Cinematic reality

If director Ram Gopal Varma is known for going back to the underworld,nbsp;his favourite theme, and to Urmila Matondkar, his muse in film afternbsp;film, history has come back to haunt him this time 8212; though not in the form of a flop such as he has become used to, thanks to a long list such as Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. When his latest offering,nbsp;Contract, was released on July 18, it provided a rerun ofnbsp;history. No sooner had it bombed than the Ahmedabad serial blasts occurrednbsp;on July 26. Questions were asked whether the blasts bore the imprint ofnbsp;Contract in which a terrorist called Sultan targets hospitals. Similarnbsp;questions had been asked eight years ago.nbsp;

Let8217;s go back to 2000. Varma8217;s Jungle was released on July 14. My friend Narender and I went to watch it at KC Theatre innbsp;Chandigarh. The film was said to be about sandalwood smugglernbsp;Veerappan8217;s kidnapping plot. But to us, it turned out to be about thenbsp;non-heroes. While Sushant Singh, who had first appeared in Varma8217;snbsp;Satya, was terrifyingly real, Rajpal Yadav haunted the screen with his menacing eyes that conveyed a million emotions. Sandeep Chowta8217;s music was foot-tapping stuff. As for stars, the movie helped Fardeen Khan recover from his disastrous debut in Prem Aggan. But Urmila could not show any of her gifts; the role was not tailor-made for her, as in Rangeela. Here, the tailor had set limits, and she deliverednbsp;from therein. Sunil Shetty, too, turned in a controlled performance. Our verdict was out: the movie was a hit.

Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan8217;s songs from Jungle stopped playing in our hostel room one day when we heard that Veerappan had kidnapped Kannada film actor Rajkumar from his ancestral home on July 30.

8220;Was that a trailer that we watched?8221; I asked Narender in disbelief.

8220;No idea, but it appears that the real show is going on in the woods8230; Veerappan must have got a pirated print of the movie,8221; said Narender, switching on the music.

The rest is history as Veerappan8217;snbsp;Rajkumar drama lasted over 100 days.