Kitschy, trashy, B-grade, disreputable… call them what you will but the Ramsay horror films from the 1980s are seeing the kind of resurrection reminiscent of the monsters in them. The films now enjoy a burgeoning cult-ish following, especially on social media, and there’s more than just ironic viewing at play. Mondo Macabro, a Canadian DVD brand (essentially the Criterion Collection of “the wild side of World Cinema”) has several Ramsay titles. Often garnering millions of views on YouTube and the most encouraging of comments, the re-emergence of the Ramsay line-up is indicative of nostalgia and a time of innocence when these films were actually scary.
Despite the popularity of their films in the 70s and 80s ( Purana Mandir was the second highest grosser of 1984), the Ramsay family, now into its third generation in the business, has predominantly remained outsiders, with hardly any media mention or coverage. With his book Don’t Disturb The Dead , Shamya Dasgupta succeeds in revealing more about a family that believed in churning out cheaply-made horror films in assembly-line fashion. Excerpts from an interview with the sports writer-turned-author:
It’s unlikely that one has not heard of the Ramsays. Yet very little is known about the seven brothers and their lives.
That’s what motivated me to pursue the book. It was just a great story. They were successful and fascinating and it didn’t make sense that there was nothing much written about them. As a result, I had very little secondary information to fall back on and I didn’t know where to start. It’s a double-edged sword... the fact that it was being written at all was exciting.
Do you remember the first time you watched a Ramsay film?
It was back when I was 13 in Kolkata. There was this lady who worked in our house and I was friends with her children. I remember going to a basti with them where they would screen films in a make-shift set-up. The film was Veerana and I remember feeling really, really scared. I couldn’t sleep that night. It was also because I had watched it in a strange new place, outside the comforts of home. When I watched it again much later, though, I wasn’t really scared. It looked tacky and cheap. But that is the case with a lot of old films. I watched the original Star Trek recently and even that seemed so tacky.
In hindsight, it’s easy to dismiss their films, calling them lowbrow or sleazy, but how self-aware do you think the Ramsays themselves were of the films they were making?
The patriarch F.U. Ramsay (seated) and his sons.
Honestly, I don’t think sleaze was a big part of their films. It was just something they talked up and used in posters to attract audiences because their films were A-rated anyway. In fact, the heroines in their films dressed just like their counterparts in Raj Kapoor films. Of course, the homophobic jokes and the misogyny are really jarring but that’s common in films even today.
When I spoke to some of the brothers, I could sense they were aware of what they were making. But they also truly believed in their work. You must look at these guys as independent filmmakers at a time when top producers dominated the show. Those producers always got the best time slots in the best theatres. In a way, all outsiders had their cards dealt to them. Because they were being edged out from the main centres, they needed to make films that would work in smaller towns. As one of the brothers said, their films would work in towns and villages that didn’t even have a railway station.
But did you get the sense that they would have liked to break into the mainstream... the ‘A’ list, so to say?
Yes, I think so. They did try to appeal to a ‘classier’ audience, and films such as Ghungroo Ki Awaaz (1981, starring Vijay Anand and Rekha), Hotel (1981) and Telephone (1985) were attempts at that. When they made films for other producers, they would shoot in fairly good locations and the overall quality of the films was better. As producers, they somehow didn’t back themselves enough, I feel. I guess it was a business strategy and they were happy to keep doing what had worked by spending very little money.
We’re seeing a revival of the Ramsay films thanks to social media. I understand the popularity of ironically watching them but is there a bit of nostalgia as well?
Shamya Dasgupta.
It’s a combination of both. There are Facebook groups such as ‘I Love Trashy Films’ where the Ramsays are often discussed but I don’t think the millions of YouTube views are just because people enjoy ‘So-Bad-They’re-Good’ films. There are also some genuine aficionados who appreciate them. There have even been academic writings on their work and they’ve achieved a cult status now.
In your book, the broad themes of most Ramsay films have been interpreted as a clash between the ancient and modern.
These movies were made in the 70s and 80s in an India that was changing. But the main audience for these films was in the villages, where rituals, customs and superstitions were still relevant, unlike in the cities. These movies would often begin with a car breaking down in front of an old abandoned house in a remote village. There would be a young couple travelling in it, often wearing modern clothes, seeking shelter because there’s a storm approaching. As a result, they would go into the abandoned haunted house, disturbing a dormant monster.
The car letting them down is a sign of modernity failing against the force of nature. Even to save the couple, the solution needed to come from an ancient tantrik . It’s like finding an ancient solution to the problem. I think the audiences connected to that.
What I find so fascinating about the book is how it delves into the intricacies of a joint Indian family and their family business. It’s like each of the seven brothers had a character and part to play, taking care of the various departments of filmmaking.
Exactly. Like that incident where one of the brothers dressed up as a monster and barged into a room to scare a distributor into buying their film Darwaza (1978). The family itself is fascinating. The father, F.U. Ramsay, migrated from Karachi after Partition and started afresh. And when his sons said they wanted to make films, he took all of them to Kashmir for three months, trained them in filmmaking and produced a film for them. For a traditional Sindhi family, this was a huge leap and he got the entire family involved. Just imagine what would have happened to them if their films had failed?
Shamya Dasgupta will be a part of The Hindu Lit for Life 2018 to be held in Chennai on January 14,15,16. For more details and registration, visit www.thehindulfl.com
