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Thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s Therepautic Magic on the Tube, ‘Me Time’ has become an emancipator for stressed souls all over. ‘Me Time’ is prescribed as remedy for people who think they are “endlessly fulfilling every obligation except the one to themselves”. Maybe all RGV needed was to do what he needed to do to keep himself going. Which partly explains the recent spate of disasters RGV has indulged-in. RGV was a Director, Interrupted! RGV definitely required taking his ‘Me Time’ away from what he’s been churning endlessly (& self-destructively). I would like to believe that making his recent duds acted as ‘Me Time’ for RGV. That, or the self-reflexive period, immediately after the much-mocked & sullied films, that has arrived an introspective RGV when he admits today

When I took Manoj Bajpai in Satya or Vivek Oberoi in Company I wasn’t launching stars. I used them because they were right for the roles. But when the media and my associates started praising me it went to my head. I began seeing myself as a star-maker. I went into the trip of launching new actors. When I signed Mohit Ahlawat and Prashant Raj, I presumed they were stars before the film was made. I was being more and more sucked into a fantasy-land. Doing multiple films at such a fast pace in this state of mind was a potent and lethal blend. Hence, the sabbatical. Now I’m far more clear-headed.

My favorite RGV’s have been
Kshana Kshanam,
Naach,
Darna Zaroori Hai &
Nishabd
along with the universally-liked usual suspects of
Shiva,
Satya,
Kaun &
Company.

I first watched an RGV film as a 10 yr old summer vacationing in Chittor (A.P) in whose Andhra-Tamilnad border town the Tamil dubbed version of Shiva called Udhayam was playing. I hardly understood what adults around me were fussing over till the effect of the film made me want to rent the VHS tapes (& the VHS player) couple of years later in an RGV Grindhouse/Double-Bill of the original Telugu Shiva [with Nagarjuna, Amala, Raghuvaran] & Kshana Kshanam [with Venkatesh, Sridevi, Paresh Rawal].

RGV’s most alluring quality as a filmmaker, for me, has been his Hi-Fidelity to the genres he’s invested in. As a genre filmmaker RGV’s achievement has been superlative; each genre film of his has become a benchmark for whoever else attempts to dabble in the genre. Be it the groundbreaking gangster quadruple of Shiva, Satya, Company & Sarkar, the adventure/treasure-hunt trinity of Kshana Kshanam, Govinda Govinda, Thiruda Thiruda (which he co-wrote), the romantic/personal in Rangeela, Mast, Naach & Nishabd, the horror in Raat, Kaun, Bhoot, & Darna Zaroori Hai. A further testimony to his genre-expertise is the designation of a new sub-genre Mumbai Noir ascribed to RGV’s Gangster films set in Mumbai.

An anecdote would share the amount of (justified) envy that RGV has induced for aspiring/wannabe filmmakers. In the days as a photographer, in my final year of undergrad college, a Telugu-speaking much-older-than-my-20 yrs-colleague suggested we watch the newly released RGV film Kaun. Dabbling in Fashion Photography this Married friend was semi-seeing an aspiring model, which lately attracted the wife’s dedicated suspicion. Since he genuinely was looking forward to watching the film, & to alleviate wife’s suspicion of using the film as an excuse, he suggested I park my moped in his compound while we take his scooter to the cinema, & return together. He even paid for my ticket for the matinee at the Lido cinema in Bangalore. I was (unconsciously) enjoying the claustrophobic setting of the film, but being the pure-cinematic-snob that I was, I started, successfully, finding faults with the film – Urmila’s unnecessarily-pouting lips, Manoj Bajpai’s rudimentary English-speaking, & the Cock-Tease of a lengthy set-up. The colleague was thoroughly enjoying the proceedings, but I wouldn’t have any more of the film. Nor would he have the cover of my company. These were my days of walking-out of films that I didn’t approve of, in the good-old tradition of our parliamentarians. Walkout of the film I did. And I needed to have my moped for the sojourn through the city. I rode a bus back to his place, & as I unlocked the vehicle & about to leave I had unwittingly alerted the wife who was in her siesta. She, understandably, wouldn’t believe my walking-out-of-the-film story. The friend had hell to pay for, & presumably, grounded! As soon as I was ready to confront the brilliance of the film I started appreciating, & enjoying the Cock-Tease that pays off very well with the manner in which the film climaxes.

RGV is back this year with Sarkar Raj, a sequel of his Nayakan tribute Sarkar, & with Contract, a gritty gangster film that would join the list of films in the RGV-invented sub-genre - Mumbai Noir.

In my opinion, RGV is India’s Roger Corman!

[Update: Here’s my review of one of my favorite RGV films.]

thani.