Will the real RGV please stand up ?

By: Deepak Vekateshan
PFC

I am posting this a little late in the day but just saw RGV KI Aag and I am so depressed that I can hardly think, breathe or even fathom what the hell happened. I have as of today witnessed the worst train crash in my life and its called RGV ki AAg.

Before some of the more “Intelligent” readers of PFC jump at me and tell me that this is a review I am writing to impress the “Exclusive” writers, let me clear out the air and tell all, that my passion for films increased tenfold when I started to see RGV’s early works. I still remember being in the 9th Standard when I saw Shiva and it left me awestruck. I was in my graduation when I saw “Rangeela” and was amazed at the biting wit and direction sense. I was a young employee when I saw “Satya” and it blew me away that a story could be crafted so well.

To a large extent, the whole idea of trying to be a filmmaker for me stemmed from the fact that he (My Guru then & now) had entered the mad bad world of movies with no fantastic degree from either here or the universities abroad. He loved movies and told a tale just because he wanted to. This made sense to me at many levels and I grew up a die-hard fan of Ramu. When Girls like my Sister & Friends all cribbed that he was a misogynist and used women as sex props, I still fought for RGV and told them all off. This was a new wave in the whole aspect of movie-making & it would be too difficult for amateurs or untrained eyes to understand what a new moviemaker was trying to do.

With the launch of the Factory, me and my buddies all had a new place to keep talking about. The small stories we heard of new directors getting launched, script writers being hired became legends for us and a probable path to dream. All our dream around that time centered on renting our near factory and then doing our daily visits to the Factory till we were heard by the Master.

When he started to make movies like Daud and Naach, I got a little worried but like a true blue fan, kept on at my hobby of watching all his movies. I kept consoling myself that even if the stories were becoming weak, the technical aspect was getting better but the stories that were so vividly exchanged a few years earlier about getting breaks for new guys was sounding hollow with the same guys also doing movies in the factory however pathetic their stories were.

At the same time, the guys who made factory a really cool place were all exiting due to various reasons. Anurag, Sreeram, Shimit all seemed to be doing different stuff. This was sad and also sort of joyous for guys like me. We felt there were empty places to fill in the Factory and our urge to write, tell more of our stories became stronger but over the past 2-3 years, we have somehow lost our Woodstock, our Bert Schneider, our age of cinema.

The guys who were on the fringes of this passionate field since they did not have fancy last names all lost their messiah in many ways and I feel a deep sense of loss when I got out after seeing “Aag”.

Hence the title of this post. I STILL DO NOT FEEL RGV HAS LOST HIS TOUCH BUT SEEMS TO HAVE LOST HIS WAY DEFINITELY.

Ramu or Ramu Ji or Mr. Ram Gopal Verma or RGV or BOSS or Ramu Gaaru

This is an ardent message from a fan and also an aspiring filmmaker who only got the courage to follow a passion after seeing you so quickly break the glass ceiling for all of us.

Please please wake up and get back to your original self. I know you have many more good movies in you either as a director or producer. We really cannot be beaten up by the flotsam and jetsam since we call ourselves your fans as we too are getting weaker after seeing your current movies.

There is a large world out there with many hungry folks with some amazing content. Please do open your doors to them and you will not be left short-charged. You have always commented on how you are not like those large production houses which only have a chacha-mama setup and only a few get entry. Sadly this has become true of the Factory. We know since we watched “Darwaza Band Rakho” & “Mr. Ya Miss”

We are tired of seeing movies which are technically good but with no soul. We are tired (Really Tired) of Nisha Kothari and her anatomy at the most weirdest angles. I are sick of seeing only fake/replica gangster movies coming out of your stable. I am fed up to the teeth with movies being about look and camera angles. There is a story also that needs to be more tightened & needs to have a SOUL.

Please do take this as a comment from a guy who has paid his due to pass this as he has watched all your movies in a Theater and due to an accident only watched “Aag” so late in the day. You cannot break our hopes and dreams and make us feel that a GUY WITH ABSOLUTELY NO FILM FRATERNITY CONTACTS, NO FORMAL EDUCATION IN THE FIELD BUT PASSIONATE ABOUT MOVIES cannot make it in the Industry as I still believe in that.

I remain even in this harangue a true fan of yours and hope to see you come out of whatever issues you have and simply make movies that will make me clap, shout, talk about, buy DVD’s and keep dreaming on about how a man out of nowhere came to the bad city of mumbai and broke barriers within the fraternity to tell his tale.

Cheers, Deepak

PS: Apologies for the long post but felt this needed to be said