Too many fans seem to be blown away

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

RGV is loosing his touch. Movies like Aag are disgrace to his portfolio of movies. The movie is good, story is "OK" but the actors are promising. The camera makes you feel dizzy! Cinematography is not up to the level and the camera quality is not good. The direction overall is very casual and doesn't portray what the film actually says. I would say that such movies are based on internal topics of the country and you need more research and it should leave a social message in the end to the audience. The maturity in direction is depleting. Rana Daggubati can really act well and lives unto his role. Watch the movie because Sanjay Dutt and Amitabh Bachhan are in it not for the director. At least not this time!

Ram Gopal Varma. A Prolific, Marverick, Celebrated Storyteller, who has delivered brilliant films such as 'Company', 'Satya', 'Rangeela', 'Bhoot', 'Rakht Charitra 1', to name a few. However, his work lately, hasn't been up-to the mark.RGV, in my opinion, is amongst the most talented storytellers around, however, his recent films have failed to gain much attention. And unfortunately, 'Department' too fails to leave a lasting impact. Its strictly an average fare, that could've been so much more! 'Department' Synopsis: Two cops joins hands to free the city of Mumbai from underworld.'Department' has a winning first-hour, but a losing second. The Writing Material falls in the latter hour & doesn't leave an impact. Nilesh Girkar's Screenplay is interesting in the first-hour, but falls later on. RGV's has attempted "Rouge Filmmaking" with 'Department' & he seems to know what he's doing. Cinematography is abstract. Editing is fair.Performance-Wise: Amitabh Bachchan hams. His performance stands out like a sore thumb. Sanjay Dutt is as usual. Rana Daggupati does very well, his performance definitely deserves praise. Vijay Raaz & Abhimanyu Singh are pretty menacing, while Anjana Sukhani is very sincere. Deepak Tijori is under-utilized.On the whole, 'Department' could've been so much more!

RGV is a force to reckon in Hindi movies, but this movie is a bummer, the likes of 'Darna Mana Hai" from his Camp. The script is bad and loose. The worst camera work of any movie. If the directors idea is to convey the thinking process or a controversy, you do that with the script, not the vertigo generating and going in circle camera work as in the Hospital scene. The action which seems to come at a regular interval is expected in a picture dealing with underworld, but the item dances also seem to come at a regular interval, with Sanjay Dutt's character, avraciously indulging in the dancing to the underworld tunes! Amitab Bachchan, looks aged, and for an actor of his caliber, this part is a cheescake. There is nothing in this movie that has a stamp of the famous RGV banner. It is too drawn out with repetitous and boring conversations. Not worth the expectation and clear disapppintment. The camera guy should find a day job for the sake of the Industry.

Ram Gopal Varma coming up with his Rogue Methodology (using many tiny digital cameras) along with Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt excited me a lot before the release of DEPARTMENT. But a recent interview of the director raised a strong doubt in which RGV loudly said that "A story can fail but genuinely innovative technique can never fail." I frankly couldn't agree to this unacceptable statement from the director which in fact was repeatedly proved wrong by his own failures in the last few years. So it was a mixed bag of expectations while entering into the theater with the doubt scoring more than the positivity.Now as the lights went off, the film right away started with an action sequence and within next 30 minutes I was sure that my doubt was once again the winner here since DEPARTMENT had nothing in it which could be associated with the brand RGV. The film never picks up in its first half and post intermission too it fails to enthrall the viewer with the same 'seen before' twists in the old tale revolving around the underworld, police and politicians nexus. Putting it straight, there is no RGV in this RGV film and DEPARTMENT can easily be included in the 5 weakest movies from the master film-maker in his entire career.Yes, it does have many fresh camera angles and shooting techniques with some amazing results on the screen. But more than 95% of the people don't go to movies for only watching their technical achievements. They are there in the theater for some thrill, for some entertainment which is not visible anywhere in this film from start to finish. It doesn't have anything new as far as its storyline is concerned. It doesn't impress you with its action sequences, confronting scenes or dialogues. And it also has some pretty bad songs thrown in regularly just unlike a RGV film. On top of that the film has a loud and annoying background score which keeps experimenting with each new sequence bringing in some new sounds. So there is no consistency in the score which eventually fails to generate any hard hitting impact on the viewer as previously seen in RGV's famous hits. And this is the same director whose film's background scores used to be the talk of the town few years back.In the performance section the film disappoints big time despite of having two big names of the industry. Sanjay Dutt is the same old cop as witnessed before. Rana Dagubati tries hard but remains emotionless throughout the film. Abhimanyu Singh overacts in his role along with Madhu Shalini and both Vijay Raaz and Deepak Tijori remain wasted. The over famous item girl Nathalia Kaur shows no promise with her weird & suggestive kind of dance performance in the minimum clothes. So the only saviors in the cast are Amitabh Bachchan and the two ladies Anjana Sukhani & Laxmi Manchu performing well in their short roles.But RGV and his DEPARTMENT together made me recall the time of late 80s & early 90s, when we all used to go to watch each and every new film of Amitabh with great enthusiasm and spirit, only to return with a lot of sadness and disappointment. In the present times, Ram Gopal Varma is now again giving us the same kind of feeling of watching all those unsuccessful films of Amitabh with every new project from his so called Factory.There was a time when movie lovers eagerly used to wait for RGVs next project and felt over-excited to see all the novel things in his path- breaking films. However now its time RGV should realize that "It is the script which actually requires to be considered more important than the technology and the technique alone cannot result in a HIT".May be he now admits the mistake after DEPARTMENT and returns to his good old form in his next……….at least for the sake of all his die-hard fans like myself since SHIVA.