Sep 01, 2007 08:31 AM
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Remaking a classic is a very risky affair. One has all to lose and very little to gain. So what exactly is that itch which tempts filmmakers to tread the remake path every now and again? To put it simply, a well made remake has something to offer for everyone.
For the audience, it’s about experiencing that feeling of elation yet once again which they got from the old masterpiece. Who wouldn’t want to relive the happy moments if they get a chance? Ask any 40-year-old married man, if he’d like to turn 25 again and go back to his honeymoon. I’m sure he’d be ready to pay any amount of price for it. So the remake funda works on this temptation which we all have inside us of having a rewind button in our lives, to correct our mistakes and go back to the happy days.
For an experienced filmmaker remaking is a challenge that he’d be willing to undertake. It’s the next step towards his growth. After making successful films with original scripts and ideas, now he’d like to push his limits further by picking up an old time classic and trying to recreate the magic. It’s like competing with an old time great and trying to better his work of art. If he succeeds, well & good; if he doesn’t, at least he gets to know where he stands and how much he still needs to progress.
For the producer, it’s a golden opportunity to cash on the popularity of an already hit film and earn some easy bucks along the way. Almost all remakes guarantee a good opening irrespective of their quality, simply because of the respected source they are picked up from.
But then again, no matter how rosy the prospects of making a remake may seem, the path and the result are more often that not quite thorny. Remaking is tough. Remaking a classic is tougher. Remaking a performance-oriented classic(like Sholay) is the toughest. Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag is an attempt to remake Sholay, the cult classic of 1975. So does the film manage to redeem itself? The answer is a disappointing No. RGV finds himself on the wrong side of barrel this time around.
Remaking is not merely an exercise of overcoming the directorial inferiority complex but also a process of paying respect to the earlier classic. The very fact that a film is considered worth re-making is accolades enough for it and here lays the responsibility of the contemporary filmmaker to make sure he doesn’t end up degrading the film in the name of creative experiment. It’s a very thin line and the balance must be maintained. Sadly, RGV has toppled the rope in this case and ended up insulting the great film, unintentional though it maybe. RGV Ki Aag is loud with a capital L, it’s artificial, phony and way way over the top.
Let’s start with the acting. He signed up some very good actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Sushmita Sen, Mohan Lal, Rajpal Yadav, Sushant Singh etc, yet the acting standards were atrocious. No matter how good the actors maybe or how hard they may try but eventually there is no way that over-acting can be avoided with flaws like weak script, caricature characters, bad casting and wretched dialogues.
Dialogues of Sholay were legendary. People still remember them and use them in their day to day life. But what do we get in RGV Ki Aag? Here’s a sample –
“Kaliganj ke sabhi police walon ki biwiyan, apne pati kee lambi umar ke liye, karvachauth ka nahi, babban ka vrat rakhti hain”
I mean, give me a break! Was RGV trying to *spoof *Sholay or remake it? When you remake a film you do not mock it. That way you not only end up insulting the classic, but also yourself and audience’s intelligence too. If the spoof was intentional, then I don’t know why he is insulting the film he is remaking, it’s totally against the spirit of the task he has undertaken and if it was unintentional then I really didn’t expect such slipshod filmmaking from a seasoned campaigner like him. A spoof is another way of appreciation and I’m not against it, but a spoof inside a remake is unpardonable.
The casting was really haywire. What is Mohanlal doing as Thakur? That South Indian accent of his doesn’t help the cause by providing unwanted and unneeded comic relief in supposedly so serious scenes. What is Ajay Devgan doing as Heero(Veeru)? Dharmendra’s character was that of a jovial, naughty and happy-go-lucky person. Does that suit Ajay’s personality? Why to blame Ajay for his bad and synthetic acting? He tried his best, but if he doesn’t suit the character it’s not his fault. It would have been much better had he been chosen for the role of quite, serious and somber Raj(Jai).
Amitabh’s role in Sholay was one of the best supporting roles ever written. If one is so serious about remaking Sholay why give it to an altogether new person? Why give it to a debutant? Why give it to Prashant Raj? Who is he? And even if he gave it to a newcomer, he could have chosen a better candidate. Just because that guy is tall & lanky, and can wear those tight blue clothes of Jai is simply not reason enough. People cried when Amitabh died in Sholay, but when this bloke died in RGV Ki Aag people actually heaved a sigh of relief that finally this long boring film is coming to a much awaited end.
Sushmita is strictly Sushmita. She doesn’t look the character she is playing. When one watches Sholay one doesn’t watch Jaya Bachchan but the widowed daughter-in-law of Thakur. No matter how good an actress Sushmita maybe, one doesn’t sympathize with her, not for a moment one accepts her as widow Durga. She is the same Sushmita Sen, speaking with the same urban accent that we know of. What’s the logic of choosing a lady with such a strong and confident personality for this role?
Amitabh was undoubtedly the best of the lot, but fails to make an impact simply because Babban Singh is no where close to Gabbar Singh. The terror that Gabbar Singh creates, his aura, his personality, his dialogues, his style; it’s unparallel. Babban Singh doesn’t come across even as Gabbar’s shadow. Amitabh’s devilish laugh which was supposed to invoke terror in the audience, instead makes him look like a tuberculosis patient.
The only breath of fresh air was Nisha Kothari. She looked glamorous and was brilliant at imitating Basanti. The hard work she must have put in to try and reproduce Hema Malini’s accent & antiques is clearly visible. But again Ghungroo is no way as well sketched a character like Basanti was, neither are her dialogues half as witty as those of hers.
Sholay’s music was melodious with memorable songs like Yeh Dosti, Mehbooba, Holi Ke Din etc. But its modern day counterpart doesn’t have even a single track which you can take out with you while coming back from the theatre. However, there is one “bedroom” number between Nisha and Ajay, which really makes you question your intelligence of watching the flick.
I know it’s wrong to compare two films, but when one makes a remake it’s like signing an unofficial pact that one is open to comparisons. Even if we give Ramu some respite and see RGV Ki Aag as a separate entity without thinking Sholay, it fails miserably even then. It comes across as a shallow B-Grade Gangster film, something of the sort that a rookie would make and not someone like Ram Gopal Verma.
