Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag

[hotsake]

I made sure to watch this film before watching Sholay partially because everyone seems to hate this movie mostly because someone dared to remake the "Godfather" of India and partly because I wanted to end on a good note and watch the better movie last. The first thing I notices about this movie is the terrible direction, camera work (why is nearly everything films from a foot off the ground or with the camera shoved into someone's face), and editing. I mean the camera literally never stops movie and the is full of random jump cuts. The acting ranges from decent to over the top to completely terrible sometimes from scene to scene by the same actors. Some of this I think was done intentionally as the some of the goofy sound effects, music cues and goofy voices makes it seem like they were going for a more comedic tone. Nothing is played for laughs but the movie seems to be self aware and it seems to be slightly mocking the cliched film tropes that these kinds of movies are known for. Mohanlal and Amitabh Bachchan seem to be the only ones playing it straight and are the highlights of the film even if they're not in it enough to save it. After accepting the filming style even if it was shitty I found myself being entertained and it made me want to watch Sholay even more. The best thing that can be said about this film is that it makes people want to watch the original and also makes people appreciate the original even more.

[hotsake]

I'll need to check out some of his earlier work. A lot of once great directors seem to fall into this pitfall as they change their style to fit "modern" audiences. They don't understand the music video style direction with the quick cuts and they poorly attempt to imitate what they don't understand. Director should make they kind of movies they want in the style that suits them and they will find an audience or I should say an audience will find they but then again it gets hard to find financing unless you stay in the limelight as even greats like Kurosawa, Sorceress, and others had found it increasingly difficult to get funding for their films.