By:
Subhash
K.
Jha,
IndiaFM
Thursday,
September
06,
2007
No,
this
isn't
the
worst
re-make
you're
likely
to
see.
Nor
does
Ram
Gopal
Varma's
Aag
claim
to
have
the
wherewithal,
the
stock,
substance
and
spice
of
Sippy's
Sholay.
Let's
just
call
Aag
an
interesting
revisionist
version
of
Sholay
and
be
done
with.
The
biggest
mistake
we
can
make
while
watching
Varma
go
back
to
his
favourite
film
(with
his
favourite
actor,
Amitabh
Bachchan,
playing
a
role
that
has
already
been
done
to
'dread')
is
to
look
for
signs
symbols
and
signals
from
the
past.
Varma
is
to
blame
for
doing
some
sequences
as
parodic
homages
to
Sippy's
Sholay.
What
is
that,
if
not
a
tittering
tribute
to
the
original,
when
the
neo-Samba
(played
by
a
Varma
regular
Ravi
Kale)
comes
back
after
being
hammered
by
the
two
mercenary
heroes.
Bachchan
-Babban
does
the
Kitne
aadmi
tthey
scene
like
a
rude
game
of
Russian
roulette
with
the
stakes
being
life
and
death.
Trouble
is,
Ramu
treats
the
classic
material
with
an
iconoclastic
take-it-or-edit-it-out
casualness.
Some
of
the
original's
most
celebrated
sequences
(such
as
Jai
going
to
Basanti's
Mausi
with
Veeru's
rishta)
have
been
defiantly
and
not
quite
definitively
subverted
to
suit
the
stench
of
gangsterism
that
Varma's
cinema
embraces
almost
intuitively.
Every
time
he
looks
at
human
relations
within
a
specific
socio-political
context,
it's
almost
always
the
underworld.
The
biggest
failing
of
Varma's
revisionist
Sholay
is
its
locational
dereliction.
The
action
unfolds
in
a
series
of
indeterminate
disembodied
locations,
mainly
run-down
ware-houses,
half-constructed
high-rise
buildings
and
sets
that
seem
to
suggest
nothing
beyond
the
immediate
present
that
exists
between
the
'action'
and
'cut'.
Cut
to
Sippy's
Sholay
where
the
boulder-centric
locations
defined
the
outlaw's
menacing
evil
with
geo-political
accuracy…or
the
Thakur's
bustling
family-
home
where
the
villain's
savage
carnage
occurred.
Here
the
slaughter
of
the
police
inspector's
family
is
strictly
ritualistic…designed
to
shock
rather
than
create
a
distending
drama
of
dread
and
vendetta
through
the
poignant
annihilation
of
the
family
nucleus.
Mr.
Bachchan
invests
the
villain's
part
with
loads
of
nuanced
diabolism,
wacky
humour
and
seemingly
casual
one-liners.
"Wait
till
his
family
hears
this
news
break," puns
the
film's
boisterous
baddy
Babban
after
breaking
off
some
of
police
inspector
Narsimha
(Mohanlal)'s
finger.
Sanjeev
Kumar's
chopped
hand
from
Sholay
becomes
Mohanlal's
severed
fingers
in
Aag.
The
silently
weeping-widow
Radha
from
Sholay
is
transformed
into
a
mutedly
militant
medico
with
not
even
a
medical
kit
by
her
side
to
prove
her
sincerity
towards
her
profession.
And
the
post-Holi
dacoit's
attack
on
Sholay
become
a
Diwali
mayhem
in
Aag.
Festival
sideline?
Inexcusably
the
action
scenes
(Pradhyumna)
and
the
other
technical
aspects
including
the
camera
work
(by
Amit
Roy
who
was
so
incredibly
outstanding
in
some
of
Varma's
earlier
films)
don't
seem
to
liven
up
the
luminous
antecedents
of
this
purported
homage
to
a
timeless
film.
Barring
one
major
sequence
between
Babban
and
his
morally
antithetical
brother(Sachin),
some
light
moments
between
Ghungroo
the
auto-ricksaw
siren
and
Rehmat
(Gaurav
Kapoor)
the
blind
Muslim
patriarch's
playful
son,
and
some
perfunctory
scenes
between
the
vengeful
cop
and
his
non-practising
medico-bahu(a.k.a
as
the
widow
in
black)
the
inter-relationships
among
the
character
just
don't
hold
together,
Specially
damaging
to
the
neo-plot
is
the
complete
lack
of
camaraderie
between
the
new-millennium
Jai
and
Veeu,
now
known
as
Raj
and
Heero.
Devgan
and
newcomer
Prashaant
Raj
(competent
in
glimpses)
look
like
two
acquaintances
who
have
recently
met
at
a
railway
station.
Simply
playing
Yeh
dosti
as
part
of
the
background
score
(judicious
mix
of
nostalgia
and
modernity
by
Amar
Mohile)
doesn't
help
create
any
bonding
between
the
supposed
buddies.
No,
I
am
not
going
to
think
about
the
warm
vibes
between
Amitabh
Bachchan
and
Dharmendra
in
Sholay…Or
the
clean
but
carnal
chemistry
between
Veeru
and
Basanti
here
reduced
a
touchy-touchy-feely-feely
sticky
liaison
between
Devgan
and
Nisha
Kothari
(she
knows
how
to
act,
but
now
how
much).
I'd
still
run
back
and
view
Ramu's
revisionist
Sholay
for
the
pleasure
of
watching
Mr
Bachchan's
Babban
flick
his
tongue
over
his
lips
in
a
mix
of
menace
and
mischief,
and
for
seeing
the
way
Varma
has
steered
the
original
material
through
murky
waters
to
give
Sholay
a
new-age
look,
albeit
a
look
that's
more
bleak
than
bright.
But
then
who
said
movies
were
always
about
light?