my flipping God, can't wait till May!!!

Shiva: Promo Watch


http://indiafm.com/features/2006/03/20/1092/index.html

By Gaurav Malani (IndiaFM News Bureau), March 20, 2006 - 07:06 IST
Warning: Faint-hearted people are strictly advised not to watch the trailer of Ram Gopal Varma’s next directorial venture Shiva. Well you might say that RGV had warnings like these in his past films like Vaastu Shastra and Darna Mana Hai which hardly lived up to the hype. This time though, there is no cautionary note in the trailer, but ironically the trailer is scary enough. No, there isn’t anything spooky associated with Shiva. But the opening shot is graphically gruesome and might not go down the weak-hearted viewers.

We have seen enough killings and carnages in Hindi films happening in broad daylight amidst public appearance. The opening shot of Shiva is on similar lines. So what’s new, one might ask? The line of attack is more horrific than ever with a mob slaughtering a human by nailing him down right in his skull. The bazaar bystanders look silently with aghast eyes.

A police officer witnessing the entire act prefers to ignore the entire episode and turn a blind eye towards his duty to maintain law and order in the society. And that’s when the background score plays the oath taken by police officers while joining their duty.

And then the following lines flash on screen

When the police itself is infested with criminals…
And the very purpose of it seems defeated…
Is it right to be wrong?
Or is it wrong to be right?
One man wanted an answer
And the simplistic movie logo follows ‘Shiva’

Ram Gopal Varma’s current favorite Mohit Alawat who plays the title role appears on the screen in the garb of a policeman. Well if you though that Shiva is a remake of Alawat’s last film James like it was highly publicized when started, that isn’t true. If you thought that Shiva is a remake of RGV’s first Hindi film Shiva starring Nagarjuna; that again is false. Shiva might be in the same vein as that of the above mentioned films falling in the genre of hard-hitting realistic cinema. But in terms of story, it reminds more of RGV’s Shool where Manoj Bajpai played an idealistic cop. The story surely doesn’t appear to be anything novel. But so has been the case with RGV’s bunch of films in the recent past like James and D. The technique and presentation is where the filmmaker makes all the difference. Sarkar being the best example for a Godfather remake.

Mohit Alawat maintains the same cold-blooded image as that in James but his face looks more expressive. Even the brawny look of James isn’t repeated over here with his muscles taking a backseat in his police uniform. His character Shiva is the one who wouldn’t take any crap and fight back against injustice.

His James co-star Nisha Kothari plays a journalist in this film. While she makes a dialogue that is often repeated in many Hindi films saying that “ek aadmi ke aisa sochne se kuch farak nahi padega”, Mohit gives her a crisp reply saying “baat ek ki nahi, baat soch ki hai”. That’s shot-execution, the Ramu style!

Ram Gopal Varma’s recent movies have appealed to a certain section while repelled many of his other old fans, but one thing is for sure. The trailers of his movies are interestingly edited that allures the audiences’ attention on first look.

Opening of the trailer was tense

Story's nothing we haven't seen before, but it will probably have a gritty atmosphere to (hopefully) elevate it. I hope RGV doesn't just portray the title character as a killing machine who plows through the bad guys.

nothign compared to even SunTv serials, where in one "kids" serial they show a lady god beheading a man and the man walks with out the head and the head literally crying on the floor. May be for his shiva 2, he visited chennai to see IR and saw few tamil serials or commercials and got this idea. I dont know when these folks (including overrated RGV) are going to change. there are so many issues we have and they want to show a gunda killing ppl and a hero killing the gunda.

<digression>
Just watched constant gardner. great movie. dont know when indian directors will even think outside the box
</digression>

I just brought it to watch on strong recomendation of a friend!

LOL, Sun TV sometimes shows those Devi movies where Devi wreaks bloody vengeance. Talk about the fear of God. I wonder how one can go worship this Devi after seeing that! Two seconds and I change the channel.

Is IR doing the music for this?



I agree that's a way overdone subject, but at the very least I hope this will be entertaining. I'm no big fan of RGV, so I'm keeping expectations low though.

I don't like Nisha. She tries too hard to be sexy. Is Peter Hayne doing the fight choreography again?

I agree that Ram Gopal Varma is grossly over-rated. Not to discredit the guy — he's given us some good films, and he set a certain trend in the industry (the "goodness" of which is, of course, debatable) — but his recent works seem to be becoming ever uninspired. I can't judge a film by loking at its trailer, but it would be dumb of me not to form some opinion of what's likely to come right after having sat through a 2-minute-40-second, rather "telling," advertisement for it. Shiva looks like a James that tries to have some "story." That's about it. I expect the same old "Bumbaiya gunda" shit that Varma has done to death already ("bhais" go around wreaking very violent havoc, cops stand by and do nothing, kids cry, women are pushed aside, stringy blood hangs from guys' faces) with a "Bachchan-as-'Shahenshah'"esque Mohit Ahlawat kicking everybody's ass. Who knows, maybe he'll have a "friend" in some feeble cop. Maybe there'll be a scene where he seems hopelessly out-numbered, and he'll "convincingly" get his ass kicked, only to get a surge of energy (maybe they say, "tere baad, teri laundiya..."), and tears their fucking skulls off. I'd like a bit more (read, something else) from Ram Gopal Varma, but if this is all I can get, I guess I hope it's at least entertaining.

For Devi movies or Shiva. IR is NOT on hindi Shiva. He is however working with RGV in Shiva II (telugu, *ing nagarjun)

Yeah, all "kids serial" in my house are banned completely. From childhood they inject this "fear of god" and they make the people less confident and more trusting on god (even while typing i have this fear, if god will think bad/mad about me) than themselves.

arsh

btw which one u r referring to? Shiva or Constant Gardner.. Hope its the later.

hell yeah! that probably summed it up. can't wait

I saw the trailer today in local tv. Music is by Illayaraja. BGM was class as usual. I thought its by some NI MD, because the usage of Tabla was pretty amazing and finally in the credit I saw
Music ILLAYA RAJA
(unusual, they always mention as ILLAYARAJA one word!)

Now that its IR, looking forward for this movie. I with RGV used him for Sarkar. Its never too late. Look for some class BGM.

Maestro for Hindi Shiva? When can I pre-order the CD?

at the end of the promo you posted it says music by ilaiyaraaja, so I guess that wld confirm it

btw yuvan dude, am not sure if you know this or not, but ramu has decided to dub this film in telugu and thus drop his plans to remake the film in telugu w/ nag



and have only been gone for a few months, but I see the ramu-detractors are still up to their old ways



when you live/work in mumbai, you hardly need to look to chennai to find inspiration for crime films. the opening scene seems taken from that student attack a few months ago...

four assailants hammered three nails, each of them 2.5 inches long, into the head of HSC student Subhash Umre (19) in Ambarnath yesterday after snatching his wristwatch and Rs 60 from his wallet when he was on his way to the exam centre in the morning…






dude how do you manage to relate every one of your posts back to amitabh??

from the promos the film seems more “shool” inspired than anything else. the writer of the film is kona venkat (the same guy who produced “shool”). but I guess we will have to wait and see..

holy shit.

Mola Ram, I don't think I "manage to bring every post back to Amitabh," but I do think that the film-genre of the 1980s — which predominantly belonged to Amitabh Bachchan (and Dharmendra) — is a great inspiration for Ram Gopal Varma. Yes, the backdrops of Varma's movies are very different, but even he's said that he tried to make James re-capture that "type of Bachchan/Dharmendra film," which had not been made in some time. To me, the promo (I've seen only one) makes it look like little but "James"; maybe that's just because the cast is so similar. At the end of the day, it probably will be very much like James, with a bit of Shiva thrown in.

'james' was a flashy comic book actioner and therefore NOT characteristic of ramu films… the exact reason why ramu himself hated it. that is the whole reason behind ramu remaking the film, to make it in his own style