Will the Real Rajiv Rai please re emerge?

The one who at a time was almost like SRK. A Rajiv Rai film was a given HIT. And Hit and Flop apart, this Doon School product, used to entertain us every minute of the way. Action and reaction, in every frame was the hallmark. One rarely saw Yudh, Tridev, Vishwatma, Gupt and Mohra, for it's artisitc ability, one always saw it for entertainment and wholesome entertainment is what we got.

The songs were edgy, they are still pretty "current" when a Bollywood dance class or an aerobic class is in progress. His lyrics had meaning, when analyzed....case in point....Jis manushya go apne lakshya ka gyaan ho jata hain and uski paane main woh jeevan ya mrithyu ko koin mahatva nahin deta, woh manushya ik sadharan manushya se ban jaata hain...Vishwatma.

Aka the real world description of "obsessive rage for perfection and it's journey, as opposed to the consequences."

Rai took chances, exciting one's, at least from a scriptwriters perspective. In almost all his movies the bad guys or villians, almost always sang (even if it was a couplet) and danced (even it it was a jiggle). And why not. Don't bad guys dance/eat/cry/laugh in the real world, why should it be only the good guys's prerogative.....Shows shades. Almost like a Jackie Brown....where a Micheal Keaton is shown, not only going to the loo, but flushing as well and why not. Don't good guys answer the call of nature.

He also brought an element of realism to his fantasies. Kind of made it exciting,a gain from a scriptwriters perspective. As an example, also in Vishwatma, refer to the character of Naagdansh Jurhad (Kiran Kumar), when he is on the run and is being shot at by the cops. In Bollywood movies prior and post, whenever a bullet hits someone, all we hear is a sorry of a "ouch," almost as if a mosquito had bitten...c'mon...give the bullet it's due respect. Jurhad's "AAAH" was a very prominent shout, again giving some sort of real worldness to what was primarily fantasy..enhancing the appeal to the viewer.

Then there was that element of names for the bad guys. Again entertaining and captivating the audience was key . So with the backdrop of Shera, Ranga, Samba, Loin, Raabert......came the Rai names, Asghar and Naagdansh Jurhad, Tapasvi Gunjal, Chinoy, Dariyal, Goga, Xaca, Tyson, Kashinath Sahu, Jibran...and the list goes on. Almost made even the minutest character all that more interesting.

He also took chances in the casting. Rarely were his film cast the Numero Uno actor and actress of that time...far from it. In fact after coming in his film, they were on their way up!! So when Yudh came, Jackie and Anil held fort instead of AB, post Mohra, Akshay started his move to category A. When Gupt came Bobby Deol badly needed a hit, he probably got his motivation from eleder bro Sunny, who can look back with pride at Vishwatma and Tridev.

If ever there was a doubt that Naseer could do out and out commerical, that doubt was never in the mind of Rajiv. Naseer is known to be very finicky with whom he works. Clearly he must have seen that spark in Rajiv to have done, Tridev, Mohra, etc. While the world will think of Naseer as an artsy actor, I can only picture Naseer as "Tirche Topiwale." A good actor is a good actor is a good actor. Rajiv knew that and did not make any differentiation between Art and Commercial directors.

His movies moved at a furious pace. My one complaint against Bollywood movies is that death scenes kill the audiences way before they kill the character....they take too long. Get on with it. In real life nobody has the time for farewell speeches. Rajiv probably realised that. His death scenes are like action sequences...quick and prompt..let's move on. Africa and Switzerland and UK have rarely been captured better on camera. His actors were loyal to him as he was to them. Character actors Inderjit Singh (Dan) Dhanoa and Tej Sapru appeared in almost all his films.

...........and then somehow, someway, he appears to have lost his magic. One can understand the reason behind the creation and failure of Love Cube (Pyar, Ishq aur Mohabbat), but it was followed by a bigger dud, Asambhav....now will Rajiv be able to put all that behind him and continue his tradition of entertaining the audience with his future products...or has the time passed him buy? Who knows? Hopefully he can recover his magic, but if not, he has created enough magical moments on celluloid in his career, to be fondly remembered. Hopefully, music and Naseer will not be the only reason to enjoy his future films....kya yeh Sambhav hain ya Asambhav.....who knows, when your creative juices dry up, when that moment in time comes, who knows and who can predict.

Sincerely,

Vivek "Krishan ne kaha Arjun se, na pyaar jata dushman se, YUDH kar, tu YUDH kar" Kumar