Madhur Bhandarkar
should understand that taking an interesting background
for a feature film is one thing and creating an
involving cinematic story around it, quite another.
He might have got by with Chandni Bar (2001)
and Page 3 (2005), again the backdrops
chosen being interesting enough to carry the films
through but the holes are a little more glaring
with Corporate.
Admittedly once Bhandarkar takes on a project,
he does his research pretty well be it Chandni
Bar or Page 3 and now Corporate
but transferring the material he has at his disposal
into an interesting, focussed film is lacking
here. While Bhandarkar packs everything he can
as he delves into the underside of the Corporate
Industry – the Industrialist – Politician
Nexus, Stock Market manipulations, advent of MNCs
coming to India, The Coca Cola Pesticide Incident,
the sexual tangles, inter and intra-office affairs,
he fails to offer any fresh insight on the issues
he rakes up. The film is too predictable and in
trying to include everything he can, it also loses
its focus as it meanders along to a similar open
ending like Page 3.
 The
film lacks the sophistication in both: its treatment
and creating the ambience of the Corporate
World. Bhandarkar's research comes up woefully
short and he struggles to find harmony between
his directorial skills and what a real world corporate
setting is. Dressed in Allen Solley suits and
with laptops abounding between them and the lens,
even the actors seem uncomfortably out of place
speaking English lines in a terribly stilted manner.
The entire setting is simply unconvincing.
The film is full of stereotypes, not least in
its portrayal of women. The only powerful woman
executive whose life we see outside the office
is Bipasha. Of course she has to be divorced,
an ambitious bitch and though in a relationship
now, still unsettled. Any desire to pursue a career
is seen as going against Indian values where a
woman still treats family, marriage and motherhood
as pinnacles of achievements. But then Hindi Films
have certain rules that cannot be broken. Even
in a so called modern film like Dil Chahta
Hai (2001), both Preity Zinta and Sonali
Kulkarni - the so called representations of the
modern, young woman have nothing to do except
wait to get married and the older woman Dimple
Kapadia who does have a career of her own and
even enjoys her drinks is made to pay for it by
having to lose her husband and daughter and to
die a wretched alcoholic in the film.
As with the drivers in Page 3, Bhandarkar
tries to pass a comment on the corporate
goings on through peons in the office or the security
guards of the Minister but if fails to work half
as well here though admittedly the dialogues do
have some bite. Atul Kulkarni’s Voice Over
clearly seems to be an after thought and one suspects,
a salvage attempt to tie up the film together.
Like Page 3, Bhandarkar seems to find
everyone associated with the Corporate
World to be totally black and devious. In fact
when he does have a character who resigns on principles
(Harsh Chhaya), one is actually surprised because
none of the earlier scenes seem to indicate the
character has this side to him. And neither is
Bipasha’s turn around totally convincing.
In fact her being used as a pawn really fails
to gain sympathy as up to then she was an unethical
as the others. It just seems to be the comeuppance
she deserved.
 The
performances are a mixed lot. Bipasha is sincere
and gives it all she has and yes, she has her
moments (her reaction on being told of Kay Kay
Menon’s death). Kay Kay is good as usual
but playing a spineless loser doesn’t make
you warm up to him as he fails to invoke any sympathy
whatsoever but this problem is more with the way
the character is written. As for the warring corporate
honchos, Rajat Kapoor is well cast as is Lillete
Dubey as the TV Business journalist but Raj Babbar
fails to impress. Vinay Apte truly enjoys himself
playing the slimy politician Gulabrao trying to
get the best deal from everywhere while Sandeep
Mehta leaves a mark as the leery executive from
the rival faction chasing Bipasha to basically
get between her legs. Minnisha Lamba still at
least has a couple of scenes but what is Sameer
Dattani doing in the film? He has precisely two
dialogues and is otherwise just made to stand
in the background for a few other scenes and that
too mostly out of focus.
Technically, the film is shoddy shot more like
a TV serial. The editing is jerky, its so called
technical flourishes are obvious and distract
from the smooth flow of the narrative. Musically
while Lamha Lamha and Sikander
are interesting compositions, their picturizations
are terrible. In fact Lamha Lamha could
be cut out of the film altogether. When Rajat
Kapoor declares at a Board Meeting that his brother-in-law
is joining their firm, the delight on Bipasha’s
face says it all. It is obvious she is in love
with him. And then Bhandarkar underlines this
in triplicate by having this song to show she
loves him. It does nothing but bring the narrative
to a grinding halt.
All in all, the film is a disappointment. For
a truly interesting take on corporate
politics stick to Shyam
Bengal’s Kalyug (1981) or the
great Satyajit
Ray’s Seemabadh (1971) instead.
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