my obsession with ramu
get your brickbats ready. i’m ready to take the beating. bring it on! but you won’t change my mind. i’m coming out of the closet (but not in that way). i’m obsessed with ramgopal varma, and i’m letting the world know about it. ok, so the “world” here is a bunch of cinema franatics (freak+fanatics) just like me whom i’ve never met, but that’s fine. note that these views are accurate before he introduced mohit and nisha. i now find myself at a point where i’ve started wondering what’s wrong with him. this is not a disclaimer though… i’m still a huge fan.
is it because we’re both engineers by education? is it because i just connect with the type of cinema he makes, and the way he makes them? maybe it’s his “bindaas, i don’t give a rat’s ass what you think” attitude toward everything..? refer to these IBN interviews..
see.. it’s not about how he says “women to me are sex objects” [NOTE: i don't connect with him or what he says]. it’s the fact that he’s open enough to admit it. what big filmmaker is THAT in-your-face in front of a camera where the interviewer herself is a WOMAN??? mindblowing.
simple fact of the matter is… if it’s a ramu film, i’m gonna damn well watch it, if not first day first show, then within the first week. YES. EVEN if it’s a crap film like mr.ya miss or james. because if you look at the bigger picture, you know that over the years, he has given people a chance… in fact, i think this is his selling factor for me. the fact that he has let an E Niwas make ’shool’ or a Chandan Arora “MMDBCH” or a shimit amin “ab tak chappan”. i don’t know what he saw in those people, and i don’t care. i’m just glad he saw it. and THIS makes me curious to see why he entrusted antara or rohit with their respective films. everyone deserves a chance, right?
as an actor, a big thing i’ve always loved about his films is the casting. everyone seems suited to the T, whether it be vivek in company, anil kapoor in “my wife’s murder” (a BRILLIANT movie), randeep in D, or even character artists like mohanlal in company, victor banerjee in bhoot, snehal owasi (aaj kapoor) in “love ke liye..”, zakir hussein in sarkar.. the list goes on.. again, one of his beliefs is that he’s not here to make stars. actors to him are a tool, which he uses to make a product, he says. and so far these tools have been quite efficient. key word “so far”. in all seriousness… WHAT THE HELL was he thinking with mohit and nisha? is it me, or has the quality of his films deteriorated as soon as he let them enter the camp? (sarkar was an average film, with way above average performances… THANK YOU for taking KK). up until they entered the picture, ramu’s new introductions to the industry actually proved their mettle. what has mohit done (besides hit the gym 7 days a week) to earn the role of jai in his sholay?
out with the bad.. back in with the good. what filmmaker can boast of starting out with an underworld story in “shiva” and “satya”, go on to make an all-out musical entertainer like “rangeela” and follow it up with a thriller like “ek haseena thi” or an underworld story like “company”, a horror like “bhoot” (which weirdly enough, didn’t impress me at all)… and throw in comedies like “love ke liye…” and “mast”? WHO? the man has experimented with all genres and defined the word ‘hatke’ in this industry to the point where if anyone else uses the world except for him, it’s impossible not to cringe. hell, i’d even go as far to say that ramu in essence, IS a genre.
i’ve even enjoyed some of his duds… kaun, road, naach.. are some of them. but when he comes out with a mr.ya miss or james or shiva2006, it’s impossible not to pull out your hair and scream “WHAT THE F*CK WAS THAT????”
in summary, i absolutely LOVE vintage ramu. it seems now as though there’s a new ramu.. and this one’s left me scratching my head… i’m still a fan, but i feel as if i had lost my faith somewhere in there and am in the process of rediscovering it. please ramu… redeem yourself.
p.s. anurag, would love to hear your thoughts on your working relationship with him.
Tags: Direction, Production
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
hey, you’re not alone! I am a fan of RGV as well. Like you, I also love his style of filmmaking and never get annoyed with the slowness, silent characters or the background music. If you see his direction CV – then it’s pretty good; only a couple of duds he has delivered. Where as when he just produced films he has given a few flops but at the same time he has given so many good films and has unearthed talents in all fields.
you liked Naach? Me toooo! I even loved the slowness. However, I would have preferred if the ending was a bit different i.e them two not getting together. And you gotta love the song ‘Rakth Ka’ sung by Markand Deshpande and ‘Bhande Lagi’ song!
Road – was ace! He did not direct it, but he came up with the idea. You have to applaud him for trying something new all the time. I love this kind of mental movies. I would love to see him make something like “Dog Day Afternoon”
striker, it’s like this, if you love cooking of a certain, then you will love it no matter if it’s a bit hot or less salty or sweet.. you know, what i’m sayin’?
ps i think, oz and rest gave me an opportunity to write for PFC after me and others had a long discussion on RGV. i was not asked about me background. Lucky me!
road was awesome! even the satire song that was done with manoj and antara toward the end “babu thanks! thanks jo boli, thanks tho babu ko bekaabu kar gayi re”.. let’s not forget how HOTTTTT antara looked in “makhmali yeh badan”. she easily has the best body in the industry (shilpa’s next)
i loved the fact that naach truly had an aggressive treatment to it.. you’re right, the only thing that would’ve made it even more real was if they hadn’t gotten together. not to mention, a completely different facet of ritesh was explored in this movie.. who knew he could do such a downplayed role?
He churned out movies like popcorn for last 2-3 years. Though I am not a great fan of him there are somethings for which he can be talked about, like you said he gave many a chance..more than one, he tried all the geners, he cares a damm of what works the best in bollywood. Though he din’t have many hits for past couple years every star is ready to be in his film.
Generally my patience level is quite high when I am watching a hindi movie. I used to boast to people that I watch very hindi movie that is released…I had to eat my words after watching James and Shiva 2006. Seriously! who would take Nisha Khotaria…again and again.
Another thing – it’s not right to loath RGV cos he directed a dud like Shiva or produced a crap like James. It’s just not fair because he is a talented guy; “Form is temporary, class is permanent”. Look at his CV – not his last film! Also he admitted he was wrong with James and Shiva – only a genius would admit of his mistake and learn from it.
It’s like this, if you work in a gold field then you are likely to dig more stones/crap to gold. but when you find gold – it’s all worth it! His production house is just like that.
Striker, did you like his ‘Mast’? It was a good musical film. Neeraj Vora, Rajpal Yadav, and Snehal Dabi were so funny in that movie.
Naach – their acting was in your face! Not much was said in first half, but you kind of got into the story. And yeah, who would have thought that RD could act?! He picks character that fit into the role. Antra should have went with RD – that’s what I would have liked.
Sudha,
I would not say he churned out “popcorn” movies. He only ventured into masala films cos he wanted to recapture that magic in his style but, unfortunately, he failed miserably. Only James and Shiva would classify as popcorn movies. Rest of his movies from his production house only target a certain audience.
oh yes.. mast was bilkul mast!! a “mast”-watch
)
And don’t forget his classic ‘Raat’! :d
(’night, we shall resume this tomorrow!)
hello striker,
assume that rgv dint give any interviews till date. dint utter a word in public till date. assume that we’ve never heard him speak or read what he said.
then would u be as obsessed? what would the equation be like? just curious to know.
oh most definitely! in fact, i’d be even more obsessed because then i’d be curious to explore the enigma that is RGV and what makes him tick.. and why he thinks he can make a good movie in every genre and get away with it. and why he gives newcomers in every field (acting, direction, editing) a chance and make them work for his film. it would only increase the curiosity factor for me.
something i forgot to mention in the article was that i’ve actually had dreams (i guess i should say nightmares) that i’m sitting in his office and he says no to taking me in his movie.. when i was in bombay for 6 months i f*cking tried every contact i had to get thru to him. always got SO close to a meeting, but it never worked out unfortunately.. i did however go inside the factory (cool office) and meet with a couple of people there.. so i guess i’ll have to just live with that memory
funny thing is.. i had this idea that after i made it into a ramu flick, i would tell people that working with him was a “nightmare gone false”, as opposed to a “dream come true”, since in my nightmare he had actually said no to working with me
)
Striker, I have always been a fan of Ramu and still am, even though I hate his recent films. The reason I love this guy so much is not as much for his films anymore, but because he goes through with what he believes in, without worrying about the outcome. Even if he believes in crap (i.e. “James”) , he will persist with it, doesn’t give a fuck about his investors or what people say, and works on gut instinct. “I want to make this movie. I will make it! Who the hell are you to judge before the movie is made? If it sucks, too bad, but I know you’re gonna buy the ticket anyway!”
That attitude is what filmmakers in India need to be able to heighten our filmmaking standards, though on the flip side, majority of the films coming out of Ramu’s factory nowadays only seem to be lowering the same. Yet, even when a film is not up to the mark (i.e. “Sarkar” or “Naach”), there’s still something there that says, “Ok, maybe next time”.
As for the financial survival of Ramu, I read an interview where he says when asked about The Factory surviving despite repeated flops, “I don’t care about per film revenue. I only look at total annual turnover. For my company to survive, as long as the annual turnover shows some sort of profit, I’m fine.”
He may be crazy, perhaps even lost that magic touch of Satya and Company, but because of his guts, a lot of other filmmakers in India have dared to be different. Filmmaking is no longer owned solely by the paisawallas.
See, This is a point i had wanted to make sometime back..but me being lazy and forgetfull..missed it.
The problem starts when a person becomes a “fan” of a certain actor/director/actress or anyone but not the “cinema”. When this happens one tends to look at only the “good” things in the cinema assosiated with that certain kind of a person..RGV in this case. I think that is where RGV has such a huge pull over the audience. He has those “wow” moments in his movies which makes a RGV “fan” go “wow”. This “wow” pulls in the “fan” so much that he forgets the utter implausiblities in the cinema. IMO if the same movies that have been discussed here e.g Naach, Road, etc been made my some other director..we wud have rubbished it. But therein lies the greatness of RGV..he understands the pulse..the pulse of his “fans”.
Having said this.. i am sure even his “fans” would agree that the quality of cinema coming from this genius is going down.. and going down at a very frantic pace..something needs to be done Mr. RGV
Ramu is an asset to anythign and everythign associated with bollywood. He single handedly has given more talent to this industry then any other studio or banner and he has made careers of non starters ( Fardeen khan, baap ne “prem agan” ke bajaye “career agan” banayee thi) and I dont even want to count on no. of directors he has given break to. I you look at his factory products, almost all films directd by ramu have been the cash cows that provided finance for providing breaks to others.
And before people start shouting at him for Mohit, Nisha etc, it is important to understand the way actors have been brought and nurtured in our cinema. Please go and have a look at Rocky(Sanjay dutt), Hero(Jackie Shroff), betaab( Sunny deol), Refugee(Abhishek),Balwaan(Sunil Shetty), Akshay kumar(Saugandh), SRK(Deewana) etc etc. They were so very very ordinary and except Jackie, all had solid background. All these actors learnt acting after several ordinary performances ( Anil kapoor and Aamir khan were the only exception)(and some haven’t yet learnt), kind of getting someone in Indian cricket team directly from home and letting him play along with Sachin with a 10 year licence uninterrupted. We never ever had a history of solid actors getting into heroish kinda role except for few character actors. Now another angle to look at the way our industry functions is look at casting of all our top shot directors ( Yash chopra, Aditya chopra, Karan Johar, Raj kumar Santoshi, Subhash Ghai, Sanjay Leela Bhansali) and notice in how many films have they worked with newcomers with a very ordinary background (where I believe the real talent lies)
And now look again at Ramu. This guy is god, a phenomenon in himself. Whats wrong in giving break to Mohit, Nisha, etc in the context our industry works? I would trust Ramu to extract best of performance even from stone. Even if these two dont work, atleast someone has guts to give hope to ordinary people.
i first became a fan of his cinema… and in due time a fan of his. i don’t really see a scenario where i can be obsessed with a filmmaker first, and his films second. that’s way too much blind faith. you’re right sumeet, in that it’s the ‘wow’ factor that pulls most people toward his films.. sure works for me. i would try to watch a ‘james’ first day first show because i’m curious to see what RGV saw in rohit and mohit (ohhh so THAT’S why he chose them! their names rhyme!
) )
but i really liked road and naach.. and if somebody else had made it, i don’t think i would’ve ditched it.. in fact, i probably would’ve said “damn.. that’s something ramu would/should’ve make/made”
and yes, i’m the biggest believer in the fact that in his race for quantity of films per year, he’s compromising on their quality. i don’t think sholay’s gonna be his comeback though, sadly enough.. if he ever gets around to it, “ek” is the one to watch out for.. (and inside sources tell me big B is mindblowing in “nishabd”.. but what’s new there?)
vijay, thx for the info on factory’s survival.. i was starting to get curious myself :-?
@ I aint saying that one becomes a fan of a film maker without watching his movies first. It is but obvious that you like his few movies first and then become his fan…but, then one becomes a fan to such an extent….blah blah blah… is what i was saying… Why only RGV man… Take any South indian Superstar.. Chiru, Rajni, Balakrishna, Pawan Kalyan..anyone… Fans my dear friend.. fans… Fans of any actor, director, kutta-billi is what distubs me.
jwalant, nothing wrong with giving mohit and nisha a break at all. i’m glad he gave them that first chance.. BUT every newcomer actor he has given a break to so far has proved themselves in the first film he has done with them. they have justified their presence, and neither mohit nor nisha have done that, thusly making me question ramu’s casting expertise.
let’s face it. fardeen should not even be in the industry.. we all know why he got cast in jungle.. daddyji had a few things to do with it. so i choose to not even give star sons/daughters importance. if abhishek bachchan was abhishek kapoor, he probably wouldn’t even have gotten 20 films to prove himself (and even then it took a mani ratnam).. so let’s not go there.. hehe
sumeet, fan is one thing, idol worship is another.. i don’t consider ramu god of filmmaking, just as i don’t consider aamir god of acting or michael owen god of soccer (i’m fans of all of them in their respective fields). i do respect ramu’s filmmaking a lot, and therein i consider myself a fan. sorry to hear that disturbs you. truth be told, if i were to meet ramu, i would act like myself just as i would with anybody.. i myself personally don’t like asking celebs to take pics with them.. now girls crying when they see srk. THAT is disturbing!
Striker i think we are having a great discussion here… I was hoping you would bring this up… and you did.. Idol Worship…Idol.. someone you look upto, someone you follow, someone you have high regards to.. in my books: Good. Fan: Someone you follow no matter what, my books: Bad. Idols can crash..Fans..nah!
Anyways we are not gonna resolve this. i respect your opnion, and i am sure you do too… You do no? Lol!!!
Hmmm… Ramu is an interesting analysis.
To me he is the most complete director in bollywood, who is strong in all most all the direction except may be screenplay:)
If you look at his films only the mumbai underworld films standout. The others are different but absolutely meaningless and seem ridiculous. After tasting sucess like other directors he is running behind making tons of money. Fooling companies like ad-lab, making films at dirt price. Ad-lab is also happy that they r getting ramu brand film for just over 1 crore. The other drawback of Ramu one can see is he has a huge ego which results his fallout with most of his succesful associates who were born in his camp.
Lot of talented people have come out of Ramu’s camp but why not any standout directors??Can anyone answer please:)
Manjeet.. Ramu has produced standout directors..no questions asked.. InFact he has produced better directors than actors
1. krishna Vamsi
2. Chandan Arora
3. Shimit Amin
4.Jijy Philip
5. Vishram Sawant
6. Saurabh Narang
7. Sriram Raghavan
8. E.Niwas
Dude the list goes on.. But who i think wud really make it big is Chandan Arora..and no one but Chandan Arora. We cannot take away any credit from RGV in this matter of giving break..but..IMO i know why he does that….
check comment no.25 here
Manjeet.. Ramu has produced standout directors..no questions asked.. InFact he has produced better directors than actors
1. krishna Vamsi
2. Chandan Arora
3. Shimit Amin
4.Jijy Philip
5. Vishram Sawant
6. Saurabh Narang
7. Sriram Raghavan
8. E.Niwas
http://passionforcinema.com/shivaaaaaaaaaaargh-applicants-invited-open-letter-to-rgv/
Arggggggggg..typo typo typo… shit.
Sumeet read ur comment#25. I agree with ur views. The data might just be incorrect. According to the info I have he is giving movies to Ad-labs in 1.2 crores and its a pretty realiable source. Not talking about any film with stars. Take for eg. moive like shabri which is coming up do u think it would cost 5 crores to make? I agree the list of directors u have provided but they havent left the kind of mark a great director would. No questions asked about the subject been different from traditional bollywood films.
On target Manjeet..yeah buddy my figures might be complemtely wrong..i have almost zero connections with film industry.. the figures i mentioned were just to give an example… Yep none of his directors have made it real big..infact if you read those comments sections.. Honhaar Goonda( i guess..who else..yeh banda rgv pei zinda hain..lol)had made a very good point of what fault is of rgv if his directors didnt make it big.
sumeet.. definitely respect your opinion and views, so keep ‘em coming! i think we just didn’t define our own views of fans and idol worshippers. if we go by your definition, then yes, i do look upto ramu and have high regards for him.. so from your perspective, i’m an idol worshipper. i guess i just happened to define it as fan. maybe the mixed views are in the respective definitions, so we’ll leave it at that.. and yes, definitely agree that he’s produced more quality directors than actors. one of them is sitting right here amongst us (although he wasn’t a director under ramu)!
In whatever minimal role Nisha Khotari had in Sarkar – she did prove that she could act. Where as in James and Shiva it was not about their acting. I believe both movies would have worked at BO and critically acclaimed if it had some sort of star power attached to it or them two were stars. for example, Dhoom worked even though half of ‘em looked like poof or bhikaris and could not act, but it had star power and worked.
Sarkar was meant to make such impacts. If he had made the movie as similar as Godfather or Nayakan, then it would never have worked. He wanted to make it in his andaaz and there was no need of bull-shit dialogues in the movie. It was all about attitude and each scenes spoke ‘attitude’ out loud and clear!
to be honest, i am not a big fan of cinema; like you guys I would not be able to sit through watching movies from other parts of world. i only like certain types of movies and i would only watch those types of movies. Having said that, I love the idea of filmmaking!
lol Sumeet, believe me – I would be able to defend RGV.. I would justify every single of his movies/actors choice.
some good projects are coming out of his factory.
striker,
recently RGV came to London for his film ’shiva’. firecracker-media organized a screening with him and mohit for q&a. but i did not go to it.
his movies and movies from his production house were shown at earlier part of london film festival which was presented by tiger eyes firecracker. it was sort of a tribute to him.
even i was obsessed with ramu till recently.
the obsession started with me reading his very exciting interviews.
the obsession ended reading the same interviews with countless contradictions and also watching his shitty movies which simply insulted the audience.
spent a considerable amount of time in that obsession. its was not an obsession with his movies, it was with the excitement that he personally creates.
well during that time, i did a personal analysis of rgv. and here are my observations.
rgv is trying to evolve a fixed philosophy in life through which he can live peacefully and like a king. somehow its not working out, though he likes to think it is.
bcos of that, there is a constant insecurity in him.
he wants to be in control of everything about him, in control of his emotions, his thoughts etc., To achieve that, he is deteriorating himself.
u can sense his insecurity in his talks, his acts, his films. like the lighting style in sarkar and shiva.
i wonder if there is any Art Direction in those movies. cos almost everything other than the characters is blinded with darkness. its like, any particular scene couldve been shot in your house, cos except the characters everything else is not lit, its pushed into darkness. i constantly saw an insecurity in the director while watching those films.
i got excited reading his bold, cool statements in his interviews. saying out whats in his mind without any fear might be cool. but whats in his mind is itself BS. i think his philosophy sucks. his present personal state itself is a proof of it.
he needs attention. he cannot live without attention. he will go to any extent to get that, including making great movies mayb lol.
i think mr.rgv is on a personal low. he better read some spiritual books n get a better understanding of life. life in the sense, not ‘his life’, life!
i hope this did not get too ‘personal’ for anyone to get offended. i only meant to throw in some food for thought. nothing wrong in it.
and im definitely not talking out of my ass.
ive watched all his movies except daud and mast.
i watched ‘Company’ n number of times on my comp. and it never ceases to be interesting. brilliantly made.
his telugu film ‘kshana kshanam’ is a treat to watch for people who want to make films. u can actually see a good film being made while watching that film. its like watching the ‘making of the film’ and the ‘film itself’ at the same time.
his contribution to bollywood is unparalleled. i think he is the one who started the revolution which brought about the evolution of bollywood as we see it today.
all the positive points about him come under the category of ‘his contribution to cinema’ in different levels.
i had a lot of respect for him cos his movies treated people with respect. he gave respect to the audience. he dint give them shit to watch. he considered the audience to be intelligent while making a movie. thats what made him different from every other director. thats what made him rgv.
but now thats not the case. he has INSULTED the audience with sarkar and shiva. he treated the audience like cheap prostitutes with his other shitty productions.
P.S:
striker, i hope ur not mistaken that ek haseena thi is made by rgv. its made by sriram raghavan, an ftii graduate(early 90s batch i guess).
brilliantly made film, one of my favs, Factory is blessed to have this movie in their catalog. i also came to know that there was no interference of rgv in that film.(if that film released in 2006, it wudve been a big hit).
and rgv doesnt even mention this film when asked(in the interview for which u posted video links)whether he liked any films frm the factory.
I would like to add to the conversation tht RGV is not the God of flimmanking but at the same time he is one fo those directors who does not hesistate in experimenting. Apart from that, when we are saying tht the directors coming out from the RGV camp might not have succeeded, you need to remeber tht this is the difference between RGV and his assistants. They do not possesss the brilliance or vision of RGV. If u look at any of his movies, they do not imply tht he is an insecure person. u have to remeber tht here is one director who adapts stories which are literally a copy of any real life story or resembles real life, If u were to consider COMPANY, SATYA or SARKAR its the crude reality shown in these movies which give thenm tht edge over other movies. Also we have to remember tht the directors coming out of RGV’s camp have tried to make movies but have failed miserably attempting other genres apart from the exception of Chandan Arora. Also,the fact u cannot deny abt RGV does not believe in spending money just to add glamour,glitz or slickness to a movie just to attract the audience. he makes movies only based on trhe story or the creenplay.
I do admit this myselves tht in the past 1 yr or so the movies being churned out by his factory have not been upto the makr and out of them only one was his directorial ventur namely SHIVA he is honest enough to admit tht he screws up the movie.
He just needs tht one movie to come back in to the reckoning which could be Sholay if possible or Nishabd.
Awaiting an RGV release
Wow! A discussion on RGV! Though just last night I ventured into the unventurable terrain of two films read disasters called Darwaza Bandh Rakho and Shiva. DBR, I felt was a done to death ramu plot, mixing Love ke liye with kaun in an attempted comedy. Attempted. Big big mistakes- bgm, editing, camera. Everything was screwed up to the hilt. Aftab was at his annoying worst and the scene used to get over before zakir hussain could think of an expression to emote. I don’t wanna go into how bad the film was, it was like a collective waste of all the actors in factory.
Shiva, however, did have some good things. The sarkar-esque camera was more annoying here. Though I never disliked James, Shiva was strictly ok. Some scenes did have the quintessential verma imprint. I like mohit ahlawat. He has what it takes to be alive on screen. He brings life to the most formulaic and dead scenes. the villain track screwed up shiva.
HG, I loooove naach!! I loved everything about it-soundtrack, camera, AB of course(one of his best after yuva and sarkar). Agreed it went bad towards the end but it was gem given the pace and the anti-climactic narrative. Where I could happily digest every elaborate song sequence or long shot in naach, I just could not bear it in shiva. Naach has ‘soul’ written all over it. Just watch the scene where AB is watching the TV while drinking and gets a call from Riteish. Riveting. Rewind-worthy. The amazing sequences where they learn n teach dance atop the roof are also brilliantly shot and executed(the very start is so drugged it tells you something is coming your way).
Road was top class, given all the climactic screw ups and the imitations.the Bajpai track(babu) was simply outta the world.
Striker, bang on with your views on road n naach. What a song that one! Pehli nazar mein(or something like that).
Even I dreamt of working with RGV, cus I had written some stories that were apt for his kind of cinema. alas!
And HG, I loved mast too. The pizza sequences, the songs, and the humor were all too cool. I agree with you on sarkar, it was an underplayed classic.
I recently revisited my wife’s murder, ab tak chhappan n ek hasina thi, and liked them all over again. I will write something on ek hasina thi soon.
I even loved love ke liye…fardeen was refreshingly non-starry like in jungle(another kick-ass film), aftab was tolerable for once(also in darna mana hai), the whole aaj Kapoor and aslam bhai track, the sharat saxena track, the kidnapping went wrong etc.
And I loved darna zaroori hai more than the prequel. Esp the sajid khan bit featuring an explosive manoj pahwa, the amitabh and riteish film and the anil Kapoor n mallika sherawat(she can act!) film. And darna mana hai is memorable for the parts featuring no smoking-boman irani n saif and homework-raghuveer yadav and revathi(the horror princess from raath!)
Kalki, I did not feel that RGV is making films that ooze with ‘insecurity’. Shooting films in the dark is not mandatory to deliver a particular emotion.
Just a thought, may be its time we should stop reading too many interviews, which are anyways doctored, and take the film makers for what they are. You could be associating and affecting a person’s craft by way of his personal philosophy. Personally, I would not do that. I care least about a person’s views on spirituality or history or rocket science.
RGV needs a mention and will be mentioned in the top film makers of the country, and that cant be taken away from him.
I understand we all have personal favorites n duds from his vast assembly line productions, but given 2-3 oddities, all productions have been unique in one way or the other.
Great discussion, and great insights.
Have you guys heard the soundtrack of ‘Sarkar’? It’s just not Govinda track. there are good tracks like ‘Deen Bandhu’, ‘The Want of Power Cacophony’, ‘Jitni Oonchaeeyan’..
i love the soundtrack…in fact this is one of the first ever OST ever released for a hindi film(like black friday), i have the 2 cd collection signed by RGV where he commends amar mohile for taking his imagination a step further and giving a new dimension to his tribute to godfather. the music is what colors sarkar in an indian hue. if you closely follow the film and its bgm, you ll love the audio cd called ‘the power of sarkar’.
i love the “sarkar…ek vichaar, saam daam,” tracks
the power of sarkar – i have got that cd as well :d
yeah! cheers to the one person i found who owns the OST of sarkar!
kalki, yup.. am very aware EHT was a sriram film.. i guess i should’ve been more patient with the post and dissected it into RGV productions vs. directions but my fingers were just itching to hit the publish button :d
Guys..Havent heard Sarkar soundtrack… the BGM of the movie though had Govinda track..which was used in another rgv movie called govinda govinda.. Anyways..how is the OST?
now THAT is some news! please elaborate on the ‘govinda govinda’ film.i would love to see it NOW!
btw, the OST kicks ass but you would love it more if you are addicted to the film as well.its not a crouching tiger kinda ost that you can put on anytime even when you are not not the seventh cousin of ang lee.
Sumeet,
Sarkar album comes with two cds: 1) Govinda Album 2) The Power of Sarkar
Govinda album has 10 lyrical songs. Half of the songs have that Govinda feel to it and fast paced, but does not feel like noise as the lyrics is louder than music. Then there is soulful ‘Deen Bandhu’ sung by Padmashree Rita Ganguly. Best song of the album, imo.
The Power of Sarkar – A background score compilation. There are 25 tracks! Background music used from scene one to the last scene. I do not listen to this album that much, but it’s good. The music is kind of haunting.
I concur with striker and goonda here – its definitely hard not to be a fan of the guy… just looking at the stuff he has directed, he has certainly had a few letdowns – RAATRI/BHOOT, GOVINDHAGOVINDHA, DEYYAM, DAUD, SARKAR
other than that though, the rest wld probably read like my favorite films list – SHIVA, KSHANAKSHANAM, ANTAM, GAAYAM, RANGEELA, ANAGANAGAOKAROJU, SATYA, MAST, JUNGLE, COMPANY, NAACH. and that is not even getting into his productions
“The music is kind of haunting”
the bgm was one of the few things I appreciated in that miserable film. agree, it did have a haunting atmospheric feel… and you had to luv kailash kher wailing away… “govindha, govindha… govindha, govindha!”
“please elaborate on the ‘govinda govinda’ film.i would love to see it NOW!”
be glad you haven’t seen this. it was one varma’s early blunders, despite starring his two favs nagarjun/sridevi. it is kinda a mythological/adventure, abt a priceless crown being stolen and the ensuing hunt/chase to retrieve it. paresh plays the wise-cracking villain(much like in kk, but he is really annoying here). the film starts off ok, but once the action shifts to thailand it gets really tedious
mr.manjeet singh,
even your ‘favourite’ anurag kashyap is here due to mr.rgv..& dont forget that anurag’s also ‘talented’ and a ’stand out’ director dude!
(sure you’ll agree on that)
how many films of rgv have you seen that you are talking about his lack of screenplay knowledge??
and if you think he’s ‘running behind making tons of money and ‘fooling big companies’ then how come you are ‘running’ behind his office people to be on the sets of ‘rgv ke sholay’ and ‘fooling’ the PFC members by posting comments which are so biased and one-sided??
dude, just being on the sets of a film and covering behind-the-scenes doesnt make you big enough to comment on a respected filmmaker..
it takes a lot of guts and years of hardwork, dedication to reach a position where rgv is today..(ask mr.anurag kashyap and i’m sure he’ll tell you what i mean!} as for his films not making sense, not doing well at the box-office, etc..it is something which is not under his control..he experiments and goes ahead with the project if he believes in it and will release it no matter what fate has in store for his film or his abilities to make that particular film..period! dude atleast appreciate the fact that he tries to make something different and not the typical, run-of-the-mill bollywood stuff..
finally manjeet, anurag’s ‘black friday’ and ‘no smoking’ will be releasing soon..let’s see what happens to these two films at the box-office..
i know both are different kind of films and dont fall into the regular stuff that we are used to watching..but again, even i know and so do you that these are experiments..and all experiments dont work..some fail..but you keep experimenting..and someday you do get the desired result..that’s the beauty of filmmaking! you get a chance to evolve and learn with every experience..some guys are lucky to have the finance to experiment, but some aren’t that lucky! rgv is lucky, but he slogged his ass to be one!! if you look at it now, we are all lucky, because we still have one ‘lucky rgv’ who is still experimenting..and will continue to do so..watch out for NISHABD, DARLING & RGV KE SHOLAY in 2007..all of them might fail or all of them might work..dont know..but rgv will keep making them!! and that’s what i like about him as a filmmaker..PERIOD!
ricky, RGV is definitely a brilliant director no doubt. The comments were posted before I started covering ‘no smoking’. The comments are honest gueses as an outsider of what might be the reasons of the decline of creative genius like RGV. After meeting Anurag I realised how passionate RGV is about film making. He is someone who would watch Godfather 6am in the morning. Anurag just can not stop talking about his genius. He admits that RGV is the one who picked him up from road and regards him as his mentor. In his own words he said ,”RGV has completed his 20th film and I am on my 4th”. Ricky everybody on PFC loves RGV and knows his greatness as a director and would like to give us more films in the league of Satya. Anurag also pointed out that because of the demi God status he has acheived he surrounded by yesmen, without anybody pointing out the wrongs. RGV is more of a visualizer who goes and shoots rather than putting stuff in black n white. Reading Surya’s comments get to know how passionate this man is still today. He is a master craftsman, who is very clear and works extremely fast. I would like to observe his technique as a student of Cinema, whatever he is making and try to voice out honest opnion as a nobody in this industry, may be share few subjects if given a chance. Anurag himself writes in one of his articles that it is necessary to go to RGV school..I would love to be part of it..I am as impatient as u to watch Nishabd , sholay n so on..
Ricky I had also written in Surya’s post that I am excited to visit the sets of Sholay..
Striker who has written this article is also a big fan of RGV so is everyone on PFC.
- Manjeet, Congratulations!!! Just heard you got a job! Great going dude!
Thanks a lot buddy Oz
manjeet bhai, do tell more if you don’t mind!!
hey manjeet,
as an outsider..or now as a relative newcomer in this field, do you have any comments as ‘honest guesses’ about movies & filmmakers from banners like yashraj films, vidhu vinod chopra production, vishesh films (bhatt bros), dharma(karan johar) production, ashutosh gowarikar production, rakyesh omprakash mehra production & sanjay leela bhansali production..
your honest views and opinions will be highly appreciated by one and all at PFC..
please comment..no offence will be taken by anyone..your comments are ‘honest guesses’!!
anyways, hope you’ll take my comments in the right spirit and understand my POV as well..’am just being ‘honest’ to my views dude!
by the way rgv’s latest shiva was his 22nd as a director..after the release of nishabd, darling and rgv ke sholay this year, mr.ram gopal varma -the director will complete 25 films! silver jubilee!!
some prominent filmmakers who have directed more than 25 films include satyajit ray, bimal roy, v. shantaram, hrishikesh mukherjee, basu chatterjee…
rgv is making films in high speed not to break their records, but because he’s a passionate filmmaker who provides different genre of films for all passionate cinema lovers like us..you may not like some of his movies, but you can never ignore them! period!!
Manjeet: job? u entered in film industry? whats that? curiosity is high Man!:)
ricky, boss as u pointed out earleir, meri aukad nahin hai dost industry ke logon ke bare mein kehne ki..Who ever is there in the industry does have some level of creativity n passion towards the art of cinema..we might be appreciating the intelligent stuff coming out of our industry..but it also takes some skills to even make mediocre or escapist cinema.
By the way what do u do ricky?
RK n Striker: I would be assisting Pavan Kaul in Brahm. There is quite a bit portion left to shoot. The shoot starts on Feb 10th tentatively. Thanks everybody on PFC!
hi manjeet,
looks like i’ve been very aggressive in getting my point across..my apologies, if at all i was being directly rude to you..didn’t mean to..
anyways, congrats on your new job..you’ll soon learn the hardships of filmmaking..my best wishes to you!
Majeet:
Thats wonderful . Bravo. congratsssssss.
Hope this entry paves the way for your long long walking in film industry.:)
Congrats again.
and a big Thanks to Pavan that he selected someone from PFC to assist him. :d
@manjeet congrats on your new job!!!
have fun and keep up updated..
@manjeet … missed out on this since was in delhi ..
Congrats …. was kind of expecting it now …
congrats Manjeet. Hope u will enlighten us with your first hand bollywood experience.
Good job, Keep it up.