REVIEW: RGV drafts a confusing Contract

There's a particular scene in Contract where a murder takes place inside a dark cinema hall and no one even bats an eyelid. Varma weaves in many such moments to drive home the central theme of the film – you can ignore crime, but crime won't ignore you. But coming back to that particularly long scene – Varma chooses to play dialogues from The Departed while the murder happens and the killer goes back to his seat to watch the film. The reference to Martin Scorsese's classic gangster tale is not incidental.

Clearly the germ for making Contract came from this film… Or in Varmaspeak, it's perhaps his tribute to a film that has influenced him deeply (Remember the opening credits of Sarkar?). Like The Departed, Contract is also about intelligence forces planting their own man as an undercover mole into the underworld.

The rules of the Contract

Ex-Army man Aman (Advik Mahajan) is happy with his civil life and couldn't care less about the crime around him – till one fine day when he loses his family in a bomb blast. An intelligence officer convinces Aman to join underworld big boss RD and spy on his gang. RD's biggest rival is a smuggler named Goonga, who is connected to the world's most wanted Afghan terrorist, Sultan. Aman's mission is to eliminate RD, join Goonga and eventually nab Sultan. But soon Aman discovers the deep nexus between the Mumbai underworld and international terrorist outfits. A nexus that involves top cops and senior politicians…

Too many clauses to this Contract

On the face of it, Contract has an interesting premise. In Varma's own words, if Satya was an insider's view and Company was an overview of the underworld, Contract aims to showcase a horrifying, new face of the underworld that goes way beyond extortion threats. But he falters big time in the execution. In his attempt to show the deep-rooted network between the lawmakers and lawbreakers, he introduces too many characters and sub-plots. Beyond a point, it is just impossible to keep track of who is doing what in the film.

Watch the Contract promo

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