Contract – RGV RIP!!!!
Govinda……… govinda…… govinda……… govinda………… goooooovindaaaaaaaa.
I have hearing problem. Left side is almost dead, some medical complication. And now I feel so lucky that after watching Contract, right side is still working. Or I would have no option but to sue the filmmaker.
Had a hard time convincing myself to watch Sarkar Raj. Recently saw it on the net and concluded that “the man has lost his craft”. And I can’t figure out how. I understand if your art doesn’t connect with your fans and audiences or fans and audiences are dumb enough not to understand your art but how do you lose your craft ? Like VVC’s Eklavya, SLB’s Saawariya or AK’s No Smoking. All these films are well crafted, brilliantly mounted. Anyway, being an old Ramu fan, I could not stop myself from watching Contract. Third film of his underworld triology.
Since it was a special screening, when we entered the theatre, nobody bothered to check the tickets. The security guard told us…woh 10 baje ka show…audi 1 me hai. We ( me and kk ) entered the audi and boom….item number…how ? Shit we missed the credit roll and may be some new promos…how?? People find it strange but I don’t get a feeling of watching a complete film unless I start from jana gana and sit through the last credit. It got over, end credits rolled.
KK ask anyone, ask that guy, that man, that uncle or this aunty. KK obliged.
Yes, we ended up watching the second half first. It was interval when we entered. A good friend helped us out and we managed to get into the next screening and then we saw the first half.
KK – wow, RGV becomes Nolan. ( his obsession with Nolan continues 24 X 7 X 365 )
Me – its called KLPD. And a classic one. Has it ever happened with you guys ?
The film still remains the same, whichever half you see first….WTF! And why the f***, here it goes….
1. The lead actor kills the film. He cant act. When he says secret, it sounds like cigarette.
2. If that wasn’t enough, other guys are competing with him. Pick anyone and you can see the competition.
3. There is nothing new in the characters and mannerisms. Contract is a wannabe Satya, with few new inputs. There is a wannabe Manoj Bajpayee, wannabe Chakravarthy, Shefali Shah and even a wannabe Makrand Deshpande. You can’t blame anyone but the director! can Upendra Limaye look like an underworld gangster ?? Whoever thought about it, salute to your imagination.
4. Camera continues to be in strange places. If Nishabd had a horny camera which was always between the legs and Sarkar Raj had a hide and seek camera that was put up in strange places, then here in Contract its just jarring after a point. 80% of the film has grainy feel to it. May be the pixelation is used as a style ( checked with Thani wondering if there was something wrong with our print or was it just intentional). And has a hand-held feel throughout. Sometimes its difficult to figure out things in night shots. It looks like the whole film has been shot on a handycam. There is a nice thought behind it, to give a distinct look to the film but it doesn’t gel with the director’s vision ( or rather lack of it). And even if you are willing to compromise on that, when has technique replaced story telling?
5. If someone hands me a gun right now, I am willing to shoot the background music composer. Its so LOUD!!!! Even when nothing happens, its govinda govinda govinda kind of beats blasting out from every corner!! If background music could bring out emotions then sound designers could save every bad script and horrible actors. Special recommendation – If you have weak hearing, avoid this one. Or carry earplugs.
6. It’s dialogue after dialogue after dialogue, like Sarkar Raj, everyone delivers just dialogues. (am sure Ramu would respond to this in his blog saying ya, that’s why its called dialogues and the person who writes it, is called dialogue writer. Ha..the joy of being in denial.)
7. His obsession with chai saucer has been replaced with coffee mugs. Why ? Just like that.
8. “Comeback” is just a nice word. It doesn’t happen. Not, if the filmmaker is Ramu.
9. Better rent out a dvd of Govind Nihalani’s Drohakaal ( one of my all time fav films ) or Departed ( if for nothing else, then for the sexy background score )
10. Conclusion – RGV RIP….. govinda…. govinda…. govinda….. govinda… govinda….. govinda.
( P. S – I am still optimistic. So am willing to believe in rebirth but only if the cocky filmmaker living in denial comes out of his cocoon and accepts it. Otherwise RIP.)
And those of you, who liked the film, blame it on KK. Because after Jaane tu ya jaane na, which we hated, me and kk again saw this film together……Ya ya, we cinema snobs, pfcities…..you guys never like anything. Ya, m also in denial.
Tags: Contract, Ramu, rgv, Sarkar Raj
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I think he’s done. I wish he becomes a producer and takes a break from directing. Contract looks like it was a horror film for you guys… but if Contract is horror what is Phoonk? Isn’t Phoonk supposed to a horror film coming out next month? Or Is Contract the horror movie and Phoonk the movie about terrorism… sorry I’m confused…
Phoonk is on black magic and contract was underworld meets terrorism. Amar Mohile scored the background for Sarkar Raj. Apparently, the loud music was what the makers wanted
The question is what happened? What went wrong after Company? Did he run out of ideas, talent around him or is it something else… ???
ugh! movie watching = redsock? what’s it with kk and you?
I somewhat liked Sarkar Raaj…anything wrong with me?
lol watched Barry Lyndon like that…2nd CD first! nobody realized…didn’t make a difference. Oh and the classic was one of the guys in college after watching pulp fiction in correct order exclaimed “tum logon ne second CD pehle chala di”!!!
Pnu, this is the second time I am asking you this question: what did you guys expect?!?!
Ramu filmein banana band nahi karta to tum log dekhna to band kar sakte ho!!!
@Neeraja
Are you critisizing Barry Lyndon?.if you are then i totally object it
if u watch the 2nd CD without the 1st CD it dosen’t make a difference but you are missing the beauty of Cinema.The best work of Stanley Kubrick
www.10filmstowatch.blogspot.com
I watched Jurassic Park in a special screening – pura ulta..and at another time we rented Braveheart from college’s video library and apparently only one dvd was given to us. Some friends watched it and said..sali film kuchh chhoti nahi thi?..
Why do we even want to talk about RGV? It’s not that I hate him or anything. He was brilliant till Company. We should not stop supporting him when he is at loss of form – agreed. But this guy is at loss of sanity.
{moderated}
I have booked my tickets for 2nd show tonight..i will get back to u guys once i watch the movie..
Chill dude.
WTF asked you to read it in the first place? You are unnecessarily taking the discussion off the topic. Come here after watching the movie and put your views forth.
But forgive my ignorance. why do you keep coming back to the place if you think it stinks? Either you must be a friggin looser urself or you must just be waiting for the asylum van to pick you up.
Now go watch the movie and comeback only if you have some stuff to discuss and not to call every one else a bunch of loosers. Go get a life buddy.
hey Phoenixnu,
Sarkar raj is one of my favourites and I liked cinematography the most. you call that hide and seek and strangely placed camera positions, I call that creativity.
and why do u hate dialogues in a movie which are brilliantly written?
You should better watch a silent movie.
I didn’t want to write such harsh comment but your review of Sarkar raj compelled me to do so.
planning to watch contract this weekend. can’t say anything about that..and will suggest you that you should be logical and neutral while criticising anyeone.
and I too didn’t like jane tu…PFCites are not exceptions…
an observation on RGV and his films
it is only the very very first teaser that makes the film look good and gives you the hope that this could be a good film
the more and more you watch it the more it hits you that all it is is another piece of shit
thats what i go through almost always with RGV
anyways im off to see batman today :D
na na na na na BATMAN BATMAN
NOLAN NOLAN
Well, this is a public forum, i guess i can read what i want…n i have a right to voice my opinion…
Coming to me criticizing, i have a reason, as you all are bashing somebody’s work, without even watching it… thas something like eating shit n saying its bad…
So..only a good slap on the soul might help ppl like mindtentative…anyways..
pity me n pity u.
pnu,
as much as i love to kill the guy who does sound for RGV movies, i believe i should reserve that for the director whose asking for the blaring cacophony…
ha ha ha Phoenixnu… your style of writing… love it… phir bhi film abhi dekhni hi padegi, maybe tomorrow…
Phoenixnu
I believed ramu had already died with sarkar raj….
http://amj-litfreak.blogspot.com/2008/06/sarkar-raj-and-cult-of-lord-ramu.html
@aditya – ya man. he is dying agn n agn
@surya – dekh ke bata. dont think ur man will be back again.
@dpca – so true. but think even the music guy should try to tell him. or may be he doesnt listen only. u wud not belive this…even if there is a shot of few cars going somehere, the music goes on dhoom dhadap daam doom…without any sense.
@srikanth…ya ya u hav all the rights. do let us know what u think about the film.
@vivek – bang on. his promos hav always been gud. i still remember gayab promos were oen of the best and the film..bhagwaan bachaye. but this time even the promos were bad man.
@gaurav…sarkar raj is one of ur fav??? so u liked race also ? if yes, dont think we can talk anymore. if no, then plz enlighten me about these things…..
1)in sarkar raj,why every character has the same body language,same style,same mannerirms…no one walks, talks or run. everyone poses and delivers dialogues.
2) replace any charcter with any one else and the dialogues would still fit in, its all about life, politics and philosophy rather than about the story.
3) how can u do whatever u want to make it a thriller…the last 30 mins. if the end has to be like this, dont u need strong reasons for ur charcaters and build the ground for that in first 1:30 hours. u suddenly cant make everyone ditch other so that u shock the audince. if its so, i wud suggest one more…supriya patha comes with tea for aish and amitabh. both die after that as supriya poisoned it. she didnt like the fact that aish was going to get power and she was frustrated that amitabh never thought about giving the powers to him. next chiku comes and kills supriya cz he loves amitabh. chiku goes to juvenile jail and birth of one more sarkar. is that possible ?
@neeraja – this time we expected shit cz the sms reviews were already doing the rounds. and yes, we got bullshit. so wrote this obit.
@prasanna – if it works for u, great. but then if u can help me out by clearing few doubts. hav put the questions in comment no 19.
RAMU – RIP but he will be back to haunt…he has finished Phoonk and is haunting us with the teasers….Ramu hi Bhootnath hai….shit this was the mother of all script twisters…it even beat the Bhau being the cause of all evil anology in Sarkar Raj….Ramu hi Bhootnath hai….This makes no sense…so does his movies now
@wb – m willing to refund your money, if u end up liking the film. thats double deal for u. but if u dont like it, i want a refund though i havent paid for it.
vasan…contract – its not terrorism until it happens to u.
phoonk – its not superstition until it happens to u.
RGV – its not RIP, until u r Ramu.
@Pheonix….Iam still in the middle of the post….could not help but LOL…abt ur mention of K L P D……brought back all my college days @ Hyd……
ok gotta scroll back up to read something abt my fav movie maker…..
@gaurav, phoenix- I haven’t seen SR, I don’t think I’ll like it but wil check it out anyway- rangan seems to have liked it, though I could conect more with what Raja Sen and u have to say about it. But as far as contract goes, everyone seems to be unanimous in saying that it’s bad- so I suggest you avoid it.
Who still keeps financing ramu movies???
And who still goes to watch ramu movies??
The opening scene of Sarkar raaj and the camera angles of close ups and all that shades did it for me in first 15 minutes, and not to mention “Govinda Govinda”. I walked out of the theater and sweared never to be lured back by ramu’s movies again. The worst way to lose my 100 bucks………..
I do not have courage to watch this movie, luckily no one has a good word for this movie, not even taran adarsh otherwise someone would have convinced me to watch the movie one way or the other.
Besides “Race” has been the most intelligent thriller of all time. Twist pe twist, kya tha wo movie, ki end tak har koi theater mein gaa raha tha ” Aao twist karein ………”. People who liked Race will also love these movies(Dhoom, Dhoom2, Tashan, Kaal, Cash, 36 china town………), all equally thrillllllllingggggg.
My main and only objection to this review is this line:
….or Departed ( if for nothing else, then for the sexy background score )
Watch Departed for just the background score…as if that was all the film had to offer…who in the high heaven do you think you are…..
about RGV and Contract….I couldn’t care less…..shit like that should be avoided at all cost….but think a thousand times b4 commenting loosely on acclaimed masterpieces.
sougata…i loveeeeed departed….that line was for all those who think its not scorsese’s best and infernal affairs is better than that. consider it as typo. by the time finshed writing this one it was already 4:30am, so missed out the explanation. sorry.
i am gonna see this nevertheless despite the uniformly bad reviews. i have avoided many rgv movies in the recent past like nishabd, the one with fardeen and esha and isha(?), but will watch this one.
“rangan seems to have liked it, though I could conect more with what Raja Sen and u have to say about it” shouldn’t movie watching be solely on the basis of “your” instincts, “your” judgment, “your” interpretation of the past, “your” expectations than merely relying on a bunch of others’ mere personal opinions???
“But as far as contract goes, everyone seems to be unanimous in saying that it’s bad- so I suggest you avoid it”
sorry to say but this is a reflection of the movie watching scenario currently. What has happened to your sensibility? why give a fuck to “stars”, “ratings”, or in this case others’ views? One might like, respect others’ perspective but since when has that replaced experiencing it “yourself” and then be objective/subjective about it? Why not watch Sarkar Raaj or a Contract for yourself and then go about decimating it, if you like it (no pun here)?!
With due respects to them for their craft, how should a Raja Sen or a Bardwaj Rangan matter to you? Wasn’t a national award for the best critic or some such thing a collective decision resultant of subjective opinions?
Opinions, reviews,views like all those there and like the one here including mine should just best be intellectual masturbations. Trust the product not the maker.
@ Santosh Kumar TK – couldnt have said it better myself!
I liked Contract! It’s not a bad film as it is made out to be by some people out here! Please check it out for yourselves!
Oz……What happened to RGV? This is the Q a lot of people have been asking. And I think he answered it best during one his interviews post AAG….He said he was surrounded by people who made him feel and think that he could do no wrong. That whatever he thought was good. And anything that came of Factory was an exemplary product.
There was a time when I admired the man for directing excellent movies like Rangeela, Satya & Company. And at the same time promoting and producing good talent through Ek Hasina Thi and Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega….But now he is producing crap and directing as well.
Being creative and different is one thing. But it looks like RGV wants to be just that – different. Though without genuine creativity. Holding camera at weirdest angles could be creative to some (for that matter anything could be creative to some) but it might not be creative to shoot an entire movie like that. A film is a filmmaker’s perpective of an idea but you can’t just have any perspective and make any film on that….
I recently saw “The Happening”. And I felt the same for SHyamalan, that he seemed to have lost it with this movie. Its one thing to start off saying some phenomenon is making people kill themselves. But then he ends the film with the explanation that it was a weird act of nature that this phenomenon came mysteriously and then just went, as mysteriously. WTF!!!
Nadeem,
A.F.N.S. best describes movies like The Happening (2008)
All Fart No Shit
sorry about that guys! ;)
never believed in Punar-Janam..but looking forward to the Re.Incarnation of RGV..
wo phir aayega.. may be in 2010
reminds me of an old song.. tribute to RGV..
(filmo.n ka)
baaja bajaata hai wo
din raat gaata hai wo
mehnat ki khaata hai wo
phir bhi wo badnaam hai
Ramu to deewana hai..
deewana hai.. deewana
‘Contract’ is an ok movie..never really had too much of expectations from the film, so was not very disappointed as such..hoping his next ‘Phoonk’ is a good one..the promos are so interesting..eagerly waiting for its release..coming back to ‘contract’, its kind of similar to the aidan quinn-ben kingsley-donald sutherland starrer ‘the assignment’..wish it was as good as it though..the new guy adhvik mahajan is promising & has a very good screen presence..a little more effort on his acting ability and he surely has the potential to be the next action hero..he’s definately better than RGV’s ex-heroes mohit ahlawat & prashant raj..
phoenixnu,
you hated the film & mentioned what you dint like about the film..cant you mention what you liked about the film??
pfc guys,
when you’ll hate a film for whatever reasons you mention, cant you’ll also mention what you liked about the film?
i’m sure there’s some good things to talk about ‘Contract’!!
bilkul sahi likha hai.oz ke sawal par bahas honi chahiye ki kyon ramu ek ke baad ek galtiyan kar rahe hai.mujhe bhi samjhna hai.
mera review….http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post_18.html
Is it really a that bad movie? May be, (i havent seen it yet). But on this third day of it’s release no one is bothered to vote this movie on IMDb.
@phoenix
the very very first contract promo was kinda good
as in it had normal rgv shots etc but every thign after that was shit
Overall, the movie was OK, if one doesnt go with any expectations – which should be the case, given Ramu’s recent track record. The problem is that there is nothing new about the movie – no additional insights that the viewer can take away. Ramu’s movies are becoming more and more ‘filmy’ and less realistic – which is sad, cuz that is what made him stand apart. The reason could be his frantic pace of making films, leaving him no time to research or gain any new experiences.
Coming to Contract – thankfully the cinematography was not like Sarkar Raj – in fact it was rather good. Also, the background score is not jarring, like in Sarkar Raj. However, the character of Goonga’s shrieking wife was the most irritating part about the movie. Overall the performances are good; but, some characters border on caricatures.
To sum it up, the movie is good for a lazy afternoon viewing. Go with no expectations and u wont be disappointed.
Every filmmaker tends to get repetitive after a point of time. It has happened rather fast with Ramu because he makes films in more numbers than anyone cares to watch.
As a wayward school kid in 80s, I loved watching Subhash Ghai, Manmohan Desai, N Chandra and Prakash Mehra films. Who had thought these guys and their cinema would become outdated one day?
my dear friend phoenixnu,
As they say,Form is temporary class in permanent..i am sure,Ramu we will be back in form.I don’t understand one thing,why so many people are after sarkaar raj.i think whovever has criticised sarkar raj..have less knowledge of cinema..contract might be a failure..but,the thing we have to appreciate about him is..he is giving many newcomers opportunities..he is trying to looking for new talents..instead of watching bakwaas films like jaane tu ya jaane na..i would prefer to watch ramu’s flicks..
oh !! gAwwd!!!
RIP it is!!
the story of ‘contract’ reminds me of the kk and prashant narayanan flick ‘chhal’…
@Srikanth Reddy Sanagala
Dude…..constructive argument means being impersonal and being objective…..if you can’t be that …then don’t argue.
Hey guys, I saw Contract yesterday..yeah..it wasn’t vintage RGV..but then not bad too..there were some good moments..but the essence of vintage RGV..creating great characters to relate to..Shiva, Rangeela, Satya, Company, etc..is not there here..i will not remember RD, Gunga, Gunga’s wife, Iya, Aman etc..so readily as his earlier characters…he should have attempted this with better/more experienced actors..at least of adita shrivastav, rajpal yadav etc….
Yes, Contract is a big let down. But still i liked it, after bad hangover watching kismat connection.
@ Phoenixnu
sorry for coming back a little bit late..and if you can compare SR and race, I also think that we can’t talk anymore and your attitude says, we won’t be..
Many people here are running after this new trend CRITICIZE RAMU whether you yourself know anything or not.
I will just suggest you to be more mature while criticizing anyone and I dont care to answer your doubts.
Hi,
i heared that there is price for phoonk movie so i wanna see this movie alone in theatre.plz give me the details for this form.
ok Thanks
manisha