A Bollywood item girl [Payal Rohatgi] sleeps with every Tom, Dick and Harry as long as she gets her price [a cool 5 lakhs by the way!] and cuts him short if he wastes her time in trying to get into unnecessary conversations, even if it is in her appreciation. Kya karen, she has to go and cut a ribbon for a function in a couple of hours from now. This she comments in front of a politician may not just be a coincidence since it is their breed that are known more for their ribbon cutting act!

Sex couldn't have played a more role in this corporate world that was otherwise known to be made of suave, intelligent, smart and go-getter management folks!

In inept hands, 'Corporate' may have turned out to be yet another businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats, Bollywood and underworld nexus. But not in Bhandarkar school of management! First of all he doesn't make it sound like one more round of dramatic journey in a typical Bollywood setup. He goes a step ahead and adds on the spiritual and stock market angle too!

This is why you see the second biggest corporate competitor being completely dependant upon the 'angoothis' [rings] given by his 'baba' before stepping out of his mansion. From a ramu-kaka holding a box full of rings in his outstretched hands, this suited booted 'maalik' [Raj Babbar] chooses what the doctor, oops, baba had entered for a particular day and doesn't forget to make the heavenly saint wear his 'khatau' when he visits his 'gareebkhaana' for a visit!But is it only 'aashirwaad' that this "Lord of the rings" is supposed to give to him and his family? No, he does more than that as he explains to a friendly neighbourhood gold-laden stockbroker about the rules of the corporate world and teaches him a trick or two to flow with the wind!

Everyone listens to this 'baba'! And all this while we have traditionally wondered on how the market ups and downs happen over the course of time? Credit to Bhandarkar who makes it sound so simple, that you wonder if computers are really needed in 'dalaal street'? After all the share prices are defined by a few individuals sitting, you guessed it right, in the boardrooms. Investors be damned!!

Coming to politics, the film takes strides ahead while refraining from throwing up copybook corrupt politicians. They are a mix of both, 'desi' as well sophisticated and together they work in tandem to ensure that the well being of themselves, party and the country are not hampered. No wonder when the local 'neta' becomes a little too greedy, the finance minister politely explains to him from the Delhi headquarters that it is time he moves ahead of your-party-my-party syndrome and look at a bigger picture. Foreign disinvestments and other such concepts that may sound complex to some are narrated with such ease in this conversation that make you wonder if being in power really requires a commoner to be economics/commerce savvy!?

In films, media in general has been projected as leeches who want to extract something out of your flesh. Well, something similar happens in the case of 'Corporate' too where every news channel is out for that one BIG breaking news. But then there is a human side to the entire clan too, projected so very well through the eyes of a senior journalist played with perfection by Lillette Dubey. She keeps herself aligned to a section of corporate world, does juicy interviews with the top brass, hints upon their sex lives in front of camera with a mischievous tinkle in the eye [while being fully aware abut their escapades outside their married lives] and promises inside information. Though it's a different matter that after being called a pimp, she doesn't hesitate breaking down and sobbing on the shoulders of a caring English speaking driver who wants to maintain the dignity of his employer even while she is drunk! A brilliantly orchestrated sequence, it brings to fore the entire humane angle in the simplest of manners!

Bhandarkar's strength lies in the powerful script and screenplay that he has in his hands! Neither does he try to take a moralistic approach, nor does he try to provide solution to the issue. And no, one doesn't really feel that something is amiss when the movie ends because what you see is real, hard, stark fact. A deglamorised unwed mother Bipasha struggling in the courts with her adolescent daughter in arms is a pitiful sight, no doubt around it, but then Bhandarkar's film was never supposed to end on an 'all-is-well' note. After all the life is a never ending struggle and this is what he projects in this master film called 'Corporate' that is a few notches above his own 'Page 3'.

To sum up the film, the friendly peon explains his counterpart in an easily comprehendible language - "When 50 people sit in a board room to do the work that one individual could have easily done, it is called CORPORATE"

Simple! Isn't it?