page-3).
The film bluntly portrays the poisonous mixture of business, politics, sex and the underlying corruption. This is reflected in the punch line of the film “Corporate- Paisa, Power, Politics”. The message is clearly echoed in film that the bottom-line of business is profit and to meet that everybody is ready to keep ethics aside.
Bipasha has revealed her acting talent more than her body. Rajat and Raj Babbar are excellent. Kay-kay lives the character with vigor and intensity.
There are several fine nuances shown through small events. Like Raj babbar chooses a different ring to wear every-day from a set of rings for good-luck. The God-man to whom he visits also acts as a broker for his business. It shows the hollowness of so-called religious activities done by these powerful and rich men. It also depicts the role of share brokers who can make or break the share-prices and thus can affect a company in a big way. Even the NGO‘s are not spared who are shown as just instruments of these powerful people.
Compatible background music is given by Raju Singh (who was the music director of Satta and Chandni Bar). Main Music is composed by Shamir Tandon. The compositions “O sikander” and lamha Lamha” are very melodious. “Lamha Lamha” has the evergreen magic of Asha Bhosle’s voice which she repeated after “Gungunati hai” in Satta. kailash kher has set the mood of qawaali by his rustic voice for song “O Sikander”. Crisp Dialogues by Aje Monge and Manoj Tyagi are worth mentioning. The film is woven as a story narrated by a voice (Atul Kulkarni’s voice).
But above all the artfully knit screenplay that Bhandarkar has co-written with Manoj Tyagi and the original and well-researched story are the back-bone of film. Before this Film only Shyam Benegal has explored the territory of business tycoons in his film “Kalyug”. Yash Chopra has also shown to some extent in his film “Trishul” where he gets secret of rival company through an employee but that was more like personal vendetta.This original and unusual movie is worth watch.