YAADEIN…
Mukta Arts Ltd.’s Yaadein… is the story of a father and his three grown-up daughters. It is based on the age-old Sanskrit saying that once your children are sixteen years of age, you must be a friend to them rather than just a parent.
NRI Jackie Shroff is a widower in London, who one day decides to come back home to India with his three daughters. Back in London, he has a very wealthy friend whose handsome son (Hrithik Roshan) treats him (Jackie) as a friend. When Jackie’s wife (Rati Agnihotri) was alive, she was more a mother to Hrithik than his actual mother (Supriya Karnik). Hrithik falls in love with Jackie’s youngest daughter (Kareena Kapoor). Without knowing this, Jackie himself, on behalf of Hrithik’s parents, finalises a proposal for Hrithik’s marriage to the daughter of a wealthy businessman in London. While Kareena Kapoor respects her father’s feelings, when he tells her that Hrithik’s parents would never accept her as their daughter-in-law due to their unending greed for status and money, Hrithik revolts. Ultimately, true love triumphs.
While the base of the story is good and even quite contemporary, the screenplay (Subhash Gahi, Aatish Kapadia and Anuradha Tiwari) is plain poor. The passion and the soul are completely missing. The characterisations are sketchy and even such important things as what Jackie Shroff does for a living are explained much after the audience break their heads over it. Further, the characters travel from India to London and vice versa so fast and so often that one wonders what’s going on.
The film looks like a disjointed effort with little concern for continuity or logic. Although the impression given in the initial reels is that the father will be a friend of his three daughters, there is not a single scene in the entire film which establishes this aspect of their relationship. Everything the father does or doesn’t do is what any other father in his place would do or wouldn’t do, never what a friend would or wouldn’t do. Resultantly, even after the three daughters and the father vow to henceforth live as friends — an important scene in the scheme of things — their relationship remains what it used to be before the vows. For instance, one daughter threatens to kill herself if she is not allowed to marry the boy of her choice, because of which the helpless father relents rather than lose his daughter forever. Thus, the film’s story base remains just in the dialogues, not in the actions of the characters. The title of the film has no relevance to the subject.
The entire episode of the cycling competition in Malaysia looks terribly contrived. That Kareena Kapoor is a cycling champion is sought to be conveyed when she goes to Malaysia to participate in the international competition! While there, why on earth would she ask Hrithik — whom she has known since childhood — to behave like a stranger, is not clear. Hrithik winning her love by saving her from a crocodile-infested jungle looks childish and passé, to say the least. Even after that, the romance between the two is not youthful or fresh. Rather, the love is sought to be established more through dialogues than incidents. Before the romance starts, the chemistry between Hrithik and Kareena suggests that they are already in love. Therefore, Kareena’s declaration that she doesn’t believe in the concept of love-before-marriage looks fake.
Not just the romance, even the emotional bonding between Jackie and his wife or between the three daughters and their mother or the lack of bonding between Hrithik and his parents come across to the viewers through dialogues. Strange as it may sound, there is not a single scene between Rati Agnihotri and her three daughters — there are just a few flashes. Consequently, when the three girls cry whenever they remember their mother, the audience feel no sympathy towards them. Almost all the emotions in the film fall flat because of the aforesaid flaws. A couple of emotions in the initial reels do touch the heart but they are few.
Comedy is almost conspicuous by its absence. Hrithik’s imitation of Jim Carrey (done brilliantly) is an excellent relief but that’s about the only worthwhile comedy in the film. Like insufficient romance, emotions and comedy, there’s also minimal drama in the film. Dialogues (Subhash Ghai and Amrik Gill) are so-so. The film’s pace is slow and there’s too much verbosity and less of action.
The in-film advertising of Coke, Pass-Pass and dot-coms gets jarring after a point of time as scenes and dialogues appear to have been accommodated to only give the products visibility.
Too much talk about share prices and company mergers limits the film’s appeal to city audience. Public in smaller places will get put off by share bazaar jargon. The portrayal of grey characters, instead of black, is yet another point which will restrict the film’s appeal to cities mainly.
Climax and pre-climax are shockingly weird. Hrithik taking his story of love into a meeting of merger of two companies looks rather misplaced. Why would company bosses, played by junior artistes, decide whether Hrithik should marry Kareena? Even if they are kind enough to take a decision on behalf of the two lovers, doesn’t it undermine the heroism of the hero? The concept may be novel but it is also rather ridiculous. Another aspect of the climax, which is jarring, is the sudden change of heart of Hrithik’s mother (Supriya Karnik) coupled with so much importance being given to her as also to Hrithik’s fiancée (Kiran Rathod). While these two women assume so much significance in the climax, the heroine (Kareena Kapoor) is reduced to being a mere spectator! The change of heart of Hrithik’s money-hungry uncle also looks too hurried! In the pre-climax, Hrithik’s father chides him for mixing up family matters with company matters when actually it is he (father) who has mixed up the two by fixing Hrithik’s marriage to serve the ulterior motive of upping his company’s share price. What is worse, hero Hrithik accepts his father’s firing and doesn’t point out that what he is saying is ridiculous! Also, how and when Hrithik’s family fell on bad times is simply not explained.
Coming to the performances now. Jackie Shroff does well in dramatic scenes. He is especially good when he is insulted by the hero’s uncle. Hrithik Roshan does not have a role to match his superstar image. Although he is present all through, he becomes secondary in the scheme of things because the story is about a father and his daughters. This may sadden his fans. Hrithik, however, acts ably. His dances are brilliant. Kareena Kapoor excels in emotional scenes. She is over-confident in a couple of scenes in the first half, but is natural when conveying pain and hurt. Her looks are not too glamours and her costumes and overall look leave a lot to be desired. Amrish Puri is fair in a role that gives him limited scope. Kiran Rathod is average. Avni Vasa and Himani Rawat are alright as Kareena’s sisters, but prettier faces were the demand of the roles. Supriya Karnik does well except in the climax where she is average. Anang Desai passes muster. Rati Agnihotri, from the memories about whom the film gets its title, should have had a more substantive role. She looks very pretty. Dolly Bindra leaves a mark. Others pass muster.
Bogged down by a dull script, Subhash Ghai falters in his narration which looks uninspired. While decent production values and a good canvas lend the film a fair visual appeal, the content and presentation fail to grip the viewers’ minds.
Anu Malik’s music is excellent. The title song, ‘Eli re Eli’, ‘Dil mile’ (superb picturisation), ‘Chanda taare’ (no proper placing) and ‘Chamakti shaam’ are well-tuned. Photography (Kabir Lal) is mind-blowing. Editing is weak. The way the scenes are interwoven, re-editing to the extent desired would be an impossibility. Sharmishtha Roy’s sets are good but not half as innovative as they usually are. Technically, of a good standard.
On the whole, four of the important pillars of any entertainer — romance, emotions, drama and comedy — are all very weak in Yaadein…. Its flying start and holidays ahead are the best news for its distributors because collections will not sustain for long, thanks to the lack of merits. Considering its heavy price and the extraordinary terms offered by exhibitors, it will entail disastrous losses to distributors and exhibitors all over.
Released on 27-7-2001 at Metro and 22 other cinemas of Bombay thru Mukta Movies Distributors. Publicity: very good. Opening: bumper. …….Also released all over. Opening was much below the mark in several places.
LATEST POSITION
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Aks comes crashing down. 2nd week Bombay 19,73,123 (51%) from 7 cinemas (9 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 7,76,225 from 6 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Jamnagar 26,875; Pune 8,22,877 from 4 cinemas, Solapur 82,588 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 37,980, Sangli 64,407; Delhi 17,32,464 from 6 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Lucknow 3,65,209, Agra 76,000, Varanasi 1,04,776, Allahabad 95,235, Bareilly (6 days) 46,270; Calcutta 6,91,420 from 3 cinemas; Nagpur 82,388, Jabalpur (6 days) 52,708, Amravati 65,319, Raipur (6 days) 58,268, Bhilai (6 days) 38,000, Durg 24,547 (1st 91,358), Bilaspur 46,045; Indore 60,534 (2 on F.H.); Jaipur 1,93,606 (20.12%) from 2 cinemas, Jodhpur 2,54,398, total 9,55,406, Ajmer 28,072; Hyderabad (gross) 4,25,593 from 2 cinemas (1 on F.H.).
Tum Bin… 2nd week Bombay 8,46,080 (60.51%) from 5 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,67,443 from 2 cinemas; Pune 3,52,154 from 3 cinemas, Solapur (7 shows) 37,386; Delhi 10,23,519 from 4 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Lucknow 2,29,437, Agra 1,32,000, Varanasi 1,04,005, Allahabad 1,20,573; Calcutta 7,23,795 from 6 cinemas (other cinemas on F.H.); Nagpur 87,521, Jabalpur (5 days) 80,416, 1st week Amravati 1,16,802, 1 week Dhule (6 days) 47,036, 2nd week Raipur (6 days) 35,904; Jaipur 1,18,750 (24.22%), 1st week Jodhpur (29 shows) 2,91,664 (38.81%), 1 week Ajmer (29 shows, gross) 1,25,431; 2nd Hyderabad (gross) 8,46,532 from 3 cinemas.
Lagaan (21 shows all over) 6th week Bombay 55,20,806 (75%) from 13 cinemas (9 on F.H.), total for 6 weeks 3,83,77,014; Ahmedabad 5,79,944 from 4 cinemas; Pune 10,99,159 from 4 cinemas, Solapur (14 shows) 55,862, Sangli 56,070; Delhi (TF) 41,18,468 from 9 cinemas; Lucknow 2,77,664, Agra 1,16,000, Varanasi 67,311, Allahabad 56,670, Bareilly (6 days) 28,476; Calcutta 7,50,874 from 3 cinemas; Nagpur 3,38,524 from 3 cinemas, 5th week Jabalpur (6 days) 47,531, 6th week Amravati 1,06,898, Raipur (6 days) 75,649, Bhilai (6 days) 32,952, Jalgaon 69,390, Wardha 37,501, Chandrapur 1,00,785, total 8,14,904; Indore 79,613; Jaipur 2,55,107 (42.96%), Ajmer 40,547; Hyderabad (gross) 12,53,723 from 6 cinemas (3 in noon, 2 on F.H.); 3rd week Davangere 1,23,645; 1st Vijayawada (27 shows) 4,34,435.
Gadar Ek Prem Katha 6th week Bombay 54,86,251 (73.95%) from 14 cinemas (9 on F.H.), total for 6 weeks 4,25,93,514; Ahmedabad 7,19,999 from 5 cinemas, Jamnagar 96,113 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 17,57,656 from 8 cinemas (2 in matinee), Solapur 2,28,797 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 1,19,174 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 60,35,402 from 16 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Lucknow 6,74,937 from 2 cinemas, Varanasi 2,81,921, Allahabad 2,00,000, Bareilly (6 days) 88,353; 5th week Calcutta 8,48,805 from 5 cinemas; 6th week Nagpur 4,92,479 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,70,194, Amravati 2,01,133, Dhule 1,07,210, total 12,35,476, Raipur (6 days) 1,30,442, Bhilai (6 days) 85,911, Jalgaon 1,95,441, 2nd Gondia (6 days) 1,35,444, 6th week Wardha 77,182, total 8,18,317, Rajnandgaon 55,000; Indore 1,84,307 (1 on F.H.), Bhopal 2,21,723 (5th 2,11,773), total 16,94,888; Jaipur 10,71,058 (74.80%) from 2 cinemas, Ajmer (gross) 2,78,249, Bikaner 2,31,446; Hyderabad (gross) 19,00,364 from 7 cinemas; 4th week Mangalore 69,483; Davangere 1,37,915; 1st week Vijayawada 2,11,263, 5th week Visakhapatnam 1,03,007.
STOP PRESS
‘YAADEIN…’ RE-EDITED
Subhash Ghai, in deference to public demand, has re-edited Yaadein…. He has chopped off scenes of six minutes’ running time from the post-interval portion from today (28th July).
The film now has a running time of a little over three hours.
GAIETY, GALAXY, GEMINI CHANGE HANDS
Bookings at Gaiety, Galaxy and Gemini cinemas of Bombay will now be done by Bombay exhibitor-distributor Vinay Choksey. The cinemas will be controlled by Om Exhibition. They were controlled by the Thadani Group for almost 25 years till now.
Vinay Choksey will begin booking of Gaiety and Galaxy from 10th August, and of Gemini, from 24th August.
Glamour and Gem cinemas in the same complex will continue to remain under Rajesh Thadani’s control.
ILLEGAL PRINTS RACKET BUSTED
In a significant development this week, the Bombay police, assisted by Malhotra Copyright Protection Agency, unearthed a major racket involving supply of illegal prints to cinemas. Earlier, on 28th May, the U.P. police had seized illegal prints of Jodi No. 1 from Sajan Cinema at Kakod (U.P.). The subsequent investigation traced the prints to the film’s South Gujarat sub-distributors, Kiran Kataria and Ali Mohammad Noor Mohammad. Upon receiving information about the supply of illegal prints, the Bombay police raided the duo’s premises at Malad (East) in Bombay on 23rd July and seized 24 reels of Fiza, which were lying with the duo without the permission of the producers or the Bombay distributors. The culprits have been taken into police custody.
KHURSHEED ALTAF DEAD
Khursheed Altaf, yesteryears’ heroine and elder sister of Meena Kumari and wife of old-time actor Altaf, expired in Bombay on 21st July. She was 74.
Khursheed started her film career at the age of 13 with Anand Kumar’s Zameen. As a heroine opposite Altaf, who was to later become her husband, she starred in Chheen Le Azadi, Bichhde Balam and Ghunghat.
Khursheed is survived by two daughters and a son.
‘YAADEIN…’ PIRACY
Rumours were rife in the industry that pirated DVDs and VCDs of Yaadein… were out in the market in India on 25th July, two days before the film opened theatrically. A Gujarat exhibitor told Information, “I myself have purchased a DVD of the film for Rs. 1,800 and seen it at home with my family on 25th.”
‘PAANCH’ REFUSED CERTIFICATE
Tutu Sharma’s Paanch has been refused certificate by the CBFC as it has been found to be too bold. Tutu will show the film to the revising committee.
The film is written and directed by Anurag Kashyap.
PRIDE OF NATION AWARD FOR SUBHASH CHANDRA
Zee chairman Subhash Chandra was selected for the Pride of the Nation award by the Citizens’ Council of Dehradun for launching 14 entertainment and news channels. Uttaranchal governor S.S. Barnala presented the award comprising a trophy, a citation and a shawl to him on 22nd July in Dehradun.
LEGENDARY SIVAJI GANESAN PASSES AWAY
State Funeral For Thespian
Veteran star of Tamil cinema, Villupuram Chinnia Pillai Ganesan, more popularly known as Sivaji Ganesan, died in Madras at a private hospital on 21st July. He had been ailing for some time. He was 74.
Sivaji Ganesan was revered like God by his fans whose number was legion. He earned the respectful title of ‘Nadigar Thilagam’ (Samrat among actors). He came to be called Sivaji Ganesan after his depiction of Chhatrapati Shivaji in a stage play early in his career and the name remained with him thereafter.
The star of 300 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films rose to stardom in 1952 with the Tamil film Parasakti, his first film, written by former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi. His last film was Pasumpon, made in 1995. Some of his other acclaimed films are Andha Nal, Pasa Malar, Bagapirivinai, Padikatha Methai, Vietnam Veedu, Thiruvilayadal, Mudal Mariyathai, Veerapandiya Kottabomman, Thevar Magan, Padayappa and Navarathiri (in which he played nine different characters). Sivaji Ganesan had played a variety of roles in his films in a career spanning almost 50 years, but he was most famous for portraying legendary characters like Shivaji, poet Subramania Bharathi, saint poet Thiruvalluvar and freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. He had portrayed almost all the Gods on the screen.
He was awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan and was honoured with the most prestigious National Award for a film man — the Dadasaheb Phalke award — in 1997. In 1996, the French government honoured him with the highest civilian title — Chevalier.
Sivaji’s stint in politics was not luminous like MGR’s. He was a member of the Congress and later, in 1987, he floated his own party, Tamizhaga Munnetra Munnani which merged with the Janata Dal in 1989.
The mortal remains of the thespian were consigned to flames on 23rd July after the State police presented a gun salute. Before that, his body was kept for public darshan for two days when thousands and thousands of people came to pay their last respects. M. Karunanidhi and all the leading stars of Tamil cinema, besides chief minister Jayalalitha, attended the funeral. The funeral procession took nearly four hours to cross the 10 km. route. Almost the entire film industry joined the procession and even the leading female artistes walked a good distance before they got into a truck to save them from the heavy rush of people. The police had a tough time ensuring that the funeral convoy moved ahead. All through the route, cries and wails of his fans rent the air. Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Ilaiyaraja, Sarath Kumar and Vijayakanth, who travelled in the cortege of Sivaj Ganesan, also wept. All through the way, people chanted ‘Sivaji amar rahein’ and ‘Parashakti Sivaji ki jai’.
The Sri Lanka minister for arts and culture, Allavi Moulana, was among the dignitaries who attended the funeral. The Film Producers’ Guild of India Ltd. offered its condolences to Ganesan’s actor-son, Prabhu, saying that the vacuum created by his demise could not be filled.
Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, in his condolence message, called the veteran a legendary actor. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other leaders also condoled his death.
The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce has proposed the Central government to institute a National Award for the best actor in the name of Sivaji Ganesan. The South Indian Film Artistes’ Association requested the Tamil Nadu government to build a memorial for Sivaji in the same manner that memorials were erected for MGR and C.N. Annadurai. Kamal Haasan thanked Jayalalitha for giving state honour to the thespian. The only other film personality to have been given this honour was Satyajit Ray.
The film industry in Madras remained closed for three days.
YOU ASKED IT
Which film was the first box-office hit?
– Dadasaheb Phalke’s LANKA DAHAN (1917) which ran for 23 weeks. The money collected at the ticket counters had to be transported in bullock-carts with armed guards!
What is the likely loss to distributors of Aks going to be?
– In the region of 50 to 75 lakh per major territory.
Name two all-time disasters of Hindi cinema.
– LOVE AND GOD and DEEDAR-E-YAAR.
How many Chhattisgarhi films are being made? Is Satish Jain, whose Mor Chhainha Bhuinya set off the fashion of Chhattisgarhi films, making another one?
– About 30 to 35 Chhattisgarhi films are in various stages of production and planning. Satish Jain will soon be starting his next Chhattisgarhi film.
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Not Uniformly Impressive
Subhash Ghai. Hrithik Roshan. Kareena Kapoor. Still, the opening of Subhash Ghai’s Yaadein… this week was not uniformly impressive all over. Cities like Bombay and Delhi recorded full houses, tickets having been sold in advance itself. But in circuits like C.I., collections on day one were an eyesore. In Indore, Sangeeta was the only cinema which recorded cent per cent collections on Friday. In other cinemas of Indore as also in all other centres of C.I., collections were about 40 to 60% only. Balcony tickets sold faster than those of stalls, implying thereby that the craze for Ghai’s film had been generated more among the class audience than among the masses. And to think of it — Subhash Ghai, some years back, used to make hit mass films!
In stations of U.P. and C.P. Berar as well as in Gujarat, collections dropped in the evening shows of the first day itself. If only the promotional trailers had been more promising! If only Ghai had stuck to making what he is best at — mass entertainers. If only……
Waking Up To A New Tomorrow
It’s not just public issues and institutional finance that are going to change the face of the film industry. Foreign funding will also soon happen in a major way. A number of media analysts are working on figures for different foreign institutions interested in financing Hindi film productions. This, coupled with foreign studios getting into Hindi film production, will change filmmaking drastically. On the exhibition side, multiplexes are coming up all over the country. Corporatisation, institutional financing, foreign funding, huge multiplexes, foreign production houses — the changes will be far-reaching. And all this is happening faster than we can even imagine. Those who will be able to keep pace with the change will survive. But others may find it difficult to keep afloat. Wake up, all ye guys, and brace up for the near future, before you sink.
Box-Office Bluff
It is really strange how some of our filmmakers bluff about box-office business and it is stranger that ill-informed press persons, without verifying facts, reproduce whatever bluff is dished out to them. For instance, Rakesh Mehra has, in an interview to a national daily, said that no distributor would lose money in his Aks. White lies, you would say! Or is it a case of intended ignorance? Either way, the national daily doesn’t know that it is grossly misinforming its readers by printing such erroneous statements.
In Right Earnest
The Pantaloon people, who have ventured into film production with Na Tum Jaano Na Hum, are sparing no efforts in the making of their first film. Debut-making director Arjun Sablok must be finding the producers God-sent, for, the money that is going into the film would be any director’s dream. The film, starring Hrithik Roshan and Esha Deol, is about 80% complete and should be ready for release early next year. Meanwhile, the producers are already gearing up to start three or four more films. They’ve already finalised Milan Luthria, Sangeeth Sivan and Neena Gupta to direct and are in the process of finalising the cast and other credits of their films. They are also considering subjects for a couple of more ventures.