[BronUVT]

Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Laxmi Manchu, Rana Daggubati, Nathalia Kaur, Madhu Shalini, Vijay Raaz, Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh and Deepak Tijori.
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Producer: Ram Gopal Varma
Music Directer: Dharam Sandeep, Bappa Lahiri and Vikram Nagi.




Story:

Top officials like the Home Minister, Home Secretary and the Director General of Police form a unique entity called ‘The Department’ to tackle the grave issue of underworld crime in their own way by crossing the bounds of rules laid by the police department. Thus, begins the fight between Mahadev Bhosale (Sanjay Dutt) and Shiv Narayan (Rana Daggubati) to emerge as the most powerful figure. While Mahadev, who is a corrupt police officer heads the team- ‘The Department’, is very clear about his goals; Shiv, an honest but suspended police officer joins Mahadev’s team. Shiv is initially unaware of what he is getting into and he eventually gets greedy for power. These two policemen become puppets in the hands of Sarjerao Gaikwad (Amitabh Bachchan), an ex-underworld don and a corrupt politician.

Story Treatment:


As the first few minutes of the film go by, one is aware what a nerve-wracking experience 'The Department' is going to be. The multiple meaningless sub-plots, along with a poor characterization bore one to death. What compounds to the misery, are the distractive camera moves which leave one clueless about the story! Like, instead of concentrating on the important talks between the top officials, the camera is busy capturing the body language and glass of water and tea. The patience is further tested, when it starts checking out the private parts of the characters though from outside.



Star Cast:

Amitabh Bachchan is the saving grace and induces life in the film with his power-packed performance. Sanjay Dutt and Rana Daggubati deliver a lukewarm performance. Madhu Shalini and Abhimanyu look extremely uncomfortable in their respective roles. Vijay Raaz performs well but gets wasted in half-sketched character. Deepak Tijori and Laxmi Manchu are just mere fillers.

Direction:

Unfortunately, a well-intentioned concept remains half-baked, thanks to Ram Gopal Varma’s style of filmmaking. With no substantial conversations between the characters, followed by illogical action sequence, the direction loses threads with each passing frame. The plot thickens in the last 45 minutes before the movie ends, but the bizarre end again leaves one numb.



Music/ Dialogues/ Cinematography/Editing:

Ram Gopal Varma proves yet again about his lack of taste in music. A shameful remix of the legendary song ‘Thodi Si Jo Pee Li Hai’ from Namak Halal and a vulgar item song featured on Nathalia Kaur leaves the music in the ‘C’ grade category. Dialogues, as mentioned lose essence due to poor direction; few however, are impressive as they somehow explain the theme of the film. Cinematography is miserable as it loses focus most of the times in the name of creativity. Editing doesn’t help either.

Ups and downs:


Department somehow, survives on the strong shoulders of Amitabh Bachchan, few but meaningful dialogues post interval and a good concept are the strong points. Poor script, bad screenplay, meaningless direction along with cinematography and music make Department a disaster.

On the whole, Department falls flat at almost every department; so, needless to say, it's a flick which can easily be given a miss.