Company's magic is mesmerizing

Due to the similar milieu, Company was talked of as the sequel to the cult movie Satya. Of course there have been denials. The director justified it thus: there was much I could not show in Satya. And I needed to get them out of my system. I did it with Company. Asked again if there could be a third part to the series, and he replies 'not for a long time'. Which means that there could be. I can wait for such a relish.

Just eight days before watching Company, I had watched another movie. Black Hawk down had won two Oscars (Best Editing and Sound), and as I walked out the the hall, I felt such an inferiority complex. I felt that not in a hundred years could the Indian directors come to directing such a movie- and I felt assured that it was not just a question of money or technology. They were not just up to it. And I was dreading another visit to the hall. I was assured that it would be the greatest of anti-climax. Fortunately, Company wasn't an anti-climax. Suddenly Bollywood was making so many good films: Lagaan, Monsoon wedding, Dil chahta hai and now this.

Getting to the hall was such a difficult task. All tickets were sold out for the second show even before the Current counter opened. I could easily perceive a plot of selling out to the blackers (perhaps a ploy of the distributors)- how could all the tickets be sold out for a film's only second show! Inside the hall I found that the house was really House Full. We got seats in the second row. Our only regret remained that we had to watch such a superior film in such inferior surroundings (you know, the lungi public. One of them spit on our backs!). The film started before time. And by the time we settled on our seats, we could see sexy Urmilla dancing and prancing around in a red world.

I could tell you so much about Ramu and Urmilla, about Ramu's earlier films (especially Rangeela), give you so much information about Company (which I read from the Internet and the newspapers), but then this web diary is a repository of impressions. No one is going to forget this film, as no one has forgotten Satya. Ramu has risen to the immortal's category. Even if he does not make any more films, he would be long remembered.

Dated: April 14, 2002

See: Chronological listing