Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag : review

Raam Gopal Verma ki Hag.. ohh. Sorry…Aag

It is commonly held that villages are cleaner and more pure than cities which are polluted. And if the village is exposed to the urban culture, the purity is lost. Some might debate this but in the context of this movie, the notion holds true.
While sholay, in the pristine village of Rampur was clean, the new sholay, set in the city is equally dirty.
The biggest problem with the movie is that it tries to compete with a masterpiece of Indian cinema. What the director forgets is that the audience will be comparing the movies frame-to-frame. He pulls scenes from the old movie, uses what he calls creativity and others call destruction and cuts and pastes delivering a really ugly movie. It does not score in acting, or direction or cinematography or editing, even the songs are disgusting: a complete fracas of a movie. I figured the dialogue writer was paid less or he really wanted to take it out on the director, because the script he has come up with, causes the audience to make disgusted noises, or chant ‘hey Bhagwaan’ loudly. After Sarkar, RGV thought that weird camera angles make the movie good, too bad he did not understand that such a formula does not work everytime. Oh yes, and I forget to mention the overdoing of sound effects, is a jarring overtone to an already failed orchestra. And then there is the casting. Nisha as the scantily clad, overly talkative Ghungroo, needs acting lessons, and a revision of the age old dictum about being successful in movies ‘skin does not go far…’. Sushmita is ‘thakur saab’s’ widowed daughter-in-law, stuttering in dialogue delivery and more made up than a widow should be. Ajay and the other insignificant actor who plays his bosom buddy are confused and irritating, even more so when compared to the original jai-veeru duo. And then there is Amitabh Bachhan in one of the worst roles of his career. With his makeup, and doglike laughter, he’s not only disgusting to look as but he does his lines equally bad. Every moment the audience pines for the good old actors, the angrezoon ke zamane ka jailer and mausiji, but all they get is a disgusting spoof of the original.
The esteemed director was heard commenting that the movie will look better if we did not compare it with the original. “after all it is a complete movie in it’s own right.” Well I’m sorry Mr. Director, it hardly qualifies for a movie, and standalone it would even look worse, because the faint shadow of the original that is keeping it going will be gone.
As a critic I demand the rights to give negative stars. And having got them, I give this movie -5 stars.