Sunday, September 9, 2007

Ram Gopal Verma-Yeh AAG kab Bujegi?- Case study-Ram Gopal Verma




Ram Gopal Verma is/was(whatever way you put it) the director whose maverick madness bordered on the wrong side of genius. If this sentence seems complex, let me tell you that it pales in comparision to the complex persona of Ram Gopal Verma.

Ram Gopal Verma's world existed beyond the harra-barra kheth and the boy meets girl and the parents dont approve world. He made films about exploited girls, confused men, underworld, dreadful children, people with stars in their eyes..He captured dreams and nightmare with equal amount of expertise. Satya and Rangeela are two of the movies which still remain so fresh as if they were released just a week ago..

Ram Gopal Verma ain't dead and this is no obituary. But his movies are..The tragedy is that he will have to live with the fact that Ram Gopal Verma ki AAG has the undisputed distinction of being the biggest flop of Bollywood in this century (dont look at me, I ain't saying this..it is the critic Amod Mehra reading out of the trade magazines).

Director Anurag Kashyap sadly states that just when Bollywood is going places and getting progressive, the man himself who was responsible for the 'liberalization of Bollywood' is getting regressive. Ramu after all had made the sexy Rangeela, which transformed Urmila Matondkar into an actress cum sex-goddess overnight after she gave Bollywood five flops in a row. Ram Gopal Verma's Rangeela also changed the way Bollywood dressed itself. There were no stupid, garish filmi outfits but trendy sexy dresses that revolutionized the sex-appeal of not just Urmila Matondkar but Bollywood itself.

Satya followed; critics raved and the masses applauded. The one bullet which pierced the head of Bhiku Matre silenced everyone in the theatres as they secretly wished films were made that could recapture the essence of Satya. No one could better Satya but the man himself who looked into the mechanics of underworld in Company. Ramu then delved into the world of the ghosts and the supernaturals. Bhoot and Kaun worked well but then Ramu's spirited form did the better of him as movies like Darna Mana Hain and Vastushastra ended up with collections that could even score the ghosts away. Still Ramu believed that he was good and generated more horror...Darna Zaroori Hain fared worse than the first one.

You can imagine the embarrasment Ram Gopal Verma feels after making the biggest cinematic failure. He says that he enjoyed Sholay so much that he ended up making a take-off on it rather than a remake. Ramu also says that he enjoys people and critics getting creatives and coming up with puns and one-liners to put his movie down. Ram Gopal Verma feels that he has given a chance for people to appreciate the beauty of Sholay once again. But the truth is that he is affected. When the whole country is running you down and calling you names, of course,you will feel down.

What has Ramu done to achieve this? Is it really bad-film-making or something else? The fact is that after Ramu's Company became a success, he became ego-centric. He began to taunt Karan Johar's films and feel that he was the best in the trade. Ram Gopal Verma would at times get carried away with his direction and would do the most stupidest things to end his film. The way his films would end in films like Daud or James left a lot to be desired. The section in Darna Zaroori Hain directed by Ramu was the worst.

Ramu is rumored to be the worst paymaster. It is rumored that people like Manoj Bajpai did not get paid for working with him in Satya. Ram Gopal Verma was his mentor as well as tormentor. Ram Gopal Verma then invited his ire when he gave him a minuscule role of Samba in Aag. Manoj chose to walk out of RGV productions.

Ram Gopal Verma, reportedly entered in the bad books of the likes of Mohit Aluwalia, Manoj Bajpai, Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, A.R. Rehman and also with writers like Anurag Kashyap and Jaideep Sahni. However Ram Gopal was so pleasurably consumed with the habit of making movies, that he made them without caring how they fared at the box-office. During the making of Aag, one unit member of RGV productions even revealed to me that the movie is shaping badly. The clock was ticking, it was a moment of time before the airy bubble would burst. James, Daud, Darna Zaroor Hai, D-all were signs that a bomb was going to burst and it did with Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag. People were literally waiting to tear the movie to bits, even if it was little lower to Sholay's standards. What came their way was so pathetic, that people prefered to walk out silently, the movie was not even worth talking about. The impact is so much that it is even affecting the reasonably well -made Darling.

Ram Gopal Verma should realize that he cannot take the audience for granted, and brush his PR skills, if he has to become the Darling of the box-office. He still has Sarkar Raj and Dhyey, a movie on extortion and advanced operations of the underworld. Aag has entered history books in the hall of shame but Ramu can still hold his head high if he comes with better fare, without losing his focus.


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