Has Ram Gopal Varma, the ‘master of original stories’, been influenced by not just some of his own films but even other Bollywood and Hollywood flicks for DEPARTMENT? That’s what one is wondering even as the Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Rana Daggubati starrer is just a week away.
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‘The core of DEPARTMENT – relationship between an experienced cop (Sanjay Dutt) and a rookie (Rana Daggubati) seems straight out of THE RECRUIT. That film was about a mentor (Al Pacino) taking help of a young trainee (Colin Farrell) to clean the system at CIA. Now in DEPARTMENT, Dutt is shown mentoring Rana as they keep the flag high for Mumbai police’, comments an observer.
Now this was a plot seen in Ram Gopal Varma’s production AB TAK CHAPPAN as well as Tigmanshu Dhulia’s SHAGIRD where Nana Patekar teamed up with Nakul Vaid and Mohit Ahlawat in the respective films and took on the underworld.
However (and expectedly) Ramu is quick to deny all charges. He says, ‘DEPARTMENT has absolutely no connection with ‘THE RECRUIT and if I may add, even TRAINING DAY which was again about a mentor (Denzel Washington) and a rookie cop (Ethan Hawke). Reason being that first and foremost, Rana isn’t a rookie in the film. Yes, his relationship with Sanjay’s character gives a lot of essence to the plot but there are no similarities or influences from any film that you mention.’
Well Ramu, we would like to see that ourselves when the film releases next weekend.
