15th August 1975.The Indian film industry witnessed release of a film titled ' Sholay' that set such parameters of success that it took more than twenty years before a film like 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' could boast of in terms of box office success. 31st August 2007. The industry waited for the release of one more film that started as remake of 'Sholay' and ended as 'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag'. The film had huge expectations from the very first day of its shoot. Many hindrances and much turbulence came in its way during the making, but the determined (?) Ram Gopal Varma carried on.
'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag' has released worldwide. However, the people did not make a queue to buy its ticket. This had also happened when Sippy's 'Sholay' was released 32 years ago. If 'Sholay' worked because of its characters and its ambience, 'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag' has suffered because of its own weaknesses. First, let's be clear that whatever alibi Ramu gives for making this film, this is definitely a remake of 'Sholay'. It treads the same path that Sanjay Leela Bhansali followed in 'Devdaas', Pradeep Sarkar in 'Parineeta', Farhan Akhtar in 'Don' and Ram Gopal Varma himself in 'Sarkar'. While the first three movies were remakes of hit Hindi classics, 'Sarkar' was an adaptation of Ram Gopal Varma's favorite movie 'God Father'.
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'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag' belongs to two persons. One, Ram Gopal Varma himself and the second is Amitabh Bachchan. Ram Gopal Varma is an adamant film maker; he made 'Shiva' last year to prove his point when his protégé Rohit Jugraj failed to live up to his expectations. Now, he makes 'RGV Ki Aag' to prove his point once again. He had Amitabh Bachchan with him who is keener than ever before to do roles of any kind that he could not do when he was at the pinnacle of career. This is to recall that Amitabh Bachchan who played Jai in original 'Sholay' wished to play Gabbar in that film, but failed. However, his desire to play the same role materialized when he met with Ramu. Ramu has made him Babban!
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If 'Sholay' centered around Gabbar, Ramu tries to weave a terror story around Babban. But Babban fails to create the same undercurrent of terror that Gabbar created 32 years back. With the development of film technology, every one thought that 'RGV Ki Aag' would be more slick and entertaining as Farhan's 'Don'. But, the Master fails in getting the quotient right. 'Sholay' had a deadly team with Dharmendra and Amitabh playing the small time goons and Sanjeev Kumar a cop whose whole family is butchered by Gabbar. Besides, there was chirpy Basanti and a subtle Radha. Add Soorma Bhopali, Mausi, Sambha and Kaliya to that and you come to know what 'Sholay' meant. Apart from it, 'Sholay' was penned by a team of young writers -- Salim and Javed - who wanted to change the script writing scenario. And, most importantly, there was R.D. Buraman who created immortal hit tunes.
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'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag' has nothing to carry back home. It has pair of Ajay Devgan and Prakash Raj that fails to create chemistry between them. Ajay Devgan is made Heeroo, who is supposed to romance with modern version of Basanti named Ghunghroo. If Ajay Devgan fails to play a Casanova, Nisha Kothari looks overacting. God alone knows why she keeps chewing a Beedi all the time and without ever lighting it. The Heeroo-Ghunghroo Jodi fails and with it fails the ground of the film. Prakash Raj as Raj looks a forcefully added character in the making. He hams a lot and doesn't even get a single scene right. Sushmita Sen as Devi looks alien in the setting. And biggest disaster is none other than Amitabh Bachchan playing the dreaded don Babban.
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Amitabh Bachchan has given some major flops in his career but none of them had his character so shabbily written. The lines that he got to say in 'RGV Ki Aag' are trash. His persona is such that he can never outcome being Amitabh Bachchan. If some one wishes to make him play a dreaded character, one has to seriously create such a character and then nourish it with some hard hitting lines that have novelty. Amitabh Bachchan has been an icon for Hindi Cinema. So, he needs to seriously think over his decisions before choosing a Babban like role. It's a pity that he is shown moving his tongue on lips in front of Urmila Matondkar.
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'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag' doesn't even stand a single chance to be compared with Sippy's 'Sholay'. It tries to cling on that, uses its sound tracks at many places, recreates some famous scenes and even uses many hit dialogues , but utterly fails in that attempt. And Mohan Lal is a disaster in the role of Narsimha (read Thakur). The film becomes a story of not only miscasting but of poor imagination as well. The film also fails in terms of music. There is no Dosti number, the Heeroo-Ghunghroo songs are like a lift from some movie from Hyderabad. Thanks to Ram Gopal Varma that he made it in 14 reels only, had it been an 18 reel film, the people would have started walking out of the cinema half way. There is no harm to remake a classic, but then the remake must be at least parallel to the original if not better than that.
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'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag' also faces some serious competition in another remake of 70's film 'Victoria No. 203' releasing along with it besides a Pooja Bhatt directed 'Dhokha'. But it's not the competition that casts doom on 'Aag' it is its own flame that douses it. A poor remake! All the followers of 'Sholay' club must watch it to see how bad a remake can be by a maker like Ram Gopal Varma. Tera Kya Hoga Ramu?
