Vi segnalo un lungo articolo, piuttosto pungente, dedicato al regista Ram Gopal Varma. Will the real RGV please stand up?, Ranjeeta Ganeshan, Rediff, 11 marzo 2013:
'From the sublime to the ridiculous, Ram Gopal Varma’s films have been at the extreme ends of the Bollywood spectrum. (...) His factory was the stuff of which edgy dreams were made. He confronted convention, discerned talent and showed that guns and gravel could make perfectly acceptable substitutes for candyfloss. Aspiring writers, film makers and technicians found a messiah in the producer-director who rolled out movies on a conveyor belt. Still, the last five years have added to Ram Gopal Varma’s repertoire a clutter of mostly forgettable cinema. (...) Varma may have delivered a series of flops but that has not damaged his pace. (...) But this strategy of producing films every few months has led to them having shorter shelf lives. (...)
Satya (...) inspired a rash of crime, thriller and shootout films. The much-admired gangster movie along with his debut work Shiva and Rangeela are his three cinematic mistakes, Varma once said in a blog, “because they have created a benchmark and all the time I get bashed up for not living up to them.” (...) Sarkar Raj in 2008 was Varma’s last memorable hit. (...) Despite a somewhat inconsistent career, his image as an intelligent director has not been compromised. Big distributors have been wary of his films for the past few years. Yet, for his directorial ventures, Varma manages to find financiers, a feat often attributed to his script-narration skills. (...) “If you look into Varma’s eyes when he narrates, you can’t say ‘no’; you just trust him,” says a producer. (...)
According to Varma, his ability to bounce back after flops comes from never treating anything as a failure. “Others see the effect and I would analyse the cause. The moment you truly understand the cause, your failure will become your strength and the new-found knowledge will lead you to success,” he wrote on his blog, later admitting that this did not prevent him from making new mistakes. Among these new mistakes is a shift in focus from strong themes and crisp words to darker and dramatic images. The experimental rogue camera technique he introduced recently, where digital cameras are placed in various spots to capture the scene from various angles, was trashed by critics. (...)
The crop of talents including Anurag Kashyap, (...) whom he encouraged early on, have embarked on their separate journeys and flourished. Kashyap has stopped watching his films. Critic [Mayank] Shekhar says, “he is no longer surrounded by the best creative minds that exist.” (...) The man, accused by some of having ‘no personal life,’ is said to spend his spare time watching movies, documentaries and short films. Of his romantic involvements, the director once said, “I have been taken and left many times”. (...) While seen as a serious man in television interviews, he maintained a very candid blog from 2008 to 2009. Now, he uses Twitter to offer explanations, lash out or just be cheeky. Varma is known to talk about the complexities of crime in a manner that would impress experts in the field of law. (...)
“Megalomaniacal” is now a term used freely to describe his style. This was not the case during Satya. Most of the crew including Varma were relatively new and had nothing to lose then. “When you’re in a position where there are a lot of expectations, that’s when things go wrong,” observes Saurabh Shukla who co-wrote Satya with Kashyap. Shukla recalls Varma as a receptive man, whom even assistant directors could approach with suggestions. (...) “Varma has the right to do whatever fascinates him as an artist,” Shukla says. “Yes, it would be great if he does any other kind of film - what is not known in quotes as a ‘Ram Gopal Varma film’; because he will have a newer take on things.” [Makarand] Deshpande (...) adds, “He is his own enemy. He can anytime create wonders if he just becomes friends.” Over the years, Varma has accepted both criticism and praise, saying, “I equally love to be hated and loved. What scares me is to bore you all”.'
