Dr. Ravi & Mr.
Hyde is a comedy about a doctor who goes to film school to make a film about
being a doctor. It’s produced, written and directed by and starring Dr. Ravi
Godse, who plays himself, or at least an approximation thereof. Even the thick,
vanity-project scent which that description gives off, though, doesn’t fully do
justice to the eye-gouging amateurishness on display herein.
The movie opens with a sing-songy tune set under the lyrics,
“Movie/I wanna make a movie/A groovy movie/It’s the dream of my life…” Seriously.
It then segues into a halting, accented introduction from Godse (above center), who sets the
scene, and describes, without a hint of irony, “sleeping comfortably in the
arms of the one I loved.” We then cut to Godse sleeping in a queen-sized bed, a
good four to five feet apart from his wife (Olga Segall), who is also a doctor.
Incongruities like these (Godse is Indian, Segall appears Latino, and the pair’s
young son is white) are a hallmark of this production, whose first 20 minutes or
so will have you wanting to slam your head against a nearby table or book, if
only to numb the pain of what’s unfolding. A funny thing then happens, though.
The movie doesn’t so much necessarily become good as become just slightly more competent. The urge to do harm to
yourself through consuming massive quantities of ice cream slowly passes.
you could say it’s loosely inspired by something like Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda, with a pinch of Living in Oblivion and mistaken
indentity mob caper thrown in for good measure. Like many men his age, Dr. Ravi
finds himself halfway through his life having not yet achieved the greatness he
anticipated. He is rich (as he tells us many times), but is sick of being
constantly on-call, and being accosted on the street by the flower guy for a
Viagra prescription. Sure, he could buy a sports car or have an affair with a young
babe to help him through his midlife crisis, but Dr. Ravi yearns for more. His
search for personal fulfillment takes him from the halls of a hospital to what he
believes is his true calling — directing and producing a true “timeless classic”
motion picture, a movie that just so happens to be an adaptation of a novel he’s
relatively recently self-published. (What inspired him to pen that is a mystery
hopefully left unexplored in an imaginary prequel.)
agents, reluctant colleagues, an unenthusiastic wife and even the mafia. From
the streets of
sun-swept shores of
Dr. Ravi’s search takes him near and far, and eventually brings him to the
realization that it’s not important what he does or how well he does it, as long
as he just does something.
bandied about in his home, but Godse, whose novel was apparently a Top 5
bestseller in India, is an awful actor, and though the film’s ensemble cast features
American Radio Hall of Fame inductee Myron Cope as well as Emmy-winning TV
personality Dave Crawley, for the most part this is strictly amateur hour. There
are multiple incidences of an actor looking at the camera, or visibly toeing
their cue, and the ADR is at times atrocious, recalling the scene in Grindhouse
where Tarantino’s squirrelly bartender in the Death Proof segment is purposefully looped from off-camera.
bad, all things considered. And where Godse scores is in some of the movie’s sardonic
asides and ping-pong dialogue exchanges, like when Dr. Ravi’s book agent advises
him to drum up controversy to help his movie’s chances at getting off the
ground, and offers his help thusly: “I have contacts in the Indian government —
I can get it banned.” The problem, though, is that the story is extremely
indulgent and just not very inviting. Tone is a big problem; one minute you’re
supposed to be taking things seriously, but that’s hard to mesh with a harridan
wife and buffoonish film school colleagues.
stops and a gallery of trailers for other films, but no other bonus materials —
surprising for a film made with such personal gusto. Or who knows… maybe there’s
a feature-length documentary on its making just around the bend. To order the movie via Amazon, click here; to order the movie via Half.com, click here. D- (Movie) D (Disc)