Department Movie Review – Details

Movie Title: Department

Film Critic: Goher Iqbal Punn

Cast :  Sanjay Dutt as Mahadev Bhosle

Rana Daggubati as Shivnaravan

Amitabh Bachchan as Sarjerao Gaikwad

Director : Ram Gopal Verma

Producer : Ram Gopal Verma

Released On : May 18 2012

Rating:  

Ram Gopal Verma is called the maverick filmmaker in the world of cinema. This man is no doubt is brilliant and his brilliance is shown in his cinematic works. He is the master of the trade of underworld movies. The fact remains that the movies with the genre of crime have Ram Gopal Verma behind. His movies like Company, Satya, Sarkar and Sarkar Raj – all are brilliantly made and got hugely popular among the cinegoers. Whenever the underworld movie hits the mind, the name of Verma comes up instantly which shows the filmmaker’s class.

His latest offering ‘Department’ too is no different from the usual stuff of underworld. All due praises of the accomplished filmmaker aside, this one outing is simply no novel at all and carries nothing to rave big about.

The movie was well hyped to create the popularity among the viewers. All sorts of publicity gimmicks were used for the promotional works for the film. No denying in saying that the movie was massively hyped. The promotional works acted well but how can a product make business when it has nothing to offer to its customers.

Ram Gopal Verma even took the edge of the tested formula and the current success mantra of item song and injected it into the narrative. The item number too was publicized colossally in the media to raise the film’s fame. Sanjay Dutt’s homage to the legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan in shape of Bachchan’s supremely popular yesteryear song ‘Thodi Si Jo Pe Li Hai’ too was clipped with the flick. In short, a lot has been done to make this food spicy for the people but all went vain since the final product was tasteless and lackluster.

The bigger weakness of the movie, despite having the big starcast like Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt on board, is the script that is much weedy and mundane. Ram Gopal Verma did not try to make the movie novel at all rather he took the time and tested track to make the movie on. He wanted to have short cut to get the success since he knew his previous movies on this genre clicked with the audiences. Admit, one should focus on success when attempting a project but why the people forget to inject new stuff in their ventures? Why do they take the advantage of the time and tested formulas just to get the instant success? Why do they adopt the short cuts? Why do they take their eyes off the hard work? Ram Gopal Verma too borrowed the concepts from his previous underworld films and put them into the mixture of Department.

The top government officials hold a meeting where they create a new force called ‘Department’ to eliminate the underworld criminal activities. This force is beyond the law. Mahadev Bhosale (Sanjay Dutt) heads this team. Shiv Narayan (Ran Daggubati) joins in the team. These two police officers on their way to eliminate the underworld turn out to be the puppets in the hands of underworld don turned a corrupt politician, Sarjerao Gaikwad (Amitabh Bachchan).

The screenplay, as mentioned above, is not novel at all. It is like an old wine packaged into a new sparkling bottle. The writing portion is quite weak and that becomes the culprit of the failure of this enterprise. Direction is marvelous and fantastic. Verma attracts with his camera works. His execution is splendid. Background score, which is called the highlight of this genre of movie, is superlative. Dharam Sandeep deserves full marks for it. Action is in big quantity in this film and Javed Aijaz has done the great job for adorning this beautifully. Cinematography is below average as the focus is lost at various frames. Music by Dharam Sandeep, Bappa Lahiri and Vikram Nagi is melodious.

Amitabh Bachchan is a class to watch. He delivers his goods brilliantly as usual. Sanjay Dutt is superlative. Rana Daggubati is first rate. Vijay Raaz is just about okay. Abhimanyu Singh is fine. Deepak Tijori enacts his part with aplomb. Laxmi Manchu is efficient.  Rest of the cast too goes fine with their characters.

Final Verdict by the Critic:

Department is boring since there is no novelty in the script. Save your money and time.

Movie Details:

As already visible , not much information as to release dates, shooting locales or music or banners is available. A few weeks back the shooting dates too were postponed by Ram Gopal Verma citing certain technical mishaps.

However, a lot of details regarding the casting have come up accordingly. Opposite Rana Daggubati , viewers will see Nathalia, this is happening after Ram Gopal had already cast her in an item song earlier. As far as reports go RGV has come to say that he had never seen a more beautiful woman. It ha salso been found that the earlier shoots involved an injured Sanjay who continued shooting despite the wounds.  Rana has made it public that according to him Department is going to be RGV’s most stylish film ever.

Apart from the heavy likes of Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt, the cast involves Madhu Shalini and Lakshmi Manchu too. RGV is famous for his talented works across multiple Indian languages and story lines. Thus fans cannot be blames for being on an edge over the release of Department. However, it is true that RGV Ki Aag, the earlier RGV project that were made on the lines of yester year’s blockbuster Sholay, failed miserably to influence and impress fans and ordinary viewers alike. So with department RGV has to come forth and prove his mettle for continued praiseworthy contribution to the industry.

Department follows RGV’s signature style, the politicians – criminal nexus. The plot involves internal politics and corruption in the police department. After Daud, this is the 1^st time Sanjay will be working with RGV.