Remember the days when movie gangsters wore white suits with a bright red scarf tucked the collar, a white hat and a gold pipe a la Ajit? Or the era after that where they had names like Dr. Dang and Mogambo and donned (no pun intended) costumes that were a blend of gold, red, silver, black, white, green, yellow, pink...?
EGAD!
Today, thanks to Ram Gopal Varma, the face of the Indian gangster has changed. He’s real - a little unkempt at first, but then begins to look quite normal, he has a family, realises what he’s getting into and is not a victim of a ’paap ki duniya’ which he desperately wants to get out of. He’s in his place because he wants to be there, and loves his ’job’ like anyone else in any other profession!
’D’ is Ramu’s third gangster flick (after Satya and Company), and I was looking forward to it (which is why my review is here on the evening of 3rd June!) My reaction so far has been mixed. Here’s what I thought:
The look of the film is a lot like Company. The film captures your attention right from the first frame. The narrative is excellent, the pace slick and the storyline tight. The length of the film is just about right, but it could’ve been made shorter if the ‘khud ko maar dala’ song was edited out.
Coming down to the script, ’D’ is the story of Deshu (sorry! Not Dawood) who, fed up with his ordinary life, decides that he wants to get into the big bad world of crime. He gets into a gang and slowly becomes its leader. The film revolves around how he does this, the friends and foes he makes on the way, and the triumph of nice-evil over bad-evil (you can’t say good vs evil if both are blood-hungry gangsters, no?) Can’t call it an original script, and sometimes you feel like it’s a ’Company’ all over again with different actors.
Of the cast,
Randeep Hooda is excellent. Hope this film does for him what Company did for Vivek Oberoi!
Chunky Pandey is as good as ever. Wonder where he’d disappeared to all this while!
Ishaa Koppikar is good, and Ruksaar is tolerable.
The rest of the cast is excellent and more importantly, believable!
All in all, whether it’s based on real-life characters or not, ’D’ is a real flick, where people don’t feel the need to rename themselves ’Bunty’ and ’Babli’ when they want to do something wrong!!!
Quite an entertainer! Book your tickets now!