Movie Review of Contract. Review on Contract

Director– Ramgopal Varma

Screenplay– Prashant Pandey

Plot *

When an ex soldier Aman(Adhvik Mahajan) looses his wife Divya(Amruta Khanvilkar) and daughter in a terrorist bomb attack, he decides to be a police informer and kill the mastermind behind the attack, Sultan(Zakir Hussain). He is helped by Police Officer Ahmad Hussain(Prasad Purandhare) to get recruited in the gang run by Sultan’s lieutenant, RD(Sumeet Nijhawan).

His first task is to eliminate rival gangster, Goonga’s (Upendra Limaye) men and then eliminate RD and reach Sultan. Movie revolves around how he slyly rises in the gang, acts like a gangster only for the bigger cause of eliminating terrorism from the roots. Just to prove that it takes iron to cut iron.

Critic’s Comments

Ramgopal Varma, in his own words, has always been fascinated by the theme of making gangster movies. Starting from Shiva(1990), Drohi and the immensely popular Satya, Company, Sarkar and Sarkar Raj. He did make some duds like Ramgopal Varma ki Aag, Shiva(2006) and produced Farces like James (2005) but then he even produced comparatively decent movies like D and Risk. So how does Contract fare in all this ? It actually fares good. With a very new starcast and Varma favorites Upendra Limaye and Zakir Hussain being the known faces, the oft repeated story is given a good treatment. Widely inspired by Govind Nihlani’s 1995 critically acclaimed Drohkaal and 2005 oscar Winner – The Departed. The acting is fairly decent although some of the one liners are irritating (Eg – Secret Hai). Being released with along side heavy weight like The Dark Knight (which has already been rated Number 4 of all time favourite by IMDB.com) and self proclaimed blockbuster Kismat Connection, this one may not be a commercial success, but its still worth a watch. Watch out for the scene where Upendra Limaye makes fun of the Encounter Specialist.

*Psst –

1)    The movie was marred with a little controversy. There was another film Mukhbir which was supposed to be released a week before Contract and then alongside contract. The story had similar subject. Mukhbir means informer in Urdu. The producers decided to stall the release of Mukhbir for fear of loosing  business to Contract which had a backing of Ramgopal Varma banner.

2)    The movie that is being played in the theatre when Dara(Kishore Kadam) goes to kill a gangster is The Departed. The Departed was a movie based on a cop going undercover for a gang and a gangster going undercover for the police.

3)    Director Trademarks – Rainy day scene, Bird Flying shot and Lead Protagonist who is an atheist and cold.

4)    The dialogue, “Faisley Galat nahi hotey, nateejey gakat hotey hai.” is also used in Sarkar Raj*

Quotes *

1)    “Jaan se badkar Kaam.”

*Oops-

1)    When Kishore Kadam walks in the theatre, the movie the movie poster shows Jodha Akbar (released in 2008) but the movie that was playing inside was The Departed(Released in India in 2006).

2)    In one of the scenes when Mahajan switches the cell phones, how come RD doesn’t realize the mobile number that is being called from ?*