Golmaal and Corporate

I saw two movies this weekend – Golmaal and Corporate.

These are not exactly reviews but just some of my thoughts.

Golmaal - Golmaal was your typical laugh riot hindi movie of the genre of No Entry, Phir Hera Pheri etc. Nothing special or endearing in it and it is true to what it is – a light hearted comedy to be watched once and to be forgotten. Making sense of the script is not called for. It will not make sense, and trying to do so will spoil all the fun. So it is better that I do not analyse the subtleties of the movie and just give my recommendation – watch it once.

Corporate – This is a movie by Madhur Bhandarkar, the same director who gave us the brilliantly sensitive Chandni Bar and the critically acclaimed Page 3.

Chandni Bar was a story of one girl through her eyes about the kind of people she met and how they influenced her life. It was supremely sincere as being just her account of happenings of her life, nothing else. There were few generalisations and the film was more emotional and sensitive than judgemental.

Page 3 was a film carrying forward the theme of a young female protagonist observing the world around her. But this time it was not just the story of her life. It was more a story of the realm she moved around in – the Page 3, the affluent upper class. It was a story of parties, of drugs, of the hypocrisy hiding behind the façade of beautiful faces and seemingly kind hearts. It was a story that made you think about the sad lives of the rich and the powerful. One wondered if it’s really worth becoming richer if that meant moving around in social circles where every smile hides a deep rooted contempt and every act of kindness hides some ulterior motive. The story eventually got perceived as an original among the various genres of comedy, love and action movies in popular Hindi cinema.

Warning: Though I'm not disclosing complete details here, it is advisable to not read further if there are plans of seeing Corporate in the future

With Corporate, Madhur Bhandarkar has continued his tried and tested formula once again. The lead character once again is a girl named Nishi stuck in a new atmosphere. It’s now the big bad corporate world. The competition is intense. Competitors do just about anything to get even a tiny bit of advantage. Nishi is not new to this world and knows all the tricks of the trade. She breaks just about every rule in the book to bring down their biggest rival. But somewhere in between when her boss decides to go all out in the war, she finally sees how this could adversely affect innocent people who are not part of the war. That is the turning point and the beginning of her downfall. Like Page 3, this movie tries to make us think. In the process, the movie does become judgemental. It gives a highly clichéd view of the corporate world. Every businessman is out to make profits without concern for anything else. The dirtier you get, the bigger you grow. Every government employee and politician can be bribed, either through money or/and through sex. It’s a stifling sick world where everyone is selfish, deceitful and money minded.

The movie is well made though. Barring a few exceptions, the story comes out to be quite believable as could happen in any corporate setting. I laughed at the amateurish attempts of recreating board room discussions and the way deals were actually finalised. The most hilarious was the way confidential information was stolen from a high powered executive’s laptop. A movie of this nature of the corporate world of which not enough is known outside it calls for a thorough research. The lack of the same was painfully apparent in some places. But for a hindi movie, I think Madhur has done a commendable job of recreating actual business wars.

Frankly I’ve had enough of the Madhur Bhandarkar formula. While one must appreciate the uniqueness of his plots, one realises that in the end they are all the same. A small change of setting, an innocent seeming female lead, an unnecessarily brutal and one sided portrayal of the outside world and you have a new critically acclaimed flick. What does one take away from the movie anyway? A false sense of smugness that one doesn’t belong to the corporate world or a determination to suddenly clean up all the mess that the corporate world is in? I wonder…