The cult of SHIVA.

VHS(Video Home System) or Video Cassette as widely known; was a phenomenon during 80’s and as much as torrent & youtube is the in thing nowadays, they carved a niche among people who could enjoy movies at home for a mere rent of Rs.10. Bombino, Indus, Magnum, Garware Gold, Ultra, Shemaroo & Time were the major players for Hindi Films and it was during those times a special marketing strategy came in light and it was for a movie named SHIVA.

TIME Video which had a cream of some respectable movies re-christened itself to TIME SHIVA in their logo and all were curious to know what will be the outcome. Some facts like a remake from its original Telugu version elevated the  prospects of looking forward to this movie especially after Chiranjeevi’s PRATIBANDH, which really stood out amongst the trash around as another South import was making its debut.

RANGEELA: Ram Gopal Varma’s A LOVE STORY

 “Munna: 10 ka 30…10 ka 30…

Passerby: 2 ticket dena…

Munna: Chal nikaal teen 30 k 2 note…arre 60 Rupye dena be…:

Passerby: Corner ka hai na…

Munna:  Ekdam corner ka hai; ek yeh corner ka hai ek woh corner ka.”

 Monday Morning: Around 9 AM as the advance booking window opened , was glad to be amongst few people who had lined up in front; before I had a rude awakening by the ticket giver saying ”Subah subah kaam dhanda nahi hai tum log ko, kya dekhna hai yeh movie mein, Urmila ko”. Taken aback i asked out of keen anticipation, ‘’Paper mein likha tha ki DOLBY sound rahega yeh theatre mein, woh sach hai na.” He shrugged me off saying “Usse se kya hota hai”, and after collecting couple of tickets; was smiling all way back home as I had booked a date with Rangeela on 16 Sept at Mehul, Mulund(W).

My excitement of watching this movie goes back to the first poster which was published in SCREEN magazine, where there was an advertisement every Friday which unveiled details about a movie which I still believe changed the way movies are made in Hindi.

JHAMU SUGAND presents….

A Ram Gopal Varma Film….

Of A R Rahman’s first Musical for a Hindi feature film…..