Department

Ram Gopal Varma coming up with his Rogue Methodology (using many tiny digital cameras) along with Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt excited me a lot before the release of DEPARTMENT. But a recent interview of the director raised a strong doubt in which RGV loudly said that "A story can fail but genuinely innovative technique can never fail." I frankly couldn't agree to this unacceptable statement from the director which in fact was repeatedly proved wrong by his own failures in the last few years. So it was a mixed bag of expectations while entering into the theater with the doubt scoring more than the positivity.

Now as the lights went off, the film right away started with an action sequence and within next 30 minutes I was sure that my doubt was once again the winner here since DEPARTMENT had nothing in it which could be associated with the brand RGV. The film never picks up in its first half and post intermission too it fails to enthrall the viewer with the same 'seen before' twists in the old tale revolving around the underworld, police and politicians nexus. Putting it straight, there is no RGV in this RGV film and DEPARTMENT can easily be included in the 5 weakest movies from the master film-maker in his entire career.

Yes, it does have many fresh camera angles and shooting techniques with some amazing results on the screen. But more than 95% of the people don't go to movies for only watching their technical achievements. They are there in the theater for some thrill, for some entertainment which is not visible anywhere in this film from start to finish. It doesn't have anything new as far as its storyline is concerned. It doesn't impress you with its action sequences, confronting scenes or dialogues.

And it also has some pretty bad songs thrown in regularly just unlike a RGV film. On top of that the film has a loud and annoying background score which keeps experimenting with each new sequence bringing in some new sounds. So there is no consistency in the score which eventually fails to generate any hard hitting impact on the viewer as previously seen in RGV's famous hits. And this is the same director whose film's background scores used to be the talk of the town few years back.

In the performance section the film disappoints big time despite of having two big names of the industry. Sanjay Dutt is the same old cop as witnessed before. Rana Dagubati tries hard but remains emotionless throughout the film. Abhimanyu Singh overacts in his role along with Madhu Shalini and both Vijay Raaz and Deepak Tijori remain wasted. The over famous item girl Nathalia Kaur shows no promise with her weird & suggestive kind of dance performance in the minimum clothes. So the only saviors in the cast are Amitabh Bachchan and the two ladies Anjana Sukhani & Laxmi Manchu performing well in their short roles.

But RGV and his DEPARTMENT together made me recall the time of late 80s & early 90s, when we all used to go to watch each and every new film of Amitabh with great enthusiasm and spirit, only to return with a lot of sadness and disappointment. In the present times, Ram Gopal Varma is now again giving us the same kind of feeling of watching all those unsuccessful films of Amitabh with every new project from his so called Factory.

There was a time when movie lovers eagerly used to wait for RGVs next project and felt over-excited to see all the novel things in his path- breaking films. However now its time RGV should realize that "It is the script which actually requires to be considered more important than the technology and the technique alone cannot result in a HIT".

May be he now admits the mistake after DEPARTMENT and returns to his good old form in his next……….at least for the sake of all his die-hard fans like myself since SHIVA.

Department: RGV wants to do an Abbas Mastan and doles out a spoof on a combination of Phoonk, Sarkar and Company. Honestly, the film could have been named 110 Encounters - Part 1, because that is what it is, simply interspersed with some meaningless dialogues and stupid songs. It was possibly aimed to describe polarization or nexus of the police department with the government and the underworld, but beyond a point, you don't give a damn to it or the characters that splutter to life only to die in a couple of minutes. It's mindless mayhem of blood, gore and flying people on the screen. A roving camera (mostly working on close ups) gives you the feel of sting operations and made my head spin (the film gave a headache anyway). A bunch of sweaty, looney goons perched atop an unfinished building preach sermons about the wisdom and morality of the gangsters and Big B's dialogues confuse the hell out of people. What's he doing in there? Dissociate from Ramu ASAP! Sanjay Dutt is the only one to stand out while the rest of the cast is useless! Ramu's magic has faded - so STOP! I will not watch the sequel to this one, no way! Stay away!!

This is the worst movie ever made in Indian film history. It is an amalgam of awful screenplay,horrible direction and poor action action. Nothing is even close to good.It is better not to watch the movie. I do not know why Ram Gopal Varma keep making lousy movies. I went to the movie not expecting much fun but to just pass the time . But the movie is so bad that i came back with a headache.If you want to make a good movie, focus on the story, on speeches, on the intellect, on actual acting instead of crappy action I can see for free on a TV series My rating for this movie is 0.P.S. I think the people who rate this film more than a 5 either haven't watched the other Underworld films, were paid-off, or are insane. It just doesn't deserve anything more than a pass.

RGV is loosing his touch. Movies like Aag are disgrace to his portfolio of movies. The movie is good, story is "OK" but the actors are promising. The camera makes you feel dizzy! Cinematography is not up to the level and the camera quality is not good. The direction overall is very casual and doesn't portray what the film actually says. I would say that such movies are based on internal topics of the country and you need more research and it should leave a social message in the end to the audience. The maturity in direction is depleting. Rana Daggubati can really act well and lives unto his role. Watch the movie because Sanjay Dutt and Amitabh Bachhan are in it not for the director. At least not this time!

This movie was way shot down by media, review websites and people in general. I agree there are few creepy/weird scenes in the movie...but the movie overall isn't a bad one if you enjoy RGV style action films. That being said, it doesn't have any repeat value but makes a decent one time watch. The performances were good and the music had typical Hollywood flavor to it. The movie camera angles of course were weird knowing RGV. Overall:

pros: nice action sequences, performances, music, some creative camera angles

cons: slow screenplay, no story, shoddy direction.

my review 6.5/10