Ram Gopal Varma is probably the only filmmaker whose gender insensitivity has never come my way of appreciating his movies. It's probably also got to do with the content of his movies – the dark underbelly of Mumbai is not exactly the place you'd see a woman being treated with respect anyway.
RGV has been single-handedly responsible for giving birth to the genre of Mumbai underworld movies in Bollywood. His Satya, D and Company are just some of the films that started the trickle that was to become a huge downpour of movies centered around the city's underworld.
In fact his later movies such as Sarkar and its sequel Sarkar Raj explore it further, exposing the political and corporate bosses behind the business.
Yet there are those times when you wonder just why someone as technically sound and creatively best should make that film called Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag! Indeed, there couldn't have been any other movie that could have opened this column.
For those fortunate people who haven't watched this film, here's the story in a nutshell. Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag! is the modern day adaption of the 1970s classic Sholay starring Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan.
Instead of being set in a hamlet though, the action of Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag! unfolds in the city of Mumbai where an underworld don Babban (played by Amitabh Bachchan) wants to take over a fishing village for redevelopment. As it happens a certain honest police officer (Mohanlal) who has rubbed this don the wrong way and lost his fingers in the bargain also lives in the very same area.
Since there is little he can do with his non-existent fingers he decides to hire the help of former convicts with hearts of gold (Ajay Devgan and Prashant Raj).
How the three men seek their personal revenge as also help their community at large forms the rest of the story.
Now for those who have watched both Sholay and Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag!, the comparison between the two would be unnecessary. But for those who haven't watched the latter, let's just say to even think of comparing the two would be blasphemous.
Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag! could have been a much better film had it not been such a self satisfying exercise. First there was a huge row over the title. The makers of the original slapped a lawsuit against Varma, and won.
Effectively RGV could not use the names of the immortal characters let alone the title of the film. The pompous Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay was reduced to Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag!. Its name notwithstanding the film didn't set off any spark at the box office.
For one, it showed the country that the remake of a successful film if not made right can be quite disastrous. That the storyline was not original was a given. But it seemed like Ram Gopal Varma had absolutely no interest in adapting the classic to suit the modern-day sensibilities.
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