Glorious Past
Sure, Ram Gopal Verma has successfully created his own brand of films. His originality in creativity is really astounding. He gave a fresh realism to Hindi cinema which was at that point of time functioning as a mere dream factory that made fairly larger than life and totally unrealistic movies. ‘Satya’, ‘Rangeela’ and ‘Company’ are almost classics. This is exactly what I had been thinking before actually watching most of his recent films.
Sad Reality
Slowly, I have realized that RGV factory films (as he calls them) are instantly recognizable. Of late, RGV has fallen trap to his own brand of film making and his creativity has got struck up. Most of RGV’s factory films (including films which were not directed by him, but produced by his company) are flops.
Unlike most critics who blame it on the poor taste of the audience, I believe the truth lies on the other side. I believe there is a reason why people reject some movies and accept some. It is really true that an honest effort hardly goes unnoticed. However, a film that goes on in its own pace completely forgetting the audience point of view is sure to be a flop, however praised by greatest of the movie experts.
Unbearably boring movies like ‘Naach’ have been rightly rejected by the audience. The film ‘Booth’ had some good scenes interspersed in a predictable movie. I would have yawned a dozen times, before Urmila becomes possessed, or starts having those scary visions. It was an average hit, and it deserved no better.
Repeating patterns
Something about a RGV film that once considered fresh and refreshing has become stale and disgusting. Skin show is a sure thing in RGV movies apart from his obsession with the under world, or some kind of ugly looking, dirty character, completely lacking any sort of moral values. A dark world devoid of goodness and filled with grim people is being presented as realism in most of his movies.
The actor’s in his films do not act in their natural style of acting. They either speak with these irritatingly long pauses, trying to bring in some kind of westernized sophistication, (like Nana Patekar in ‘Bhoot’), which is not at all the Indian way of expressing, or they speak with the dirty Mumbai slang, which is again, not the normal Indian way of expressing.
More over there are several signs of self adulation present in every aspect of his films, that doesn’t actually create any impact in the viewers mind rather than feeding on to the maker’s already fat ego.
Something was missing in ‘Mast’, ’Road’, ‘Love ke liye kuch bhi karega’. And the movies made by his production company like ‘Kaun’, ‘Vastu Sastra’, ‘Darna Mana Hai’ (which was such a torture to watch) have the trade mark RGV characteristics that it is more than obvious that he had ghost directed them.
Change is the key
I do believe that most directors have their own signature like style, but unless they make an effort to do something new, the downfall is not far. If Karan Johar doesn’t try something different from his usual fairly tale-like style of movie making, his next movie will be a flop.
This applies to the greatest of director’s too. For example Mani Ratnam made one ‘Nayakan’ about the underworld and then moved to other subjects like terrorism in ‘Roja’ and romance in ‘Alaipayuthey’.
But RGV seems to be re-making his own movies. ‘Shiva’, ‘Satya’, ‘Company’ and now ‘D’ are all on the same topic namely The Mumbai underworld. ‘Pei’, ‘Bhoot’, ‘Vastu Sastra’, ‘Darna Mana Hai’ are all ghost stories. Even ‘Rangeela’ and ‘Naach’ are similar. And sincerity in the treatment is also lacking in his recent movies
My conclusion
RGV definitely has the potential, but of late he seems to have taken the audience for granted. Hope he realizes this and attempts at making the really good movies that he is capable of making.