I love it when someone gets belligerent about what we will or won’t publish. “You would never publish a review of a Bollywood movie! You suck!”
Well, we don’t get sent a lot of Bollywood reviews. If we were sent reviews like this one more often, I’ll bet we’d be willing to publish more of them.
There’s actually a Bollywood theater at this end of the Valley, I think, and considering how much my wife loves every Indian film she’s seen so far, we might have to track that theater down soon.
Hey Harry
I noticed that you never post reviews of Bolywood films on AICN, is it because you dont care about the Glitzy, Glamorous, All Singing, All Dancing world of Bollywood....PROBABLY.
Or is it because you've never had a bollywood film worth reviewing or a review given to you worth posting. Either way below is a review of the BIGGEST bolly film of the year and quite possibally the decade.
Bollywood is the biggest film industry in terms of movies per year and has over a BILLION fans, surely you cant ignore that can you???
anyway i'd love it if you post my review!!
thanx
Alex Khan a.k.a The Taf
So I know some of you have been dying to read a review of Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag and some of you couldn’t care less but since you opened this you might as well read on!!
Let me start off by saying this is not a remake of sholay, because sholay can never be remade it’s a classic and it shall remain a classic, untouched, unaltered and incomparable to anything else!!
So if it’s not a remake then what is it???
It’s more of a new interpretation, updated for a modern audience, set in modern day India. It has a new title, new character names, and a different story and yet it makes enough nods to sholay to make you all warm and nostalgic inside.
But the main difference in this new interpretation is that where sholay concentrates on the friendship between jai and veeru and thakurs revenge against gabbar this film is more Babban singh (formerly known as gabbar singh) all the way.
Don’t get me wrong all our favourite characters are still there with new names and updated personalities, the young, feisty taanga owning basanti has been updated to a feisty, tom boyish, beedi smoking riksha driver Ghungroo etc etc (danoh the horse has been replaced by laila the riksha).
SO IS IT ANY GOOD???
Short answer yes!! As a stand-alone movie it’s quite good, but as a reinterpretation of sholay not so good. I know I know I’m not giving you a definite answer but that is the answer. The movie is good and if you have never seen or heard of sholay then you would enjoy it. But anyone who knows and loves sholay (like me) cant help but compare them!! Even though there are enough differences for them to be separate movies you can’t help but feel that it’s a let down compared to sholay!!
But having said that it’s not a bad movie by any means, there are several good things about the film and even one or two great things. Firstly RGV (ram gopal verma) has done a good job, he’s obviously talented and shows it in this film however you do get the feeling he is trying too hard at times and that sometimes he could do with being reminded that less can be more and simple can be beautiful. I think as a director he lets himself down at times by going overboard with his weird angle shots and shaky style camera. But all in all a good job by him.
The music of the film was good overall, the “ruk ja” song is fun and the new updated “mehbooba” song is very good and if you listen out very carefully you’ll hear a short piano melody of “yeh dosti” somewhere in the film.
Ajay Devgan puts in a solid performance as heero (formerly veeru) and is supported well by Prashant Raj as raj (formerly jai). The two work well together, Ajay shows his versatility in playing such likeable comedic type role, a change from his normal preferred intense roles and Prashant is impressive as the cool and more serious of the two roles. I think he may be one to watch for the future.
One to definitely watch for the future is Nisha Kothari who played ghungroo (formerly basanti) and is absolutely GREAT!! I was very sceptical about her role and was almost intent on not liking her from the beginning, out of my love for hema malini as basanti in sholay. But she won me over very quickly and although she can’t compare do basanti, ghungroo more than holds her own!!
The rest of the cast was solid and all put in decent performances, Mohan lal was good as inspector narsimah (formerly thakur) and sushmita cen was very good as durga devi (formerly radha). I also really liked tushant singh as tambhe (formerly sambha) even though he didn’t have many lines in the film. Also look out for a great performance from Veerendra Saxena as the blind niqvi chachaa and a special appearance by abishek bachan and the gorgeous urmila matonkar as the dancing seductress in the song mehbooba!!
But by far the greatest thing about this film is Amitabh bachan as Babban Singh. Like I mentioned earlier this film is all babban singh and amitabh does an excellent job. There’s a real emphasis on the evilness of the character and the big B plays it to perfection. And yes some of it is tongue in cheek and a bit cheesy at times but didn’t bother me at all. He was never going to be Amjad Khans Gabbar Singh but he didn’t even try instead he’s a totally different, egotistical, twisted, psychotic and all out evil babban singh and you have to love it!!
So there you have it, Aag is a good movie, it’s similar enough to sholay to make you want to go and rent sholay again (if you don’t already own your own copy and you really should) but different enough for you NOT to make a comparison but any sholay fan (like me) can’t help it and will and in that respect it will fall short. However that’s not to say its not good because it is. Confusing isn’t it? But when you watch the film and I recommend you do, it will all become clear!! But just to make it easier for you I’m giving it 7/10 (that’s good) go and see it!!
One last thing to add the film is being released as an 12A here in the uk even though it’s a 15 at least so some of the scenes are cut and miss out key bits of action, which is annoying but doesn’t affect the telling of the story, but it is annoying!! Really annoying!!
That’s all from me for now, look out for my next review in the near future!!
