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A sneak peek into corporate world

NO FRILLS: Raj Babbar, Rajat Kapoor and Bipasha Basu are the participants of rat race in `Corporate'

Corporate (Hindi)

Cast: Raj Babbar, Rajat Kapoor, Bipasha Basu

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

Aah! Yet another "intelligent" film from Madhur Bhandarkar. Despite featuring Bipasha Basu, it does not expect you to leave your brains at home and come to the hall for that `visual pleasure'. It features Raj Babbar too, and despite his being nearly a forgotten face in Hindi cinema , his role puts him in a new avatar. Then there is Rajat Kapoor, who is not known for drawing crowds, but you hardly have a reason to reject him here.

No heroes, just characters

This is what "Corporate" does to you. There are no heroes or heroines. Just characters. And these characters are parts of two corporate companies in the food sector, the Sehgal group and the Marwah group, headed by Kapoor and Babbar respectively. If Marwah has a religious head (Vinay Apte) to `solve problems', Sehgal relies on Nishigandha (played by Bipasha), a fiercely loyal, sharp and meticulous executive.

As an international company makes its foray into India, both vie for a tie-up with it. Nishigandha utilises her mind to tilt the scales in her firm's favour. .

She is an unofficial private detective for Sehgal and lures a Marwah insider to part with information. Money is not the only temptation she offers. She also makes good use of her body to extract information from a die-hard Marwah loyalist. And there is her beloved, played by Kay Kay Menon, a failed businessman in America and the brother-in-law of Sehgal, standing by her side. But he must prove himself as the senior vice president of the company. And who else but Bipasha would hand over all her valuable research reports to him to give a presentation to the company, and thus prove his ability.

Babbar's comeback

"Corporate" can be hailed as Raj Babbar's powerful comeback film. It establishes him as a brilliant actor. Rajat Kapoor proves to be a great foil to him. Lillete Dubey is outstanding as a TV journalist. Menon is also excellent. Only Bipasha disappoints. She is wooden, carrying the same expression throughout the film despite a powerful role, which could have worked wonders for her image. The film may lead you to yawn initially for its frequent use of technical language. But it holds your interest just before the intermission and continues to do so till the end.

Watch it, for such intelligent scripts are not penned too often. Watch it, for its exposure of the underbelly of the corporate world.

RANA SIDDIQUI

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