Ghost Ghost Na Raha * Ramsay’s Six Feet Under aka Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche
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Call it destiny. The greatest betrayal in my life, ironically, took place at the same location which gave me such joy – the cinema hall. It happened on one afternoon about a decade and half ago when I had gone to watch Ashaant.
Ashaant? What do you mean? How can an average Akshay Kumar and Vishnuvardhan movie betray you? As Manoj Kumar in Clerk, his face covered by his palm, would lisp, “yeh kaishe ho shakta hai, yeh kaishe ho shakta hai.” And, as usual, I would counsel patience.
I would advise you take a close look at the Director of Ashaant. His name, specifically. Keshu Ramsay. Ramsay? Yes, Ramsay!! The name which till then, for me, was synonymous with the best that Indian cinema had to offer in the 80s (‘Clerk’ excluded). How could they betray me in this manner? No rubber masks, no rotating necks and no poor monster with a textbook case of hypertrichosis. It was like going to a YRF film and watching Tanisha in cheap Wal-Mart bustiers instead of finding sarson ka khet. Wait, that has happened already in Neal n Nikki.
Anyway, I hope you got the idea. As they say, it was betrayal with capital ‘KLPD’.
Some years down the line, I have been able to place the Ramsay legacy in its larger historical context. It’s unfair to call them the equivalent of the Hammer House in India. After having watched dozens (actually scores) of Hammers, I will claim with some justifiable patriotic fervor that Ramsays scored over them on account of the following reasons:
1. Show me a single Hammer House film which has a song which went ‘Woh Beete Din Yaad Hain’ which is later remixed by someone named Tanya. Ha! Can you? You can’t. Well, Ramsay’s Purana Mandir makes it 1-0 for the Ramsay Bandhu
2. Did any Hammer House film have Satish Shah peeping out from the bathroom door and asking Rajendranath to pass on his underwear? And once Rajendranath fulfils his responsibility as the Gentleman’s Gentleman, did Satish Shah invite Rajendranath into the bathroom, “kyunki mera saboon gir gaya hai; use uthaa do” in any Hammer House film? Tell me! Nah! 2-0 for Ramsays as Veerana gracefully accepts the audience applause for having those lines
3. How many Hammer House productions have Vijayendra, Jagdeep, Raza Murad displaying remarkable acting chops playing Thakur, Naukar and Tantrik in every other movie? 12-0 for Ramsays and end of all arguments.
4. I can go on and on but I respect the intelligence of the PFC audience. They normally get it.
The tales that Ramsay Brothers spun aren’t the kind that should be related at nights. It’s advisable not to laugh too hard after sunset. But watching a Ramsay flick and looking for a story is like watching Antonioni and asking ‘yeh end mein tennis kyun khel rahen hain woh bhi without racket and ball”. Seen in the broader business context of the late 70s and 80s, I would claim that Ramsays were pioneers of the concept of ‘core competency’ even before Hamel/Prahlad coined the term in HBR in 1990. Mithun along with Rajiv Babbar, Kanti Shah and TLV Prasad were the next generation of filmmakers who worshipped at the altars of core competency.
In short, they were creating multiplex cinema when multiplexes didn’t exist. That’s genius. It’s the same with Bappida and hip-hop.
It’s difficult to pick a few Ramsay films to illustrate how far ahead they were from their times and I am not a believer in writing overwrought fan reviews. However, I think for this post, I will start with the Ramsay magnum opus that will convince the skeptical about what I’m raving about.
Let’s start with the film that created Ramsays – Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche aka Two Yards Below Earth or ‘Six Feet Under’. Six Feet Under?? See, these guys were already creating titles of multiplex films of future back in 70s. Anyway, Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche created the House of Ramsays in 1972 and redefined “bhoot-pret” movies in India. The average Indian bhoot till then was Sadhana/Waheeda in white sari singing beautiful songs like ‘Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim’ or ‘Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil’. These, you would admit, weren’t the greatest advertisement for any self-respecting bhoot or bhootni (digression, wonder why no Ramsay movie had a song called ‘bhootni ke’ though eventually another recent horror film did have a song of that name). Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche changed all that.
The storyline is deceptively simple. A recently widowed wealthy man, Raj, (also an amateur scientist) saves a young woman (Shobha in a career defining role) from some random “hawas ke darinde”. Shobha follows him to his haveli to stay over since she has nowhere to go. Sometime in middle of the night, Shobha, innocence personified, gets into Raj’s bed stating ‘mujhe andhere me dar lagta hai’(translation: yeh toh bada toing hai). The inevitable happens and the morning after Shobha is worried about “lok-laaj”. Raj, pure as driven snow, decides to do the right thing by marrying her. Before you can say, Veerana, Shobha changes colors and along with her recently arrived uncle gradually starts poisoning Raj. Enter her paramour posing as a doctor and you have everything set for poor Raj to be bumped off which is duly achieved and soon Raj is Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche.
Things start unraveling between Shobha, Uncle and the Doctor as greed rears its ugly head among them. Meanwhile, the corpse of Raj is seen milling around the house and is keen on reminding the trio of their guilt. When they check Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche, they find Raj missing and instead the body of one of their accomplice. A merry-go-round of Raj tormenting his murderers follows and many awesome sequences later involving the dead man running amok a satisfactory end is reached.
For someone raised on the 80s Ramsay fare, Do Gaz Zameen is not a typical Ramsay film. There isn’t cheap titillation, neither moronic comedy tracks with Satish Shah or Jagdeep. It is remarkably low on gore and grotesque scenes. In fact, it is rather subtle when you put it in context of the Ramsay filmography of the later years. However, it sees the coming together of many ingredients which will define future Ramsay films, namely, the voluptuous femme fatale, remarkably stupid male lead (over the years the male lead would evolve from bearded Imitiaz Ali in Do Gaz to the naazuk jawan Deepak Parasher in Sannata to the wooden hunk Hemant Birje in Veerana but they all tipped the IQ scale at about 30), a few bath tub sequences and of course, the dead coming alive.
What makes Do Gaz Zameen a milestone in Hindi cinema is the success it had at the box office. There’s no accounting for what made it have such a good run. I mean the other films doing business at box office that year were Seeta Aur Geeta, Parichay, Samadhi, Bawarchi and Dastaan. On the face of it, there isn’t much in common between them and Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche (except Samadhi which tangentially is also below Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche).
But it did run and so did many others from their stable over the next two decades.
It beats explanation, defies logic. May be the Ramsays need to make a film on it.
Tags: Bhaago Bhoot Aaya, Do Gaz Zameen, Don't Say, Ghost Ghost Na Raha, Mere Humdum Mere Ghost, Mujhe Zor Ki Bhoot Aayi Hai, Ramsay
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The greatest betrayal in life for you came from a film?
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“wonder why no Ramsay movie had a song called ‘bhootni ke’ though eventually another recent horror film did have a song of that name” … ROFL ….
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@ Arthi – yes, and a Ramsay film at that. I have had a very secluded life
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Bhootni ke funda is a technical twister and biological nightmare at once. It will be a tug of war between a high self-esteem single mother bhootni and a bhooton-se-kya-darna-bhooton-ki-maa-ki manchala aashiq.
Question: What did the latter pick for his first other-worldly encounter?
Answer: Pret-a-porter
Shobha’s kahaani had me in splits.
Career defining role!
Innocence personified!
Mujhe andhere mein…bole to ye to bada…ha ha
Before you can say Veerana…
The remarkably stupid male lead is a personal favorite followed closely by wandering corpses.
I often used to ask my mom about Do bigha zameen and she used to confuse me with ‘that film which sounds similar but is miles away, in fact miles beneath’. Now I know the drift.
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subrat… it was weekend treat for me… maine last weekend hi purana mandir so i can understand your feelings :D… fantastic article as always …keep it up.
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“dil ki ghadi aree gadi gadi na jaane karein kyon tik tik tik…..ek second mein ek tik aur kabhi ek se bhi adhik…haad se baad jaati hai yeh, jab dekhun koi beautiful chik”
Akshay-Mamta Kulkarni..dancing to a this superb rhythm…..awesomely rendered by KUMAR SANU…Subrat bhai great you started with a mention of this film…..Ashaant.
Ashwini Bhave – Vishu – Akshay
Akshay – Pankaj Dheer buddy cop track….
a super remake of Black Rain…..
the other Vishnuvardharn Hindi Starrer being Inspector Danush….”mere bhi maan mein hulchal….tere bhi maan mein hulchul..tak dhinaka dhin…” Vishu….Sangeeta Bijlani…
The Arjun Rampal of teh 80s…..absolute mind numbing oak wood…Vijandra….”badzaat zehreeli naagin…..main jaanta hun tu ek chudail hai…..” facing the chudail with such shek dilli…..he was the Drona….he had more faith in his powers than Drona….maybe he was
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VB: we were separated in the kumbh mela of ‘88.
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