Coming in too late but nevertheless, it is worth a review to
appraise a passionate director’s hastily made product. AAG is RamGopal Verma’s worst movie yet. Although he has been

a
great fan of Sholay, and a remake of
the Indian cinema Icon is a challenge most would dare not take but Ramu, based
on his successful adaptation of The
Godfather, did take it up but did not do justice at all.

Memories of the opening scene on the train with all the
horses around makes us expect a contemporary yet dynamic version of Sholay’s
scenes in AAG. Unfortunately, not only the opening scene but any of the intense
memories one might have of Sholay is not re-created here. Ramu tries, with unique
camera angles and some delicate differences to recreate the magic but not a
single scene stands out.

The characters have not at all
been sketched out in detail. Even the most important ones such as Babban (who
only looks menacing), Narsimha, Heero, Jai, Ghungroo, Tambhe etc are all
loosely written characters without any depth in them. The actors, who do not
even fit into the big boots of their original versions fail to mesmerize
because of the characterization. One cannot expect much from Nisha Kothari but
if given a detailed character, she could’ve done better too. The rest of them
are simply wasted. Rajpal Yadav gives his worst performance playing ‘Surma
Bhopali’ and why that irritating voice??! Sushant Singh would have been a
wonderful Samba but ‘Tambhe’ is a ridiculous waste of talent. There are fewer
dialogues for him than Urmila’s!! Amitabh does try his best to depict a
different version of Gabbar Singh, the greatest villian we have known, but
again, he is forced to grow beyond his character. The character of Babban is no
more than a local thug. His scale of operations, his vehicle, his men, his
behaviour are all of a contemporary local gunda. Whatever happened to the idea
of taking the new Gabbar Singh at an international level?? [‘Jageera’ in RK Santoshi’s
China Gate was far superior and more
menacing than Babban]. The climax
just becomes a local village around Bombay battling it out with a local gunda
with the force of 2 men. Where was the city Police by the way? Besides these,
the characters of Narsimha, (played by the impressive Mohanlal) Heero and Jai
are also very poorly written. The agony, the wraith, the silent storm in
Sanjeev Kumar’s Thakur is completely
missing and RGV is to be blamed for the characterization and not the actors
because you tend to see them going beyond the characters’ realm. Ajay Devgan
should have played the more serious Raj
instead of having to live up to the vivacious Veeru. His ‘suicide attempt’ scene is his worst performance and in
none of the scenes do we see the intense Devgan that we have seen in Company or Khakee. This was a total miscast. Prashant Raj as Jai is the biggest casting mistake of
the movie. A new comer to fit into the lead role of a Sholay remake??? Did RGV
ask himself the question? The outcome is obviously a cold, forgettable
performance. Sushmita Sen could have been the best version of the widow from
Sholay but she struggles with the limitations of her role.

Some of the background music is
apt but one where iconic mouth-organ tune is played between the Raj-Devi is
just ridiculously inappropriate because they share no chemistry like Amitabh
and Jaya had in Sholay.

Talking about Chemistry, there is
none between the lead roles of Raj and Heero. If the duo cannot look like real
buddies, the movie will be lost right from the beginning. That is exactly what
happened here. Their conversations are dud! And their chemistry is
non-existent.

None of the menacingly intense
scenes from the past have been recreated here. Dialogues are forgettable and
have no impact whatsoever. The same goes for the action which still has guns
from the 1980s being used along with similar vehicles. There is absolutely no
touch of class in the remaking of a legend. Music is a total let down and not
even the oddly vulgar looking Urmila could save the Mehbooba song. What was
Junior B doing out there? Total waste of actors again.

AAG looks like it has been made in haste. Too much haste. Script,
screenplay, characterization, casting, music and direction have flaws all over
them. It is necessary to draw lessons from Farhan Akhtar’s DON in this case. Farhan spent crucial time in modifying the script to
suit the contemporary audience, he worked on the screenplay to hold the
audience’s attention, he left enough wit and impact in the dialogues and
brought them out at the appropriate times so that everybody remembered them and
he did pay attention to the characterization very well. Don, Narang, Jasjit,
DeSilva, Roma and even Kamini were well woven characters. Farhan also ensured
that the music would be a chartbuster with the contemporary versions of the classics
and also new additions. But the most important aspect that we will remember
that remake for was, that he gave it a different treatment in terms of style,
in terms of the direction, look, climax, coolness etc.

RGV has nothing reflecting in his
version of the classic. That makes this AAG without any fire.

-         
2.98 on a scale of 1-10.

 

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Revealed in detail
Best to watch with:	Alone
Movie Genre:	Action
Best part in the movie:	Not sure