Earlier this Friday, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma explained why he has a love-hate relationship with pop icon Michael Jackson. The long post starts with a seemingly incendiary statement: "I hate Michael." Then, he shared an incident that came to his mind after his recent viewing of the pop legend's biopic, starring the singer's nephew Jaafar Jackson.
Ram Gopal Varma wrote, "After watching Michael film , my memory went back to that horrible day June 25 th , 2009 when I slept late with the television still murmuring like a ghost in the darkness of my room , and as I groggily woke up in the morning and my eyes went to the screen to see those terrible white letters against black: “Michael Jackson is Dead.” For several long seconds,this must be a nightmare, I thought. Why the hell would I even dream something so horrible? But the banner on the tv stayed and the news ticker kept crawling."
The fact that Jackson was indeed dead dawned on the filmmaker a while after seeing the headlines from back in the day. "I finally realised the impossible had happened," the filmmaker wrote, reminiscing about the sad day in the world of entertainment.
Then, Ram Gopal Varma recalled an incident from back when he was pursuing engineering. "Back in my engineering college days in Vijayawada, on January 2nd 1984 , a friend dragged me into a dingy video parlour, insisting I had to see something. The lights got switched off, and then THRILLER hit me like a punch in the gut It was not just a song or a dance. It was an invasion. My eyes, conditioned by a lifetime of mediocrity were violently pried open. The production, the choreography, the seamless ecstasy blended into one single divine entity .. it was spectacle on a level I had never imagined possible and at the centre of that storm was him. MICHAEL JACKSON," the filmmaker wrote.
The director expressed his admiration for how the King of Pop would move while performing on stage and in his music videos. "He didn’t move like a human being. He glided, he exploded , he floated, he commanded the screen like a supernatural entity who just entered a human body for a few minutes of absolute dominance. I walked out of that parlour in a complete daze, my heart racing, my mind reeling. This cannot be a real person. He has to be GOD or the least a fantasy sculpted by the gods to bless us mortals on Earth."
The director added that Michael Jackson's songs after 'Thriller,' such as 'Beat It,' 'Billie Jean,' 'Smooth Criminal,' 'Black or White,' 'Remember the Time,' and 'Bad,' only "raised the bar higher". Further, RGV said, referring to The King of Pop, "His work became an unreachable benchmark, a constant source of both inspiration and humility. And yes like I said , It was never just the dance. never just the voice. It was always the aura. That man was like a gravitational force not subject to control."
RGV added that he never bothered about the controversies and scandals involving Michael Jackson, describing these as mere "background noise". Arguing that the controversies humanised Jackson, the filmmaker said that he hates the pop legend for becoming human and for dying. "He betrayed my fantasy. He left heaven and became mortal. I hate you, Michael, for turning my dream into a nightmare And I love you. I love you more than I can express in words. Wherever you are now, in whatever dimension, I am sure you are moonwalking across galaxies, creating space storms, with a brilliance which even the stars cannot contain. And I will carry that daze you gave me in that Vijayawada video parlour till I die," Ram Gopal Varma signed off.
His post comes shortly after Netflix announced a release date for Michael Jackson: The Verdict, its upcoming documentary exploring the singer's tumultuous life.
