#100day100scenes: Shiva - student politics gone awry

As the country debates the uncanny Kanhaiya and the vacuous politics at display, todays scene is from the baap of all student politics movies. Just like we wonder , why is a 28 year old still a student, even in these movies , nobody looks like a student. Our movies always showed college elections as the first tryst with goondaism and politicians exercising control of the student unions.


However like Indian cinema always does, the messaging between black and white, good and evil is very clear and those who take on the mafia put their loved ones at risk in the process. Unfortunately Shiva didnt fight with a twitter handle , you can only imagine him with the new weapon that was created specifically in this movie, the cycle chain !


Directed by Ramgopal Varma , it had that unique touch of the man who gave mafia oriented movies an edgy dollop of intensity.



The movie follows the template, a new student ( Nagarjuna) comes to a college infested with a local goon implant dominating the politics. He stands up against this goon and at the same time romances the most beautiful girl in the college. He gets threatened by the mafia first for beating their man and then they come after him. Its vengeance Ramgopal Varma style.

 Of course unlike todays world discussing liberty there were no ideological issues . It was just a brute force hunger for power and domination. Shiva had that raw edge that riveted us to our seats.

Scene description.

Shiva goes to the local tea shop. The goons are waiting for him. Goon asks him to back off from what he is doing during the college elections. An explosive face off happens. Goon is sent back. He reports to his boss Bhavani who contemplates what to do about this Shiva.

Look at the great camera angles that RGV manages to create as powerful metaphors. As Shiva enters the tea shop , he is shot from above the stove, literally showing fire in  the belly.

Yeh dhamki hai kya , was a college buzzword.


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