The story of the movie hasn’t been credited to anyone as the entire story-line is almost identical to SHOLAY, sure the sequence of the scenes have changed, the contemporary setting of the movie has changed, and a number of characters have been amended a little, but the basis of the story remains identical. Inspector Narsimha (Mohanlal) hires two street smart goons Heero (Ajay Devgan) and Raj (Prashant Raj) to exact revenge on the man who ruined his entire life and killed his entire family, a man who rules over the town of Kaliganj with an iron fist by unleashing terror and mayhem, the man is Babban Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) Mumbai’s number one underworld kingpin. How Heero and Raj put an end to Babban’s terror and how Narsimha exacts his revenge on Babban forms the crux of the movie. Along the way there is some romance as Heero falls in love with the tomboyish, loud-mouthed taxi-driver Ghungroo(Nisha Kothari) while Raj develops a soft spot for a widow Durga(Sushmita Sen) who used to be married to Narsimha’s brother.
The screenplay by Rahil Qazi is a mere cut and paste job at it’s worst with some of the sequences in the movie being moved around in a different order, but the entire structure of the movie stays exactly the same, and almost all of the important scenes remain in the movie minus any form of impact. The movie starts off on a slow note, and the sequences with Rambhabhai (Rajpal Yadav at his absolute worst) gyrate on the viewers nerves. The flashback sequence where we find out how Heero and Raj met Narsimha is absolutely pathetic and reminds us of the worst action movies from the 80’s era. From there on the rest of the movie basically follows the exact same plot line as SHOLAY. Qazi has added a few bits of his own stuff like given Babban a background story here, but even that’s so poor that it doesn’t really matter much at all. The climax is the biggest culprit and comes as the rudest shock in the entire venture.
As a director Ram Gopal Varma has clearly lost the plot here. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and despite the whole world being against the man, I had faith. However that faith is now completely shattered as I feel completely ripped off. He’s gone on record to say that the movie is NOT a remake of SHOLAY, but he is just paying a homage to the genre SHOLAY created, a homage to those masala/revenge action potboilers which came out in abundance in the 70’s and 80’s and ultimately RGV KI AAG was a homage to the formula according to him. If that was really the case then why has Varma copied the movie almost scene to scene for the most? Changing the mere setting doesn’t take away the fact that the scene is exactly the same, and the changes he’s made are for the worst. The characters poor shadows of the originals in SHOLAY and the impact of the characters have been diluted for the most. Varma relies entirely on the public’s memory of the original characters in SHOLAY to help see his characters through; however this doesn’t work as he has also changed his characters to an extent, and again the effort is simply confused. Once again why am I drawing these comparisons to SHOLAY? Well simply because it’s hard not to. Every scene in the movie reminds one of SHOLAY so it’s unfair to expect the viewer NOT to think about SHOLAY while watching this movie. Farhan Akhtar with his DON remake made some of the same mistakes as Varma has made here, however where Akhtar’s film was a slick, fast-paced, and immensely enjoyable roller-coaster which took a twist and turn in the second half for the better which in turn made the remake stand on it’s own two feet and work rather well. Ram Gopal Varma relies entirely on the memory of SHOLAY to his see his AAG through and it just doesn’t work, if one were to compare movie as a stand-alone effort it’s still a piss poor effort, heck I was hoping the movie might work in a “grind-house” sort of way but sadly even that didn’t work here. There is no “update” to the original as such and this is the work of a lazy, uninspired and ultimately boring director. Any redeeming factors? Well, yes..individual scenes in the movie stand out. For example the introduction of Babban, the face-off between Babban and Narsimha in their few scenes together, however these scenes are too few and far in between to really leave a mark and there certainly weren’t enough of them. Also Babban’s reaction at the death of his brother and Tambhe are superb.
The worst offence is the climax, was Varma in a rush to end the movie? Did he lose interest? The movie ends so suddenly without any impact at all what so ever the reaction I had at the end was WTF? The climax of the original SHOLAY remains etched in the viewer’s memory as Thakur takes on Gabbar one-on-one. I won’t reveal the end here, but it’s one of the biggest letdowns I’ve seen in a movie period. And yes folks, it pains me to write this about Ram Gopal Varma as he has always been my favourite director. Right from SHIVA, to NISHABD I’ve stood by the man and forgave him for the atrocious SHIVA remake (or was it JAMES) he did recently. However with RGV KI AAG it’s evident that Ramu’s indulgence has finally got the better off him and it’s high time the man sat down and had a long(very long) hard think, the “factory” needs to go on “strike”!
In the past other directors have tried to re-do SHOLAY (including Sippy himself with SHAAN) or pay a homage to the classic. Raj Kumar Santoshi is a director who has managed to do this not once, but twice with CHINAGATE (though with all due fairness this movie was a tribute to the original creator of the entire IDEA behind this formula and genre; Akira Kurosawa) and later with a near-perfect KHAKEE, but Ram Gopal Varma simply makes an indulgent blunder. Does it work as an unintentional comedy like JAANI DUSHMAN: EK ANOKHI KAHANI? No!
The dialogues by Farhad are OK on the whole, except those delivered by Babban which are just fantastic.
This brings us to the performances….
Amitabh Bachchan stepping doing a take-off on Gabbar Singh raised a lot of eye brows and a lot of speculations. The first pictures of Babban Singh too was met with a lot of flak, but Bachchan does the unthinkable and makes Babban Singh a character of his own stepping out of the shadows of Gabbar Singh. This performance works simply because Amitabh has been very careful not to imitate or copy Amjad Khan’s legendary performance in any way, shape or format. Right from Babban’s fantastic entry Bachchan lends the character the right amount of energy, menace and surprisingly humour which makes the character work. His larger-than-life persona, electric screen-presence, powerful and original body language and amazing delivery and diction are put to full use and Bachchan clearly gives this role all that he’s got within the confines of what he’s been given and he comes out with flying colours. The movie lights up for the better every time he’s on screen and his performance is truly an enjoyable one as he plays the evil Babban with absolute relish and passion. The dark humour, the hilarious one-liners, and his sadistic nature combined elevate not only the character but the entire movie as without a doubt Amitabh Bachchan is one of the biggest USP’s of the movie, and this is a performance that surely deserved a better film.
Mohanlal was the perfect choice for this part. His looming presence, powerful eyes and expressive delivery are in sync with the character of Narsimha and Lal tries his best with what he’s been given. However again Varma has made a fundamental flaw. For a film like this to work, the audience has to really connect with this character, really want this character to take his revenge however Varma has missed the point as we never feel for Narsimha, and his vendetta takes a backseat in the second half. Unlike Sanjeev Kumar in SHOLAY, Lal hasn’t been given enough mettle to really sink his teeth in to (despite been given some of the same like as Thakur in SHOLAY e.g. “loha garam hai”) and shine and this is a total disappointment. The few meaty scenes Lal does have he makes the most of, and his southern style Hindi delivery works rather well here again after COMPANY. Unlike Babban Singh, this was a character that deserved much better treatment, in saying that had it been any other actor the character would’ve fallen flat but Lal saves it from falling over which says quiet a bit.
Ajay Devgan springs a surprise. Devgan has worked with Varma earlier in COMPANY and BHOOT and in both films gave superbly intense performance. In a completely massy role which is completely against the type of characters Devgan usually plays he enacts his part with utmost confidence and conviction and comes out flying colours. His get-up is fabulous, and his delivery spot-on. However its Devgan’s comic scenes which leave the viewer surprised as he comes across as natural as ever and hits all the right notes evoking laughter and relief at the right moments. Be it the scene where he pretends to be the “baba” or the infamous scene where he does the big “naatak”.
Prashant Raj makes an extremely confident debut. The boy has a striking screen presence, looks good on-screen, has a fantastic voice (though monotone at times) and delivers his lines with utmost confidence. He holds his own against a cast of veterans which is a big enough compliment and leaves his own mark. One wishes that Prashant chooses his future films carefully from here-on. The chemistry he shares with Devgan is good too (though there’s not enough of it), though not a patch on Jai and Veeru.
Sushmita Sen is restrained, and the she delivers a completely natural performance which is perfect for the part she is playing. There is a lack of chemistry between her and Prashant who simply looks too young to be opposite Sushmita, but thankfully their relationship is not the run-of-mill stuff either. . Nisha Kothari does well in her initial sequences, though after a point her performance starts to gyrate as it comes across as artificial and too forced. Her delivery is poor, and though she tries her absolute hardest here, her biggest fault is that she tries too hard. To give her credit she does look cute as a button and is consistent throughout. There is a lack of chemistry between her and Ajay which doesn’t help proceedings either.
Sushant Singh doesn’t have much to do here and fails to leave much of a mark. Rajpal Yadav gives his most irritating performance to date. Virendra Saxena is excellent. His scenes are fantastic. Gaurav Kapoor is good. Ravindra Kale is OK. Sanjay Navrekar doesn’t have much to do. Chakravarthy and Suchitra Krishnamurthi play their small parts well. Sachin fails to leave a mark in his small role.
The music in the movie is plain below average. The RUK JAA track is catchy, but nothing great. The Holi song has been well captured but the tune is a total letdown. The sole redeeming factor musically is the MEHBOOBA track. The entire track has been superbly canned, the choreography by Ganesh Hedge is stunning and Urmila Mantondkar looks absolutely gorgeous here. Abhishek Bachchan is OK in a small part; though not a patch on Jalal Agha who did a far better job as Abhishek’s “cool” persona just doesn’t work here.Varma should’ve left his fixation for bringing the Bachchan’s together aside this time.
Amar Mohile’s background score is effective on the whole, though one wishes it wasn’t so jarring at times. Also Varma’s penchant for repeating the same background score he used in SARKAR seems shoddy.
Technically the movie is surprisingly average for a RGV film. Amit Roy’s camerawork is good, though it’s the usual stuff he does for Varma and it’s becoming a bit overdone. Pradyuman Kumar’s action is completely uninspired. Varma’s aim was to capture the “feel” of those action films from the 80’s and he manages to do that but for the worst. The action is devoid of any excitement, and all the gun fights are a bore to watch. The worst culprits are Amit Parmar and Nitin Gupta who make an absolute mess out of the editing, what was the rush? It looks tacky.
All up where does that leave RAM GOPAL VARMA KI AAG? Simply put the movie is a colossal disappointment, one of the biggest letdowns I have seen in my entire lifetime. Ardent fans of Amitabh, Mohanlal or Ajay should catch this once, but on DVD only. And I seriously hope Varma has a long hard think before he starts releasing and making SARKAR RAAJ, TIME MACHINE and COBRA.
A.Shah
Final Rating: * *
