Durga:
A Message Against Violence
Like Satya,
Durga is also of gangs and violence.
Chakravarty's film opens with college scenes
where Durga is just a boy whose interests
are limited to teasing the new girls. Nobody
knows about his family background, parents
etc. But the introduction of grandpa changes
his portrait of a simple student.
Priyanka, not Chopra, plays Gayatri, the girl
who has been drawn towards him and is perplexed
and scared. She finds sustaining relations
with Durga, a youth from an evidently criminal
background, quite hard. It is even more difficult
for Durga to stay good in her eyes.
Sayaji Shinde is the chief adversary, playing
Bhushan Thapa, a gangster based usually in
Dubai. With his return after a shoot-out,
which costs the lives of some of his men,
the gang war hots up and caught in this violent
cleft is Gayatri and her father, a cinema
hall manager played by Anjan Srivastava.
Chakravarty who belongs to Hyderabad, and
has been assisting Ram Gopal Varma even before
Satya, is
not only the author of the story, screenplay
and dialogue, but also the director of the
film. Besides, he has done the lead role.
Durga is obviously Chakravarty's testing ground
as a film-maker in the Bollywood. Credited
with the story and putting himself at the
centre of it as the protagonist, he makes
his mark both as a creative director and talented
actor. Of course, his projection as a super-hero
in the second half is a bit of a disappointment.
But the denouement justifies the change-over
for through it he attempts to give a message
decrying hatred and violence.
-by
A Film Critic
June 21, 2002
