When history repeats itself it is usually as a farce. But for Ram Gopal Verma it is a sequel to success. The man who has given new idioms to modern-day filmmaking is reinventing new phrases for his own creativity.

Shiva, if you remember, is what set it up for Verma and Nagarjuna. It signified the birth of a new type of filmmaking, and the arrival of a hero who was not afraid to speak in the same language of violence that the baddies were so conversant.

Shiva was a trend-setter, and cinema has not been same after that. Now nearly two decades later (it was originally released in 1989), Verma has found it appropriate to visit his biggest success again.

And keeping with the times, his Shiva is an establishment man where his anger and angst are to be channelized from within the Khaki robes.

Shiva 2006 stars Mohit and Nisha Kothari in the leads and is simultaneously being made in Hindi and Telugu.

But Shiva 2006 has just one reference point from Shiva (1989). Otherwise, it is a new story and a new script with only the music (of Ilayaraja's) providing a link to a delightful past.

For Verma, it is not nostalgia but a trip to the future through the bylanes of past.

Verma has removed the campus background to a police training academy. `There are similarities who want to see them. But it is not in the characterization or the sequences. It is in the sub-text,' says the director.

Interestingly, James (one of Verma's previous ventures) was expected to take off from where Shiva left off. But it didn't happen that way. Hence Shiva 2006. And it also fits the sentiments of the times when sequels to yesterday's blockbusters are the norm (Sholay, Don are classic cases in point).

Verma says the core of idealism ---- the fight of the right against the axis of wrong ---- remains the core of both the Shivas.

Of course, Verma has also moved technically well forward.

Ilayaraja's songs are there to fill in the gaps of nostalgia. The Botany song, which became an anthem of sorts for a particular group of generation, is certain to wash up many lost days on the beaches of cinematic memory.

For the two youngsters in the lead it is good chance to emulate Nagarjuna and Amala. And that maybe a tall order.

But there is hope and a sense of fun for them.