Review : D

This Ram Gopal Verma production is the debut vehicle for actor Randeep Hooda, and director Sawant, both of whon accomplish their tasks with finesse. Although in the same vein as Verma’s earlier gangster flicks, like Company, Satya etc., this one though engrossing, is a tad inferior by comparison. Supposedly a prequel to the celebrated “Company” (although names differ), “D”, the story of one man’s rise in the Mumbai underworld, and his corporatization of crime as a “Company” unfolds as a well-told, but violent drama.

Deshu (Hooda) is a mechanic in Dubai, who has come home after his mother’s death. His father, is a dry, gruff, police constable. Deshu, unwittingly becomes a witness to a murder, when Mangli bhai’s goons chasing a man, burst into his chawl, and proceeed to kill the man right there. Roughened up by the police to act as witness, and threatened by the goons to not, Deshu keeps shut. Later, he joins a rival gang (Hashim bhai’s), and proceeds to kill Mangli.

Little by little, with his bravery and intelligence he manages to become Hashim bhai’s (Goga Kapoor) right-hand man, much to the dismay of his two sons, Muqarram (Sushant Singh) and Shabbir (Yashpal Sharma). The rest of the film chronicles his take-over of the gang, when Hashim bhai, bending to his son’s wishes, allows an unwarranted attack on Deshu and his faithful lieutenant Raghav (Pandey). The film ends with Deshu, having crowned himself underworld king, dreaming of forming the “D” company and running it as a well-tuned machine from outside India’s borders.

The film is short, strong, and aggresive. Randeep Hooda turns in a powerfully restrained performance as Deshu, and exudes an honest, straightforward-man type aura, which makes his character likeable. Rukhsar, as actress Bhakti, and Deshu’s love-interest also does well, and reminds one of yester-year actress Kamini Kaushal. Chunky Pandey as Raghav, casts aside his image as non-actor, and performs well. And Isha Koppikar as his wife, is good as the ethnic, Maharashtrian beauty. The other 2 actors of note are Sushant Singh and Yashpal Sharma, who turn in impressive performances as Hashim bhai’s venomous sons.

The director presents scenes interestingly, not wasting much time on dialogue, but cutting down the scenes to a few lines of dialogue and silencing the rest of the conversation with the background score. Interesting technique this, reduceness staleness of conversations (for all of us who’ve seen Company etc.), and the use of profanity. However, the film loses brownie points because it tries to be “too” polished – Company was good because it was a bit rough around the edges; it brought home the elegance of the film. “D” in contrast, has typical in-your-face gangster music, very few light moments, and therefore comes across as “heavy”. Also the character of Deshu, is not a many-splendoured thing but very focussed and inward-looking (the word I’m looking for, without wanting to say it is cold-blooded). The viewer, while liking and sympathising with Deshu, cannot fathom his thoughts or reasoning, and therefore is rendered less appreciative than he/she could be.

Having said all that, director Sawant shows great promise, and Hooda displays a flair for serious, meaty roles. May we be treated to more theatrical productions by these two!