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Despite the greatest advances in technology, DVD adaptation, downright plagiarism and holier-than-thou posturing, there is still one place few Directors in Bollywood dare to step through.
The deep, dark, scary realm of Horror.
The thought itself is scary, literally.
Let us face it, my Dear Constant Movie Fans.
Our scary movies are downright hilarious.The Gods that our Movie Moguls look up to for 'inspiration', (read Hollywood) have even diversified and packaged horror into neat little categories for easy consumption (Gothic, Slasher, Supernatural, Teen Terror, Serial Killer, Satanic...I could go on), while down here, we are still groping in the Dark. (Pretty funny, if you think about it).
And truth be told, there is but one man to thank for taking a bold step into that 'unknown, deep and dark place', unknown even to previous Box-Office results that bring home the money.
The one and only
Ram Gopal Varma -You got to hand it to him.
For singlehandedly leading you safely by the hand into the bosom of your scariest nightmare and disappearing even before you realized that.
At a time, when all the horror you could watch in an Indian Horror movie was the reheated fare dished out by the dear Ramsay Brothers, where you were scared every moment for the Chief Vampire's ill-fitting fangs would fall out, or for the Mummy's scantily-clad cotton robes,
RGV's Kaun was a breath of fresh air (or should I say, dank, fetid air?).
With no songs, three principal characters and 90 minutes, he had you by your 'family jewels', whether you liked it or not, if you watched
Kaun.
Not for the technical brilliance of that movie( I still have my doubts on that), but for the fact that a Director from our land could give us something that had us interested, gripping our seats and mildly sweating, by the end of it all.Kaun came after Satya, one of the finest movies ever made on the dark life of Mumbai,and was a double whammy in the career graph of RGV. It also reinforced Anurag Kashyap's mettle as a brilliant craftsman of word, light and sound.
Interestingly, RGV's next outing into Horror was after Company, yet another gritty perspective of the Mumbai underbelly, called Bhooth.
For all those of you protest vehemently against another 'adaptation' of a lesser known Hong Kong flick, please give him a break, will you?
If it went on to win 10 Movie awards of 2004, and got nominated for another 9, surely, the better-educated fraternity must have seen something 'interesting' in the Movie, wouldn't they, partner?
The next 'pairing' came in 2005, after the Hindi remake release of his Telugu classic,'Shiva', which more or less sank without much debris.Touted as the sequel to Darna Mana Hai, where RGV was happy enough producing the movie, Darna Zaroori Hai, saw him taking matters into his own hands, keeping the same format of its prequel alive,which was another gleeful outing into horror for the Indian audience. It started off brilliantly and was more or less sputtering towards the end.(Hey, its my personal opinion Mate)
The Darna series was clearly inspired from the Tales from the Crypt series and the TV-series Are you afraid of the Dark, but it proved worthwhile for RGV, and the Indian audience. It was also alleged that that the 6th episode (Aftab Shivdasani & Isha Koppikkar) was inspired from a Twilight Zone episode, but hey, I'm not complaining.
Had watched the two, and should say RGV knew what he was doing, and he did it very well and so it comes to another 'pair' after two years, spang after an inter-galactic dud called Contract from the Factory.
Come to think of it, after Darna Zaroori Hai, RGV seemed to have lost himself in the heady success that built him as a brand.
- Nishabd (2007)
- Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (2007)
- Darling (2007)
- Sarkar Raj (2008)
- Contract (2008)
Five duds one after the other.
Irrespective of the brave face he puts out in the media, and the philosophy he pouts with the brashness that only success can bring, here is hoping Phoonk brings back the lost glory of Factory back into the National limelight.
There is already smirks and elbow-nudges about the movie being inspired from The Exorcist and the rest of the 'Posessed Child' horror genre, but I'm looking forward to this one.
Not because its an RGV movie.
But, for the fact that if you need a tingle up and down your spine, and find yourself crumpling up your popcorn bucket and probably gasping with a sheepish smile, you have only RGV to fall back on in India.
And as Stephen King, that Master of Horror, mentioned in one of his forewards, "Horror is spawned by Fear.Fear makes us blind,and we touch Fear with the avid curiosity of self-interest and fear is the only emotion that can make us Blind."
Over to you, RGV.
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