About the non-release of “Satya 2,” and an attempt to understand a fine filmmaker’s descent into cultural irrelevance.
That Ram Gopal Varma’s stock has fallen is in little doubt, but it was shocking, this Diwali, to see just how much it had fallen. Satya 2 was supposed to have been released a week before the festival, but something happened and the release was delayed to November 8, by which time, in Chennai, all screens were being hogged by the big Diwali releases in Tamil (and Krrish 3 in Hindi). So Satya 2 wasn’t released in Chennai at all. No one felt that the new film by the director of Company and Rangeela and Sarkar was worth releasing – even on one screen, even though at least one of those Diwali releases was widely regarded a flop and was beginning to be taken off screens. And this Ram Gopal Varma film had a bit of brand value too, harking back to the first Satya, which practically birthed the gangster genre (or at least redefined it, the way we know it today) in Bollywood.
Part of the problem could be that the films Varma makes and the scale in which he makes them don’t exactly incite a trip to the theatre. Lovers of cinema, people who are interested in Varma’s career, and critics – they will always queue up for his films, but this is a very small number. For the average audience member who picks and chooses the films he wants to watch because he cannot afford to see every film, and for the audience member whose only reason for watching movies is entertainment, there isn’t much that Varma’s cinema offers. Most people, these days, have already decided that their theatre trips will be for the big, splashy, meant-for-the-big-screen films, and the other kind of cinema can wait, at best a TV watch or a download. But this only explains why Varma’s films don’t do well in theatres, not why they’re not even given a chance. Why wasn’t Satya 2 released even in just a noon show, when his Not A Love Story – hardly the cheeriest of films – made its way to theatres here?
This isn’t a lament about the non-release (in one city) of one movie, but more of a wondering aloud, an attempt to understand a fine filmmaker’s descent into cultural irrelevance. One reason could be that the genres Varma dabbles in don’t lend themselves to this much exposure. We see love stories all the time, but we don’t bat an eyelid when we see, one Friday, the next love story, with the next set of good-looking stars – but with gangster films or horror movies, a sense of sameness sets in unless the writing and the filmmaking is really extraordinary. Otherwise, we’re left with middling, proficient films that are nothing special, and I think that we, as an audience, are more likely to accept middling, proficient love stories than middling, proficient gangster films or middling, proficient horror films. And the frequency with which Varma makes these films doesn’t help. After a while, it’s hard to tell apart Phoonk from Agyaat, Contract from Department.
Satya 2 is a middling, proficient movie. I didn’t love it. I wasn’t blown away. But I didn’t mind it, and found some parts quite interesting. That’s the thing with Varma for me. With the exception of outright bombs like his Sholay remake, his work, to me, is always interesting at some level – and this quality should not be underestimated. Some people look at the trough-phase of a filmmaker and say things like “this film is nowhere near Satya,” but I look at it slightly differently – for me, it’s somewhat impressive that even the trough-phase films of Varma almost always have something going for them. (Yes, of course you have to be more than just a general audience member who wants his paisa vasool to feel this way about a filmmaker or about films, and of course this segment is a minority, but even minorities have to speak up from time to time.)
I showed an early draft of this article to a friend to see what he thought, and he wrote back: “This is my take on the one possible reason why his movies don’t have many takers. People have a funny, prejudiced way of evaluating movies (that they would want to see). The classic example of this is ‘I don’t watch Kamal movies because he’s a bloody womaniser.’ RGV is a loudmouth with a big ego to match – and a loudmouth with a big ego to match should have the success of Salman Khan… Today, people are openly making fun of him – and that could be a reason why they will think twice before paying to watch his movie. (Another problem with his movies is that half of them have to be severely censored to get on TV, so he doesn’t even have the benefit of cable & satellite viewers, unlike a Barjatya.)”
Given how much sex and violence we see on TV these days, I’m not sure Varma’s films have to be censored all that much – they’re not that out of the ordinary. (A Rowdy Rathore, frankly, is more violent that most of what Varma has put on screen.) Satya 2 has a lot of implied violence, but nothing that’s so shocking that people would think twice before deciding to watch it. It’s essentially a rise-of-a-gangster story told through the Clark Kent/Superman prism – at home and around friends, Satya is an ordinary bloke, who travels by auto-rickshaws, and outside, he’s a ruthless God-figure who decides the destinies of the bigwigs in Mumbai. The story is entertainingly nuts – there’s a Maoist angle, go figure – and Satya is nuts too, deeply affected by a trauma that’s explained towards the end. And all of this is shot in Varma’s customary angles, which I always enjoy watching – like the point-of-view shot of Satya through the eyes of a reclining woman, her knee grazing the bottom of the frame.
Maybe Varma could ditch the voiceovers. At one point, we’re informed that Satya went to Kashmir for his honeymoon, and we cut to a song shot in Kashmir – the voiceover is that redundant. And these songs, as always, are dreadful to watch. Varma has never been interested in treating songs as part of his narratives, and he isn’t about to start now. Maybe he could get rid of songs, and maybe he could get rid of the loud, chorus-driven background scores that cheapen his filmmaking. None of this is going to bring back the audiences he’s lost, but at least those of us who still forward to whatever’s he’s doing next won’t have to work so hard at defending them. And the primary reason I look forward to his films is that no one else seems to be interested in dissecting the psyche of a certain kind of man, whether at work or in love. Yes, love. Films like Nishabd, Naach and Not A Love Story are singular creations, a universe away from the soft and feminine romances we get from Bollywood. These are anti-love stories, necessary correctives to the feel-good fantasies on our screens, and they need to be made – even if not many viewers are going to step into a theatre to feel bad.
Lights, Camera, Conversation… is a weekly dose of cud-chewing over what Satyajit Ray called Our Films Their Films. An edited version of this piece can be found here.
Copyright ©2013 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Srini
December 6, 2013
“but with gangster films or horror movies, a sense of sameness sets in unless the writing and the filmmaking is really extraordinary”
This is the reason his films don’t attract the audience anymore. Sathya was epic, Company and Sarkar were interesting movies, but there were so many gangster movies from his Factory(Risk, D, Contract etc.) , that it is inevitable that there is a sameness to it.
Also , his movies are never meant to be “feel good”. As you observed in another post of yours , may be there is “too much reality for a friday night”. In his case,too grim for a friday outing.
All said, it’s better to make movies similar to Sathya and Not a Love Story , rather than something like Rowdy Rathore. I really wish RGV has more interesting movies left in him.
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ramitbajaj01
December 6, 2013
Sir what happened? This article read very superficial and non-prosaic. You have always delivered us articles which are more than sum of their parts. Perhaps you are tight on your schedule these days.
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venkatesh
December 6, 2013
BR: He is definitely an interesting and watchable filmmaker , even now , though I think at some point the filmmaker got lost in his own myth. Its what i call the “Shyama lama ding dong” disease.
Added to the fact that he doesn’t make “purely” crowd-friendly movies is this incessant need to impose himself on the discussion around the film via external means. Filmmaking is 2% filmmaking and 98% hustling (Orson Welles) and RGV imposes himself on that 98% . He tends to market himself as being a “gangster” with outrageous statements, weird photo-shoots, etc. this actually overshadows the film and after a sufficient amount of that baloney – the public turns off. Sad but true.
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Anuja
December 6, 2013
I feel the same way about his films, they are always interesting. Hell, I have been a fan ever since I watched Idayamae Idayamae (a dubbed version at that). Satya, Sarkar and even a flick like Mast with Aftab range from frickin awesome to pleasantly engaging. If there was one thing truly annoying about him, it was a tendency to cast heroines with great bodies and a propensity to show it off and little else.
I thought Raktha Charitra (part one) marked a superb return to form but clearly it did little to halt the downward spiral his career seems to be in. Which is a great pity!
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Santosh Kumar T K
December 6, 2013
BR, if one has to truly understand the descent, one needs to have looked at his amazing work from ’89 – ’94 in Telugu.
What he did when he there was no commercial incentive to do it, how he did it, who were the players around him and what had they been doing for close to two decades then. Read NTR Sr., Chiranjeevi, B Gopal, family melodramas (good, decent), foreign locales, K Raghavendra Rao, well choreographed break dances on stages, well choreographed dances in Kaashmeer, template-based yet amazingly popular and commercially successful Ilaiyaraaja, Raj Koti, Sundaram Master.
The amount of calm, restraint, grip he displayed in proper commercial Telugu cinema has had no match. People, particularly his followers/fans/assistant directors, who seemed to be so smitten with his “taking,” “technique,” “fancy camera angles” and seemed to ape him and his “radical thought,” never apparently got what of his work made him famous. He was another shade of, a cruder, and a far less aesthetic version of say a Mani Ratnam. Amidst all this different approach of his he never shied away from-at least forced not to shy away from- stuff that made popular cinema popular in the first place. Fights, stars wherever necessary, dances, music etc. The Akkineni Nageswara Raos, Yarlagadda Surendras, and Akkineni Nagarjunas must have ensured this. With limited budgets, costs, quick deliveries, he made economic sense. He wouldn’t have survived this long otherwise. Shiva was a hotpotch but so well done; Ilaiyaraaja’s fantastic BGM alternated with RGV’s preference for silence / atmospherics-based sound design. Edits were fluid and not from line to line, performance to performance. Characters breathed. They spoke good, conversational yet cinematic Telugu. The Telangana dialect never seemed so musical, and real. He treated light dramas with just the right heavy’ness and the heavy dramas with such light strokes.
He successfully carried this to another masterpiece Gaayam (1993) the fine precursor of sophisticated yet raw Companys and Amin’s Ab Tak Chhappans. No filmmaker, I mean no filmmaker loved Hyderabad and showed it on screen despite Hyderabad’s lack of drama, romance the way Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and Delhi did/do. The other directors hailing from agrarian families of East/West Godavaris had a crooked, unrealistic portrayal of Hyderabad and Hyderabad in their movies was restricted to some pathetic sets in Sarathis, Padmalayas, Annapurnas. Varma’s Hyderabad was on the main roads of Panjagutta, S R Nagar, Old City Mozamjahi Market, Secunderabad, abandoned cinemas, railroads, supermarkets, Greenlands, Begumpet etc. People were thrilled yet couldn’t finger on what/how/why!
Shiva (’89), Kshana Kshanam (’91) (fantastic, performance-based yet situational comedy), Gaayam (’93), Govinda Govinda (’94) (parts of it) didn’t need music, dances, but he was smart enough to allow their inclusion. For all the apparent lack of care in his music, he worked with master lyricists like as Seetarama Sastry, and Veturi, and would explain his taste for Vishal Bhardwaj/Gulzar later. 🙂
(Despite being so rooted, he seemed to belong nowhere. Does that explain the absence of a distinct southern touch (in a bad way) in the music, lines, treatment, language in Bollywood that the Priyadarsans, the Shashilal Nairs, the Raghavendra Raos, the Dasari Narayana Raos and several others suffered from?!)
For all his open objectification of women in real life, his reel women were treated with dignity, and sophistication with no hints of chauvinism. He never indulged in on screen vulgarity, obscenity, double entendres (Telugus will know how essential these were for a movie’s success in the early ’90s).
Oh, I digress. He was doing this in a brutal, openly success and money-hungry Telugu land. He was doing this when others were unapologetically doing what they did for years. Their BO numbers were laughing at his. At least Bollywood which spoke a different language lend herself to Varma’s subtlety in storytelling, rare nuances into characters’ psyche often lodged within the the BGM, and Steadycam histrionics. Tollywood and Telugus were/are very very unforgiving of failures. He wasn’t budging yet. He made friends, he made enemies, and he made fans. So for all the open mockery he faced, somewhere Varma ensured respect for himself in some corner from those who mocked him. Mockery was only for the standards he had set for himself. This was/is different from the insults other unsuccessful directors face in the Telugu land.
When people were lauding him for what he did, he was taking no credit, often discrediting himself to the point of self-ridicule. He was jumping off the pedestals people were placing him on and which they reserved for male stars that appeared on screen.People didn’t know what to make of him. They were not used to layered, complexed, complicated personalities. His frequent BO failures added to the misery. He became an object to poke. This judgment carried over into his work. He was becoming a mega contradiction. Do you hate him? Do you love him? Telugus not taking Varma seriously almost translated into Telugus not taking Varma’s movies seriously. End of story.
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Krish
December 6, 2013
I doubt RGV cares as much about his films non performance or non screening as much as you care about it. That ‘I Dont care’ attitude of RGV is the cause of his downfall as it has crept into his cinema.
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brangan
December 6, 2013
Srini: Even the films like “Risk” and “D” and “Contract” I found quite worthwhile.
Here are some older reviews – Risk, D, Contract, Rann.
I didn’t like Department though.
And here’s an interview with the man.
ramitbajaj01: I don’t know man. Maybe this is just one of those times… 🙂
Anuja: Actually, I’ve never gotten around to seeing RC. Must do that ASAP. What is “Idayamae Idayamae,” BTW? The “Kshanam Kshanam” dub in Tamil?
Santosh Kumar T K: What an excellent and informative comment. Thanks. This is the problem with watching subtitled films — you can never “enter” them beyond a point, the way you can when you approach those films from within the culture/language. Of course, this doesn’t matter as much to a more “generic film” like – say – “Sagara Sangamam,” which is more about the story, etc. But the films about atmospherics etc. are almost always diminished in the eyes of the the outside viewer.
Krish: I doubt RGV cares as much about his films non performance or non screening as much as you care about it.
LOL. I’m sure he doesn’t. Actually I’m pretty sure not many readers do either. RGV is another filmmaker in whose case I find myself in a minority.
Venkatesh: Speaking of outrageous statements, did you see the quote here about what he really thinks of women? 🙂
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Shankar
December 6, 2013
Santhosh Kumar made some terrific points which are very relevant. All the points you have said and others have made are also correct. In a way, it’s sad where RGV is now. It’s also a miracle that his films are getting funded! A close parallel to RGV, though not in terms of volume, might be Shyamalan. Both still make interesting (at least partly) movies, but their loyalists are shrinking and the box office returns even more. And apart from their films, both have tried out stunts (one gangster related while the other harping on supernatural) that have failed miserably…Both seem to live in a vacuum, oblivious of what the audience and their followers feel!!
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Rahul Tyagi
December 6, 2013
I think it is a little presumptive of you to think that “Lovers of cinema… will always queue up for his films”, as if anyone who doesn’t like his films enough to consider it worth the investment of time watching a film requires can definitely not be a Lover of cinema. For someone who earns his/her living in jobs unrelated to movies, there is always an opportunity cost to watching a movie. if the alternatives are The Past, An Autumn Afternoon, 12 years a slave or even a Raanjhana and you only have time to see 2-3 movies, I don’t think not selecting Satya 2 says much about your love of cinema.
To me, the single biggest reason why I don’t feel like spending my time watching most of RGV movies nowadays is the movie-cheapening loud chorus that is his excuse for background score. It might even work on DVD, with the remote of your speakers in your hand (though I haven’t tried this), but in a theater there is no way you can take in anything else with the loud/screaching “Govinda Govinda Govinda Govindaaaaa” torturing your eardrums.
I love cinema. but I love my eardrums more, thank you very much.
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Kiruba
December 7, 2013
“Why wasn’t Satya 2 released even in just a noon show”
Well, Satya 2 was made simultaneously in Telugu starring Sharwanand. This version got dubbed in Tamil as ‘Naanthaanda'(?!). RGV even came down to Chennai for the music(?!) release of Naanthaanda, (which btw, is supposed to have happened on, guess,… a boat). It was this Tamil version which was supposed to release in TN, given Sharwanand enjoys some popularity here, courtesy EE, so the Hindi version could not release. Satya 2 released in Telugu on November 8 and needless to say, was a washout, (although much better than the Hindi version due to the hero). ‘Naanthaanda’ was supposed to release a week or two later (no Tamil dub has released on the same day as the Telugu original so far), but after what happened, I think no one is willing to touch it.
Here it is, the trailer of ‘Naanthaanda’. Enjoy!
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Kiruba
December 7, 2013
BR: ‘Idhayame Idhayame’ was ‘Gulabhi’, played by JD Chakravarthi & Maheswari. It was directed by Krishna Vamsi though (RGV produced it). It had some lovely songs. Don’t know how you missed it. it was a moderate success even in Tamil.
‘Kshana Kshanam’ was ‘Ennamo Nadakkuthu’, I love that film.
And talking of RGV’s Telugu films, you cannot miss ‘Ananganaga Oka Roju’, either, although it is not half as good as ‘Kshana Kshanam’.
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Rahul Tyagi
December 7, 2013
“presumptuous”, not “presumptive”… 😛
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venkatesh
December 7, 2013
Santosh Kumar T K : “He was another shade of, a cruder, and a far less aesthetic version of say a Mani Ratnam.”
spot on.
Shankar : “A close parallel to RGV, though not in terms of volume, might be Shyamalan. Both still make interesting (at least partly) movies, but their loyalists are shrinking and the box office returns even more. “
– hence the shyama-lama-ding-dong disease , it comes exactly from there.
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brangan
December 7, 2013
Rahul Tyagi: Oh no, I didn’t mean it that way. What I meant to say was those who like cinema enough to overlook the recent slump of a filmmaker and say “Okay, it’s this guy’s film. Let’s check it out, even though it may not be all that good.” People who don’t go to the theatre for just time-pass or entertainment but also to make sure they don’t miss the latest film of a big-name filmmaker. Those people do exist. Even if I weren’t a critic (and therefore watching all films), I’d be one of them 🙂
Kiruba: I wasn’t Madras-based for a long time, hence missed out on a lot of those dubbed films. But “Naanthaanda” is a terrible title 🙂
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Raj Balakrishnan
December 7, 2013
Excellent article, at a time when no one in the media seem to care about varma anymore. The guy descended into mediocrity after Sarkar. One problem being his propensity to come out with a movie every week. Also his best movies were made with good scriptwriters like kashyap and sahni who left him.
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Shankar
December 7, 2013
Baddy, how about this title for another Telugu dub – Evana Irundha Ennakkena?! Funnily, the director of this debut film went on to direct several big name films in Tamil! 🙂
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MANK
December 7, 2013
@BR
I think you did not address the chief problem with RGV , which was his falling out with many of his collaborators.He is a technically and aesthetically proficient man , but what really gave soul and substance to his great movies, like rangeela, satya, etc were the team of great actors and writers and astd directors he had with him. Aamir Khan, Manoj bajpai, Ajay devgn. Anurag Kashyap, Saurabh shukla, Jaideep sahni, Shimit amin, i can go on , He didn’t preserve his relationships and had rather bitter and public fall outs with all of them . Which i guess was the result of his egotism and eccentricities as many people have spoken out here.It was the collaboration with these people that helped him to crack the hindi film market inspite of being from the south.Much of his downfall in recent times has been the result of that.
Santosh Kumar T K: Agree with you totally. Cannot believe that he was making Siva and Gaayam or even a Kshanam Kshanam when Gharana mogudu and Gangleader were the industry hits.They also helped improve the technical standards of telugu films at the time when telugu film looked like tv serials interspersed with break dance routines.
@Venkatesh:shyama-lama-ding-dong disease.
LOL man did you invent it or did you rip it off from somewhere else.Guess explains the RGV’s situation perfectly. One thing Shyamalan almost seems reconciled to his fate and has even started accepting hack jobs for big stars like After Earth, But RGV still remains untameable.
@BR
PS: Have you seen the the film Businessman starring mahesh babu directed by Puri Jagan who was an asstd of RGV. The beginning and the basic idea of satya2 actually resembles this film . The difference is that the former is an unabashed star vehicle while the latter has been tweaked in by RGV’S eccentricities.
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Abhirup.
December 7, 2013
Mr. Rangan, have you reviewed ‘Ab Tak Chhappan’? That’s another of the films from RGV’s production house that I like a lot.
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vikram
December 7, 2013
BR, its quite a sad state of affairs (embarrassing even) to see his low quality, indifferent output…he is almost becoming like Dev Anand who’d churn out movie after movie with no success……
I have loved RGV’s earlier output- Shiva, Anaganaga oka rozu, kshana kshanam, deyyam, raat, gaayam, rangeela, daud, mast, sarkar, sarkar raj, satya, company, bhoot, kaun, naach, drohi, road…wonder what happened later, ie., aag, james, contract, satya2….
In many ways, he exemplifies the adjustment problems that besiege hit directors of one era in the later part of their career (eg.,Manmohan Desai- AAA to Anmol, Prakash Mehra- Zanjeer to Bal Brahmachari, Ramesh Sippy- Sholay to Bhrashtachar), to some extent, Rajkumar Santoshi comes out relatively better off (Ghayal to Ajab Ghazab/ Phata poster)
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vikram
December 7, 2013
Sorry, ”Anmol” was directed by Ketan Desai
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anuradha
December 7, 2013
In a way, this decline is refreshing..it sort of thumbs its nose at the 100 crore clubs and the demand that every film churned has to be a “success”.When you look at a whole life journey of any artist and view their work from a long range perspective, the failings are as interesting..a signpost to how creativity unfolds.
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Anuja
December 7, 2013
My bad BR, I was referring to Gulabi starrring JD Chakravarty and Maheshwari (it was remade in Hindi with KArisma, Bobby Deol and Rahul Dev). Apparently RGV only produced it and the film was actually directed by Krishna Vamsi.For obvious reasons, I am feeling stupid as hell right now, but good ol Wikipedia makes me feel slightly better by pointing out that Gulabi had so much of the auteur’s distinctive touches that many felt that RGV had ghost directed it.
Anyways you should totally watch RC, here is my fanboy review where I gush endlessly about its awesomeness http://www.anujamouli.blogspot.in/2010/12/rakta-charitra-i-bloody-brilliant.html
and this is my disappointed fanboy review of the sequel where Surya does an Urmila/Nisha Kothari/insert yet another bimbette RGV discovery here/ http://www.anujamouli.blogspot.in/2010/12/ratha-sarithram-rakta-charitra-ii.html
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venkatesh
December 7, 2013
@BR: You should read RGV;s blog. , (defunct now i think). Some anecdotes were good but he would go into these pseudo -Randian diatribes., childish, terrible and just plain stupid.
@MANK : Quentin referred to M. Shyamalan as Shyama-lama-ding-dong in an interview – that name is a meme of its own.
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venkatesh
December 7, 2013
@Anuja – RC was a fantastic movie but didn’t run and everyone effectively turned it off just by saying its a RGV movie – i read your review and yes i thought that would bring him roaring back – but nope. Like someone else said , he is the Dev Anand of this generation.
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Santosh Kumar T K
December 7, 2013
BR,
(unsolicited) please, please learn Telugu (/unsolicited)
It’s a beautiful, beautiful language; written, spoken and read. The language – with the culture– somehow seems to lodge in it all the wisdom of the world; ageless, limitless. There’s an answer for anything, and everything. Anything new (linguistic, cultural, metaphysical, philosophical and what not) you encounter in life, Telugu seems to stick her tongue out “aah, we knew it, did it ages ago!” All she lacks is mighty proponents who will endlessly advocate her beauty to other cultures and languages. The proponents should only know to balance the “heavy” with the “light” of Telugu, marry “pedantic” with “middle of the road.”
Oh, she also lacks good movie critics. Thanks!
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MANK
December 8, 2013
Another one of RGV films i liked but was universally derided was Nishabd. It was no masterpiece but still i think it was interesting.. It had just 4 characters an one location and the way RGV handled the taboo subject was with great maturity and restraint. It was a wonderful performance by amitabh bachchan. It was so subtle and poetic. To see him traverse a gamut of emotions from self pity,love guilt etc was wonderful to watch.
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Punit
December 9, 2013
The man is to blame, creatively bold, visually genius but trapped by the desire for BO success after the failure of Nishabd and Naach hence repeating genres like the Bhatts..I know for fact from ppl who worked with him that he will be absent from schedules of shooting for days and ADs will shoot large portions.. explains the jarring editing, tiny bits of brilliance and the stupid BGM as a tool.. after Rangeela and Daud(wonderful IMO) he just sucked all the humor out of his movies, every scene has to be intense, with vacuous dialogue and mumbo jumbo,style without script & substance .. I dont know about the personality overpowering the work but he still could have been somebody like Tony Scott, not revered like Ridley but always indulged by fans. Someone who could find the balance always .Some fans are still trying to indulge him but I guess the man has lost it.. Also BR the release delays have a lot to do with the producers getting involved in legal proceedings and criminal cases of swindling money.. all there on the net
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sangha
December 10, 2013
I was watching Raat the other day,and I was surprised at how skilled RGV was at recreating the dynamic of middle class life.The movie used elements from ‘The Exorcist’ and so on,but it’s not a ripoff at all,the way it would have been in the hands of a less skilled man.His portmanteau horror films are in the same vein as Hammer in the 70s and I enjoyed them,no other Indian filmmaker has contributed so much to horror.
I don’t understand why people criticize him for the female characters in his films.They (used to be) quite real and believable. I mean, Yash Chopra wouldn’t showcase a woman’s sexiness like Varma did in Rangeela,but Urmila’s character is far more realistic than the idealised women in the Yashraj universe. Ramu’s women usually have individual ambitions and viewpoints.The main concern (for Yashraj) is still not much beyond marriage.
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MANK
December 10, 2013
@sangha
Spot on about yash chopra women.And not just about marriage. even after marriage the only ambition is somehow stay married. Remember jaya bachchan in silsila.I would like to read her autobiography just to know how she was arm twisted in taking up this role and that too with rekha. JB running after her unfaithful , abandoning Big B screaming ‘main phir se vidva nahin banna chahti’ in the climax. Help! and this was supposed to be the boldest,path breaking , controversial movie of its time. Pray what Bette Davis would have said to that: WHAT A DUMP(B)!..
@Punit:Legal proceedings and criminal cases of swindling money.. all there on the net
Could you help me with some links to these stories bro.Would be much appreciated
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sangha
December 11, 2013
@MANK the only ambition is to stay married….true! Chopra is supposed to really respect women in his films but frankly they aren’t quite human. I wonder if JB took on the film to scotch the rumours,to show how confident she was about Amitabh?I wonder.
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Raghav
December 11, 2013
he is one guy who is fascinated by the Shiva-Shakti mythology..from his first movie Shiva to Sarkar-where Abhishek’s face segues into the Nandi during the climax-he never fails to intrigue
also what interested me was how he names his characters after the ‘Shakti’ avatar..Raghuvaran is “Bhavani” in Shiva,Jagapathi Babu is “Durga” in Gaayam,Urmila is “Bhavani” in Daud and Sanju is jokingly referred to as “Uma Shankar”..so much for his open objectification of women..
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Punit
December 11, 2013
@MANK do not know the exact reasons for the delay of tamil version which might release later this month but here are some reports on one of the producers allegedly using money owed to NSEL to partially fund the movie.. http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/crime/Cops-arrest-Satya-2-co-producer-in-NSEL-scam/articleshow/25608854.cms
Also http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ram-gopal-varma-postpones-satya-2-release/1186159/
If the budget of Satya 2 was as high as mentioned in reports, it was a dud on arrival anyway..It didnt make more than 2 cr which just shows even the hardcore fans have given up..
Always wondered how does he keep on arranging finance after disasters like AAG, Department, Bhoot returns etc..
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Srini
December 12, 2013
The tamil version is indeed releasing soon “Naanthanda”. Sounds like a a Dr Rajasekar movie 🙂 ( wasn’t he the guy introduced names like “Ithudhanda Police”?)
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MANK
December 12, 2013
@Punit
Thanks a lot for those links Bro . this is a terrible turn of events for RGV that he has to depend on scamsters to fund his movie. i have been mulling the same questions about his financing as you were and for a long time. Because apart from rangeela he never ever had a blockbuster. He has been continuing to make films on the goodwill based on the good films that he was making(they are low budget as well) and even that has disappeared. Also he had the benevolence of stars like the Bachchans. AB’s comment on satya2 is proof of that. But apart from him he seems to have burnt his bridges with everyone else. This is really sad because this guy definitely knows his craft in the industry full of hacks. I will be very surprised if he ever make a movie again (atleast not in the near future)
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Upnworld.com
December 15, 2013
Regarding the “loud, chorus-driven background scores”, why don’t you meet up with him and ask him why precisely he feels the constant need for this kind of music? I’d been wanting to read this kind of article on RGV for quite some time now. Thank you
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