All in a tizzy
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Ravichandran's passion for cinema is admirable. But he goes so overboard that his films fall short of making the grade
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REPEAT PERFORMANCE Oda huttidavalu also fails to deliver
The first `trial' of a movie is eagerly awaited, especially by the cast and crew involved. It is revelation time. Has the hard work paid off? This is about one such show of the most advertised film in Kannada, a collaboration between the self-proclaimed `Super Director' and a superstar. The film boasts of introducing the "Rani of the Ramp" to boot. Everybody slid snugly into their seats and enjoyed the first half. It's the second half that sent everyone in a tizzy. There was no lip sync in the sense that the actor's lips moved but the dialogues were heard later. For once the smug smile on the director's face was replaced with a scowl. Beads of sweat slid down his baldpate as he frantically called for the DTS guys in Chennai. With the film slated for release, the glitch had to be rectified, pronto. How's the film? "Sumaru... ," said my source who's not creatively involved.
Ravichandran is a classic case of talent gone astray. He has a passion for cinema but there is a tendency to go over the top, which stops him from attaining glory. He has to do a Ekangi or a Malla. He's one of those creative people who believe the audiences don't understand his vision. Anyway his run of bad films continues with Oda huttidavalu. Ravi as usual looks like he strayed on to the sets and was forced to perform. The `Thangi' sentiment has been done to death. Rakshita has nothing to do (she plays a village belle with blonde hair!) and all Radhika does is slither all over Ravi. Sadhu Kokila's antics make you want to bawl. Ravi is working on a remake of Bhagyaraj's Idhu Namma Aalu. We'll have to wait for his Naa which seems to be inspired by Kurosawa's Rashoman to see whether his creative juices are still flowing.
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The press pounced on Ramgopal Verma like he was an endangered species. There were more questions about his war of words with his pet peeve, Karan Johar than about the film he was promoting, Shiva. He hit the nail on the head when he said he was horrified by the success of Karan's films. When I finally cornered him he was all set to flee with an underling constantly pointing to his watch. After observing him I suggested he didn't have to look for an actor to play Sivarasan if he decided to produce the Hindi version of Cyanide. "Do I look so dangerous?" asked Ramu. The resemblance is uncanny. I managed to rattle the seemingly imperturbable Ramu by mentioning an SMS he'd received from the Big B after a sneak peek of Nishabd. Bachchan mentioned that Ramu had extracted his best performance yet and was also his best film as a director. The star wondered if they could better this. Ramu asked with an incredulous look: "Now you have to tell me who told you about this." But is it true? "Yes but then I thought nobody knew... " sighed the director. It's a small world and the film industry is just a miniscule part of it.
S. SHIVA KUMAR
sshivu@yahoo.com
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