Mayank Shekhar: Why Vodka with Varma is so much fun

When political correctness is progressively becoming the fascism of our times itrsquos refreshing to come across a man who simply doesnt care how hes judged FILE PICGiven that we were still up for a few for the road while the bar in Versova we were at where WTF is now was shutting down producerdirector Ram Gopal Varma more fondly called Ramu or RGV suggested we move to his office to continue the night Who frickin drinks in an office you might think Well whose office is bloody buzzing at 130 am with such frenzy scores of visitors sitting at the reception hoping the owner might just drop in anytime and accidentally turn around someones luck Thats what I saw and thoughtWhile we were taking a Uturn to get to his workplace then called the Factory Ramu said there was a fellow possibly a dumbbell suffering from Lokhandwala complex who would stand at the divider all day hoping to catch the filmmakers Kathakali eyes He wasnt there that night The fellow neednt have been a buffed up vampire slayerThe fact is that a whole lot of actors without the typically great looks to be leading men whether Nawaz or Irrfan somewhat already owe their destiny to Manoj Bajpayees success in Ramus Satya Hed even made a hero out of Rajpal Yadav a great actor no doubt if you recallRamu and I negotiated the crowd on the pathway to his room Two musicians sitting with their box guitar caught Ramus attention He asked them to come in They played an original composition while we poured stiff Vodka on sodaBy the time I had three sips Ramu had already loved a song mdash it was a nice mellow number mdash and picked it up for his next film I actually heardrecognised that track few months later in a movie called James This is about a decade agoFilmmakers are artistes per se yes But a film is a culmination of so much capital and workforce besides talents from such varied fields that the person with the ability to organise all of it on the back of his network and an idea commands a concomitant power that is unheard of it in all other arts This power as it wont can be an aphrodisiac And that in itself can be the reason to make moviesOr so I suspected was the case with Ramu outside of his first few films Shiva Satya Company Rangeela where he had something unique to say that turned me into his fanboyThe smartest debuting talents gravitated towards him After that he had far more to give mdash chance that is to people daredevils in my eyes who like him came from nowhere to test their skills in a film industry that has largely lived within a gated community of friends friends of friends and family What you thought of those movies is another matter So long as the movies made money And so Ramu could make more moviesIve also never come across someone who so literally lives movies for movies sake staying in a fairly tiny duplex by himself with a large hall and a bedroom upstairs Once when it seemed like his bedroom wall could be cracking because of an earthquake he was more interested in the sound design of that moment than the possibility of his building collapsingClearly he sees life in cuts and motion as he told me once about glancing at a faroff mirror while he was having dinner with a beautiful woman He wondered for a second if he could edit himself out of that sceneAs you can tell hes also a consummate raconteur For years Ive dined out on his stories mdash whether about underworld tape Bal Thackeray Amitabh Bachchan Nagarjuna or the female construction worker he had the hots for while he was a civil engineer I guess Some of the stories I cant directly write here One of which I wrote about and that sort of got him into trouble When political correctness is progressively becoming the fascism of our times its shockingly refreshing to come across a man who simply doesnt care how hes judgedThis allows him to have far more fun in the process to the point that while watching some of the lunatic Jackie Shroff with a random bikini model scenes in Sarkar 3 all I could sense was Ramu sniggering at the audience sniggering at him through it all Since everybody has an advice to give on how he should shape or reshape his career I have noneHe once showed me a trailer of a forthcoming film that perhaps I didnt like very much When I got home he called to ask which was the best film I had seen lately I told him about Sabiha Sumars Khamosh Pani I dont think he was interested in the movie Youve met that director he said Is he or she as entertaining as I am I had to give to him No obviously not I saidIts true Ramu remains the most entertaining guy Ive ever met in Bombay Think I should get a Vodka with him soonMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom