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December 23, 1998
BILLBOARD
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Four guys and a gal
Bharat Shah, who usually likes those big banners, including the disastrous China-Gate has decided he'll do a smaller film for a change. Smaller, of course, is a relative term, since the film stars Naseeruddin Shah, Tara Deshpande, Naveen Andrews (of The English Patient fame), Rahul Bose (from English August) and Alexander Gifford. This, Kaizad Gustad's debut film, has been already screened at various film festivals, including those at Toronto, Vancouver and London. Naseer plays the local don and Tara, his pretty moll. Speaking of Tara, she's just got one film in the wings, name of Hamara Kanoon. She's been rather quiet after her debut in Bada Din, but that, she avers, has more to do a book she's just got published and the dreariness of the roles she's been offered than a lack of interest in cinema.
Under fire
Of course, it was the staunch Shiv Sainiks who first leapt to the defence of Indian culture, stripping off all their clothes before his house. Later, they called him up and provided him with proof that Indian languages too can be rather generously broad in their definition of decency. So the actor called for protection. While Dilip Kumar peeks anxiously between the curtains, Deepa Mehta's suddenly finds herself in the enviable role, that of the martyr. And a martyr with a film in the theatres is guaranteed to have a great time. So, her movie, which had a lacklustre run till then in the south, suddenly picked up. Now some nasty elements are either claiming it was all a publicity gimmick or that the Sena just played into Mehta's hands. The film's got so much attention that even some cable operators decided they'd chance a piracy rap and show it anyway.
Twice the Bachchan for the same price
Well, he's playing both the young and old man in Suryavansh which changes things a bit. Earlier, Abhishek Bachchan was to play the son. The film which has been shot in the Balaram Palace at Ahmedabad apart from beautiful locales in the south., looks promising. We are going by some rushes we saw here, and not what could be the final product. Meanwhile, Rakesh Mehra, who earlier directed Amitabh in his album, Eir Bir Phatte, will be directing a movie starring Amitabh, Jaya and Abhishek. Karisma or Kareena Kapoor will be playing Abhishek's heroine. While Rakesh has confirmed the news, Amitabh is still chary about admitting things to the press. A good thing too, since everything said about Bachchan and clan haven't proved true in time.
Sharmila returns
A few years ago, she stole the limelight when she acted in a television serial. In Dhadkan, starring Shilpa Shetty, Sunil Shetty and Akshay Kumar, she has a great role. Hey, hey, or so we've been told, we take care to add. She agreed to do the film primarily because it was being directed by Dharmesh Darshan who made Raja Hindustani. But there was the added bonus that since shooting was being conducted at Film City, she could also hobnob with son Saif Ali Khan, who's earning his pennies at the next set.
Shooting and surviving
Salman's darned lucky, having come out of the buck-butchering session, shaken but otherwise unhurt. Khan, ever the macho one, is nonchalantly back at the shoot of Hum Saath Saath Hain again. Yeah, the same film that caused all that trouble when he was shooting in Rajasthan. But now the film's being shot in Filmistan and the Jodhpur atmosphere is being recreated so that the Khan can act in the film again. Clearly, Sooraj Barjatya expects there'll be hell to pay if he tries to shoot again in Rajasthan, what with the Bishnois -- who hold the buck the Khan killed in high esteem -- promising to organise the rather premature demise for Salman. In fact, some of them made it clear they don't want his films screened ever again in Rajasthan. The Bishnois have already met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and tried to extract a promise from him in this regard. Meanwhile, an unconcerned Salman continues to shoot in Bombay.
Sound performance
The poems were by the late Dharamvir Bharati. Puri, who was a very close associate of Bharati, did the thing free of charge for Bharati's widow, Pushpa. Amrish had the audience in the palm of his hand when recited from the Kanupriya, a collection of poems which was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Bombay. After hearing through the 13 poems -- about Radha's love for Krishna -- in rapt silence, the audience clapped loud and long at the end. Trouble is, they were clapping more for Amrish than the poetry. Ah, well.
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-- V S Srinivasan | |||||||||||||
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