Producer- K Mohanan (Seven Arts) and Vinod Vijayan
Director- M Padmakumar, Diphan and Vinod Vijayan
Cast- Asif Ali, Samuthirakani, Anoop Menon, Jayasurya, Unni Mukundan, Fahadh Faasil, Ananya, Bhama, Tanushree Ghosh etc.
Music– Rahul Raj, Gopi Sundar, Ratheesh Vega
Cinematography :Bharani K. Dharan,Vinod Illampally,Pappu
Studio 😀 Cutz Film Company
Review By : Unni R Nair (Kerala9.com )
‘D Company’ no doubt would be liked by people who love anthologies or portmanteau films. Of course there is no point in comparing it to others in the genre like ‘Kerala Cafe’ or ‘5 Sundarikal’. This one is different; it’s a compilation of crime stories and hence the appeal is likely to be restrained. Not everyone likes crime stories on screen!
‘D Company’ presents three short films, all crime stories. The first one is ‘Oru Bolivian Diary’, directed by M Padmakumar; the second one ‘Gangs of Vadakkumnathan’, directed by Diphan and the third ‘The Day of Judgement’, with Vinod Vijayan as the director.
‘Oru Bolivian Diary’, which has Asif Ali, Samuthirakani and ‘Aadukalam’ Naren in key roles. The film traces the happenings in a remote tribal settlement in Kerala. There are three vertices of the narrative. Chakravarthy (‘Aadukalam’ Naren) is a dare-all cop on the hunt for extremists, Chaukidaar (Samuthirakani) is a rebel leader who has come to Kerala and goes from village to village to spread his message, Chinnan is a tribal youth who’s caught by Chakravarthy and is interrogated so that he opens up about the whereabouts of Chaukidaar, whom he has hidden somewhere in the forest following a police ambush. The story unravels as narrated by Chakravarthy to a young reporter (Ananya), who professes to admire the hero in Chakravarthy
‘Gangs of Vadakkumnathan’ tells the story of how a shrewd Police Officer Akbar (Anoop Menon) from Bangalore lands up in Thrissur and plans the elimination of the different goonda gangs that infest the city. The cast also includes Jayasurya, Unni Mukundan, Irshad, Jojo, Arun etc.
‘The Day of Judgement’ has a young doctor named Sunil Mathew (Fahadh Faasil) as the pivotal character. His young wife Jeena (Bhama), who has been having psychiatric issues, dies following a fall from the parapet on the balcony of their house. He is just overcoming the shock while something else that’s more perplexing happens. A young girl is found dead in another house that’s owned by him and which is in his wife’s name. The police, headed by ASP Serena Mohammed (Tanushree Ghosh), start the interrogation and from here develops the plot.
The three films are different- story-wise, treatment-wise and of course as regards the backdrop as well. Padmakumar’s ‘Oru Bolivian Diary’ has certain resemblances with his earlier film ‘Shikkar’. The backdrop and treatment is similar, Samuthirakani plays a very similar kind of role here too. But despite this, there is no denying the fact that the film holds your interest. Diphan’s ‘Gangs of Vadakkumnathan’ is no doubt well-made. You find it predictable and you know you have already seen Anoop Menon playing such roles before and mouthing similar dialogues, but it does have its appeal. Jayasurya has put in a real good performance as Varaal Jaison. Vinod Vijayan’s ‘The Day of Judgement’ is slow-paced and those looking for the usual kind of investigative stuff may even find it a bit tiring. But I’d say that to a great extent, ‘The Day of Judgement’ is perhaps the best of the three, in terms of performance and the controlled manner in which it’s treated.
Well, go watch ‘D Company’ if you like watching crime stories. Don’t go with too much of an expectation, you may not find anything outstanding about the film. Just go with a free mind, watch it and you may find positives…
Performance
Fahadh and Jayasurya deserve to be appreciated the most among all the actors in ‘D Company’. There is no denying that Fahadh Faasil, with his versatility, is a real asset to the Malayalam film industry and Jayasurya too excels as Varaal Jaison, the goonda leader of Thrissur. All the others in the cast do justice to their roles.
Technical aspects
Vinod Illampally (‘Oru Bolivian Diary), Bharani K Dharan (‘Gangs of Vadakkumnathan’) and Pappu (‘The Day of Judgement’) have all done good job of the cinematography part. The other technical guys- Santhosh Raman and Mahesh on the art-side and Ajith Kumar and Samjith Mhd on the editing side have lent full support.
Music
Ratheesh Vega, Gopi Sundar and Rahul Raj have delivered the kind of music that’s demanded by the subjects being discussed and deserve appreciation.
Script
It’s Rajesh Ravi, the writer of ‘The Day of Judgement’, who deserves to be appreciated the most. The way the subject is treated, from the writer’s side, makes it the best in the anthology. G S Anil, who has scripted ‘Oru Bolivian Diary’ has done justice to the story and so is the case with Anoop Menon, who has scripted ‘Gangs of Vadakkumnathan’, but it’s to be mentioned that both of them could have done better with the subjects at hand. There seems to be something amiss with both the stories, something vital that takes away from the impact that it makes on our minds. Still, good work…
Direction
All the three directors- M Padmakumar, Diphan and Vinod Vijayan- have done justice to the scripts that they chose to direct. But I’d say that Padmakumar, who had earlier delivered films like ‘Vargam’ and ‘Vasthavam’ nowadays, seems to be going a bit low. His recent films don’t match up to the levels set by his earlier films and ‘Oru Bolivian Diary’, though not bad, is not too impressive. He could have done better. Diphan’s ‘Gangs of Vadakkumnathan’ is good. Vinod Vijayan deserves to be appreciated for ‘The Day of Judgement’, which too of course could have been much better. In short, the anthology would have been much better had the directors chosen better scripts…
Verdict– Watchable anthology of crime stories; could have been better
Rating: 3/5