Ram Gopal Varma Blog about A Fighter’s Mind

Ram Gopal Varma Blogs
A Fighter’s Mind

ram gopal Varma

20 September 2009

There was an extreme excitement in all us youngsters at Panjagutta Colony in Hyderabad sometime in the early 70’s as somehow word got around that a new film called “Enter the Dragon” was coming starring a new actor called ‘Bruce Lee’. It was supposed to have some mind blowing martial arts sequences. I never heard of the word Karate or Kung Fu before but when I finally got to see the film Bruce Lee just blew me away or shall I say kicked me away.

To say that I was awestruck and mesmerized by him will be an understatement. I used to cycle all the way to Narayanaguda’s Sreenivasa Theater which was 7 km away and saw “Enter the Dragon” 17 times and after that his subsequent film “Return of the Dragon” 23 times which was made earlier but released in India later.

I was obsessed about knowing of him and knowing about him to the smallest and minutest details possible.

Satyendra once said that if Bruce Lee was 6 inches taller he would not have become the legend he was. He explained that because he was just 5’7” and so small built that everybody and anybody could aspire to become like him. Nobody could have aspired to be a 6’2” heavyweight boxer like a Muhammad Ali or a Joe Frazier. That’s because they look almost unreal and hence unreachable whereas an average guy will be the size of Bruce Lee. What Satyendra said explains the rush of millions of people across the world joining Martial Arts schools after the release of “Enter the Dragon”, of which I was one.

Bruce Lee was a dream like man who I and many many others wanted to be and one what we believed we could become and the actual existence of Bruce Lee through his portrayal in “Enter the Dragon” was the proof that our dream if we work hard enough definitely could become a reality. Bruce Lee for me was like a real life Howard Roark. Needless to say after a few sessions of trying to learn Martial Arts I realized how impossible it is to even reach anywhere near Bruce Lee, I abandoned my dream of becoming Bruce Lee and settled for the far less painful and much easier art of filmmaking.

But inspite of abandoning Martial Arts my study of Bruce Lee and his thinking created a huge impact on me in various ways which would in time influence both my life and my films.

Lee said “True understanding of the art of fighting begins when one sheds set patterns, and true freedom of expression in art occurs only when one is beyond systems. Regardless of their many legendary and colourful origins (by a wise, mysterious monk, by a special messenger in a dream, or in a holy revelation) styles are eventually created by living men and hence they should not be taken as a gospel truth. Man, the living creating individual should always be more important than any existing style”.

These words of Bruce Lee made me feel that there is nothing wrong with being different. Being different means being an individual. If I can’t be an individual martial artist atleast let me be an individual human being and an individual filmmaker. “I am all styles and no style”, said Bruce Lee. That’s where my “I am all isms and no ism” in the context of explaining “Ramuism” came from.

Documentary filmmaker George Tan who researched Bruce Lee a lot said Bruce’s philosophizing came when he needed to develop an image, a device to market his martial art. He realized that there was more to be made from philosophizing about his art than from punching or getting punched in the face.

Whether George Tan is right or not in his study of Bruce Lee, if you realize many of my critics and detractors say that I am more into creating a so-called effect of my thinking on my movies than on my movies by themselves.

Mao said, “Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless”. Lee added to this “and add specifically what is your own”.

This too you would have noticed has a strong resonance to my thinking.

Regarding essential and existential discipline Bruce Lee often used to quote Rabindranath Tagore.

“I have on my table a violin string. It is free.
I twist one end of it and it turns. It is free.
But it is not free to do what it is supposed to do.
That is to produce music.
So I take it and fix it in my violin
And tighten it till it is taut.
Only then it is free
to be a violin string”

The fact that the greatest fighter with the fittest body ever and the soundest mind ever could just die of some bodily reaction to some stupid pain killer was inconceivable to me. I can’t ever forget the grief I felt for his death. It was a mixture of a stunned belief and a sense of almost feeling betrayed. The fact that a man like that at the age of thirty-two could die just like that, was shattering to say the least. As I started thinking deeper, I realized that inspite of all the inspirations he provoked the bottom line was that a symbol of absolute perfection like him could die too.

The most visible and simplistic influence of Bruce Lee on me is of me copying the plot line of “Return of the Dragon” directed by Bruce Lee himself for my debut film “SHIVA”.

In “Return of the Dragon” a guy comes newly into town to work in a restaurant where this girl and some others in the restaurant are being harassed by the local goons who are run by some underworld elements. Bruce stands up to them which creates a series of action sequences and the climax is a solo fight between him and Chuck Norris in a Colosseum.

In “SHIVA” a guy comes newly into town to study in a college where this girl and some others in the campus are being harassed by the local goons who are run by some underworld elements. Shiva stands up to them which creates a series of action sequences and the climax is a solo fight between him and Raghuvaran on a terrace.

Also in the action scenes of “SHIVA” I tried to emulate the choreographical genius of Brue Lee inspite of it not being a martial arts film. Bruce Lee was the only action choreographer who to my knowledge understood how to bring in emotion into a fight sequence.

I am posting here a scene from “Enter the Dragon” where Bruce Lee talks of his philosophy towards the art of fighting and a fight sequence which I think is the greatest hand combat scene ever filmed. Just as an exercise watch the fighting philosophy scene and in the background of what he spoke on his philosophy towards the art of fighting watch the fight sequence and you will see the unmistakable reflection of his philosophy in both his punches and his kicks.

Having said all this and inspite of how much I grieved his death, and however harsh it might sound, I am glad that he died when he died as I in no way in hell would ever have wanted to see a 70 year old Bruce Lee.

P.S: If you guys promise not to laugh, I am posting here a couple of pictures of mine practicing the kicks of Bruce Lee.

ram gopal Varma

Fight Sequence (Enter the Dragon)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maKILHJjD78
Fight Technique (Enter the Dragon)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxc0ovseeEg

Note: Thanks to Ram Gopal Varma for giving us special permission to republish his blogs in idlebrain.com (visit rgvzoomin.com to visit Ram Gopal Varma's blog)

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