Movies

Gangster films, particularly those produced in Asia, are typically based on cult culture prototypes that involve socio-political factors indigenous to the country of production. Film industries in India and Hong Kong have been exploring themes involving the underworld and mafia for decades. These films are known to be stylistically outlined, with a firm directorial focus on weaving congruent plots ably supported by succinct narratives. Albeit sometimes politically motivated to endorse certain subjective viewpoints, the vast majority of these films do churn out impressions of a far greater sensibility lying beneath the violent conflicts and interpersonal crises depicted on screen. This paper is going to critique two such films, namely, Company and Infernal Affairs III, which hit the theaters in 2002 and 2003 respectively. While the former explores the notorious underworld of Mumbai, India, the latter is based on Hong Kong.

Infernal Affairs III, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, recounts the tale of undercover intelligence in the Triads, the mafia world in Hong Kong. One of the key cinematic techniques adopted in this crime thriller is interplay of time. This may be noticed in the storytelling itself. Albeit the narrative of the movie is set in continuation with the 2002 film Infernal Affairs, it sometimes breaks away from the past and meanders into the future. Again, a number of characters are retained in the sequel, which implies temporal shift from events shown in Internal Affairs. Senior Inspector Lau Kin-Ming, police officer Chan Wing-Yan and mafia kingpin Hon Sam feature in Internal Affairs III, highlighting a creative use of cinematic time. Chan Wing-Yan, the police officer who struggles with his own identity after disguising himself as a mafia member for ten years to investigate into the modus operandi of the Hong Kong underworld, dies at the end of Internal Affairs, but only to be reintroduced in flashback in the beginning of the latter film. Once again, the films narrative switches ahead of time following the death of Yan. Hence, the narrative discontinuity, which serves both as a filmic device and thematic linkage, marks a deliberate departure from classical flashbacks where time is treated in a linear manner (Marchetti 6).

Time and narrative take a similar course in Company, the 2002 Bollywood film directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Like Infernal Affairs III, Company too depicts the dire consequences of criminal involvement over a lengthy period of time. In this regard, the character of Chandu in Company may well be compared to that of Yan in Infernal Affairs III. Both in the beginning harbor aspirations for making progress in life and both get disillusioned at a point when there is no turning back from the darkest world of crimes. However, the case with Chandu is a lot grimmer than that with Yan. He is at once a mastermind and victim of his self-induced machinery, which is inescapable and unforgiving. While Yan, as a mole, is driven by a singular goal to unmask the world of crimes, Chandu wittingly joins it. Chandus association with Malik, the indisputable don of the Mumbai underworld, marks the beginning of his own end. The crucial theme Varma wants to project through the rift between Chandu and Malik is crisis of subversive values. The same thematic aspect is also included in Infernal Affairs III, but not through the actions carried out by the seemingly good characters.
As regards the treatment of time, Company focuses primarily on interpersonal romantic relations of both Malik and Chandu. In the course of the plot, both fall out with each other and seek vengeance for what they believe to be violation of ethical codes of the criminal world. Subsequently, their spouses undergo tremendous emotional turmoil and look back despairingly at the good times they shared as a unified gang. The utter despotism of the two rival kingpins is presented in sharp contrast to the tender sentiments of the female leads.

Themes concerning identity crisis, corruption, and disguise dominate both films. Characters such as Ming and Chandu experience a sense of helplessness when their self-identities are put on stake at the cost of their assigned roles. Moreover, both films deliver strong socio-political messages relevant to their respective countries. The real context of Mumbai economy is shown in Company. Malik and his gang stand for an inviolable dictatorship induced by fear, which is attained by surreptitious flow of black money. This calls for a cultural interpretation of the contemporary middle-class society as well. Inspector Sreenivasan may be seen as a mitigating agent trying to make amends for the massive losses of lives and properties in Mumbai and elsewhere in the country and abroad. His primary concern is to restore order in the society. But when the rift between Malik and Chandu goes out of his hand as both of them flee India, he changes his modus operandi and becomes a force element uncaring for the basic humane values. As a result, Sreenivasan turns out to be a social representative-turned-legal manipulator. Similarly in Infernal Affairs III, Lau Kin-Ming turns violent on Lee Sum-Yee when the formers secrecy becomes exposed to the latter. However, it may also be noted that Sreenivasan is portrayed as a much more assured individual than Lau Kin-Ming.

The triumph of justice over greed for power and money is a recurrent theme in many contemporary gangster films and Company is no exception either (Nochimson 273). But this theme is presented as a subordinate cultural coefficient in Internal Affairs III, thus taking the wind out of its relevance on a more widespread ethical scale.

The fact that state-controlled law enforcing agencies in all nations invariably resort to counter-intelligence tactics to trace organized activities against the internal security interests of the country is underscored by the intervention of Internal Affairs and Mumbai Police in Infernal Affairs III and Company respectively. Internal Affairs is a security wing in Hong Kong investigating into the activities of organized Triads (Nochimson 212). On the other hand, the Company indirectly refers to the notorious real gang comprising underworld boss of Mumbai Dawood Ibrahim and his rival Chotta Rajan (Nochimson 273), who once created panic in India through a series of blasts and mass killings in Mumbai. Hence, both films take a referential stance to organized crimes in real world.