Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag
Uh…… I couldn’t resist, but what do I say?
I mean, come on, we’re speaking of a remake of Sholay with the old hero now the villain? Never mind that. But hey, Sholay has a rustic charm. How does that fit in with a cell phone addict modern world? Not too well - I guess.
It was one thing to remake Don, where the portrayal of the underworld and glitz could to a great extent be enhanced by modern film techniques, even then the hardcore fans come out vaguely dissatisfied. But when it comes to one of the greatest films to hit Hindi industry, I think there is a huge challenge here that is unlikely to be met.
If you’ve seen Sholay, its not only about the story, memorable characters and action. Its the ambiance. Take away the ambiance, and I don’t see how the film can remain the same. Gabbar is a dacoit the sight of him walking in his hideout taking his men to task is one of the defining moments of the film. Its not only his personality and power, but also an impression of tough men roughing it out in the wilds and claiming their territory.
It may be modern to have gangsters in the city, but its certainly not Sholay - Sholay is NOT a city film. Perhaps Ramu should simply have called the script inspired from Sholay and left it at that. I doubt if many would find enough to label it a copy even then.
If this film survives the box office for the number of hours that Sholay reigned in days….
I don’t see it satisfying anyone.
To put things in a nutshell is the quote of an SMS from an outraged critic, that made Ram Gopal Verma himself admit the facts pointed out and publicly regret creating this film:
“Hi Sir. To call Aag a piece of junk would be demeaning junk. What happened to the colours of Rangeela and the grit of Satya? No clear story, meaningless script, obsession with dark lighting, weak screenplay, and songs that are too high-pitched and outdated. You were in a hurry while shooting. Fast editing, nonsensical expressions, no romance, horrifying background music and choreography, cinematography is horrid, bad clothes, bad hoardings, bad amateurish dialogues, bad characterizations with no emotional graph for the characters,leaving the actors free to ham,outdated action, emotionless scenes, no comedy, no colour. You should sit and watch your film alone. No freshness, carelessness in creativity.You’ve become over-confident and you are losing touch with reality. You’re handing over creative work to the wrong people. You’re impulsively doing ten films at a time and not focusing on one project. You’ve enjoyed the shooting without caring about what the outcome would be. You’re busy giving stupid interviews. What have you done in the past seven years except a couple of notable films?”
I appreciate Ramu’s honesty though when he said “The above message shook me completely. It made me realize it’s time for me to do some serious re-thinking about my career.”
