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And the Ram Gopal Varma resurgence continues. Once a claimant for the title of the Indian Michael Mann thanks to a string of stellar, gritty crime dramas bearing his name as both a director and producer, Varma has fallen on hard times in recent years with a string of failures and more press for his ego than his films. But things have been shaping up rather well for him in the past couple years and that string of quality looks about to receive a major new addition with the arrival of Shabri. Produced by Varma and directed by Lalit Marathe, Shabri purports to be the story of Mumbai's first female crime boss. Does it have any basis in reality? I have no clue, honestly, though previous Varma productions have been known for using real events but whether real or not, this looks to be the most exciting project Varma has been involved in for years. Check the trailer below to see just what's going on.
Not exactly, Vinay Shukla directed Shabana Azmi in "Godmother" in 1999, and I would doubt that is the first one either. Hindi and Indian cinema is such a MASSIVE industry that pretty much every genre and storyline has been covered.
So, which hollywood/asian movie is this ripping off?
I don't know, I watched a few of RGV's supposedly brilliant features (as endorsed on this site) and found them pretty unengaging, boring or hillarious (in a bad way), mostly copies of copies. He uses all the right genres and themes I like but I was never entertained. Not to speak of the horrible soundtracks (or spontaneous dancing/singing in "serious" drama/crime movies). The only true real stroke of genius was
[b]Ab Tak Chhappan[/b], which was directed by Shimit Amin and RGV only produced. I credit this rare gem of restrained and focused moviemaking to the director, not the producer.