Company

About the film

Company is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Jaideep Sahni. The film stars Mohanlal, Ajay Devgn, Vivek Oberoi, Manisha Koirala, Antara Mali, and Seema Biswas. It marked Mohanlal's debut in Hindi cinema. It is the second instalment in Varma's Gangster trilogy. The film follows Chandu, a henchman of a gangster named Malik, with whom he forms a rapport that eventually falls apart after tension arises between them.

Varma conceived the idea of the film after meeting a man named Haneef, who had been in prison for five years after the 1993 Bombay bombings and was a close aid of the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in his D-Company. Haneef told Varma about the fallout between Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. Varma also had much information that he used in the film, especially about police procedures he could not use in Satya since it was too much for one film. The film was made in several locations in Mumbai, Mombasa, Nairobi, Hong Kong, and Switzerland. Hemant Chaturvedi served as the director of photography, while Chandan Arora edited the film.

Plot

Chandrakant 'Chandu' Nagre joins the Mumbai underworld; he gradually learns the trade and increases the gang's profits, leading Malik, the leader of the gang, to take a liking to him. Malik goes on a bloody rampage, killing all of his rivals to take control of the underworld. Inspector Rathod, who once tortured and abused Chandu in jail, is killed with Malik's permission. During the execution of a contract killing, Malik and Chandu argue over the target; Chandu stops the deliberate vehicle crash and falls from Malik's favour.

The contract was taken out by a politician who tries to use Malik's gang to eliminate a popular candidate for the Home Minister's post. The assassination, a staged vehicle collision, takes place in spite of Chandu's objection after Malik, not relying on Chandu anymore, gives direct orders. The rift between Chandu and Malik widens. The Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police, Veerappalli Sreenivasan, uses the rift to bring the mafia under control. Chandu and Malik become bitter enemies. After Chandu's retaliation for the assassination of Warsi, a lieutenant and Chandu's lifelong friend, two factions of Mumbai's once-powerful gang Company begin a full-scale war. Malik and Chandu kill as many members of their opponents' gangs as possible. Sreenivasan is criticised, but he and his men know that since many gang members are being killed, this war is making it easier for his department to dispose of Malik and Chandu.

The war results in an intense chase in Kenya, during which Malik hires assassins to kill Chandu, who is severely injured but survives. Sreenivasan persuades Chandu to come back to Mumbai and fight his war with Malik by helping the police bring the mafia under control. Chandu kills the politician who ordered the contract killing, in prison. Chandu and Malik come to a truce, but Chandu never withdraws his order to Koda Singh, one of his aids, to kill Malik. At the same time, Koda kills Malik at point-blank range in Hong Kong and is immediately arrested. After the assassination, Sreenivasan notifies Chandu, who is shocked at this news. Chandu then spends the rest of his life in prison after being persuaded by Sreenivasan to surrender.

Production

At a producer's house, director Ram Gopal Varma met a man named Haneef, who had been in prison for five years after the 1993 Bombay bombings. He was a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Varma started talking to Haneef out of curiosity and his "obsession with the criminal psyche", who told him how the underworld operated. During that time, the media was circulating stories about the conflict between Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan, who had a fallout and wanted to kill each other, thus giving Varma the idea for Company. During his research for Satya (1998), Varma found out several things he could not incorporate into one film, especially the police procedures, because there was too much information.

Varma said he drew inspiration for the supporting characters and scenes from the staff of his own production company. He said Haneef's version of the underworld war gave him a story while his research gave him the "atmosphere". He found a strong resemblance with the rivalries between criminals and those between politicians because he felt "human nature is same everywhere". Varma was also inspired by the September 2000 attack on Rajan in Bangkok, which was perceived as the intelligence agencies pitting one gang against another. He later met several crime reporters, police officers and associates of gangsters regarding the research of the film. The film's screenplay was written by Jaideep Sahni.

Company marked Malayalam actor Mohanlal's debut in Hindi cinema. He portrayed IPS Veerapalli Srinivasan, a character based on the former Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Dhanushkodi Sivanandhan. Varma described the character as someone who looks heroic and "more like a professor and treats crime as a disease and criminals as patients". Kamal Haasan was first considered for the part, but Varma later replaced him with Mohanlal, feeling Haasan's "stylized" acting might not fit the raw and realistic tone he wanted for the film. Varma had first offered the role of Malik to Shah Rukh Khan. However, upon narrating the story to him, he felt that Khan's body language did not suit the character. Ajay Devgn was then finalized then for the role. Varma wanted to keep the mafia boss character calm and composed, which he based on Devgn's personality. Abhishek Bachchan was the initial choice for the role of Chandrakant Aangre, but declined due to other commitments at the time. Varma then cast newcomer Vivek Oberoi. Upon meeting Varma, who said he wanted to cast someone as a gangster living in a slum and told Oberoi he looked too good for the role, Oberoi asked Varma for 15 days, during which he stayed in the slums and slept on the floor. He rubbed oils and creams on his body, and sun-bathed daily to look darker for the role. He applied some mud to his face on the day of his meeting with Varma, a…

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