Friday, August 1, 2008

The Reel Hero unreeled

One of the most fascinating aspects of a RGV underworld movie is perhaps the character of the hero – the protagonist of the movie. As mentioned earlier, he is silent, reserved and someone who delivers the punch directly instead of aimlessly rambling about his capabilities. The RGV hero also doesn’t have a filmy reason to join the underworld – he doesn’t join mafia to take revenge on those who killed his parents or raped his sister/wife, he does it just to survive and loves what he is doing. The hero doesn’t have a heart of gold. On the contrary he is cold blooded and ruthless. As seen from the character of the protagonist in the movie ‘Satya’, he has no qualms about making use of his girlfriend to get his job done, nor causing a stampede in a theater and killing innocent people to escape from the cops.

The most important aspect of an RGV movie is that it doesn’t glorify the gangsters just because the hero is a part of it. There are no sermons by the cops or gangsters either about how unjust society is. RGV gives the police their due and depicts them as honest and dedicated people who take on the gangsters in a ruthless manner. They even win finally showing that the law of the land is above everyone. There are not many movies in Bollywood where a hero is shot dead and meets a gruesome end like a ‘Satya’ or a ‘Company’ did. It is perhaps RGV’s way of showing the reality on the big screen and reiterating the truth that crime never pays in the long run. This is exactly the semiotic connotation that RGV seems to convey to the audience through the story of his protagonist who is the signifier in this case.

Image3: The hero is a mortal after all. The underworld dons of Company and Satya brutally killed in typical mafia style

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