DIL SE..
India Talkies’ Dil Se.. (A) is the love story of a programming executive, working in All India Radio, and a girl who is a member of a terrorist group out to destroy the country. Although the first half moves as a romantic tale, a good part of the second half is like a tense drama on terrorism. Even the romantic part has limited appeal because the love is one-sided. While the guy is madly in love with the girl, she is unable to reciprocate because of her terrorist activities.
Music is the film’s highlight and it would not be incorrect to say that all the songs are the film’s mainstay. A.R. Rahman’s tunes are heavenly, and Farah Khan’s choreography adds even more colour to the extraordinary songs. Not only are the songs picturised brilliantly, they have also been conceived quite differently. Picturisations of ‘Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan’ atop a moving train, ‘Dil se re’ and ‘Deeya jale’ are absolutely mesmerising. ‘Satrangi re’ is also beautiful and so is ‘Ae ajnabi’.
But the film’s script is not half as good as its music. There’s no relief and hardly any light moments in the drama. Some of the very few jokes there are, are of the kind which will be understood by the class audience only. A major drawback of the love story is that there’s not a single heart-warming scene or one which would draw applause from the audience or even inspire their involvement. That is, perhaps, because the love is one-sided. In his quest to show that love is above all else, writer-director Mani Ratnam has committed a mistake which the Indian audience may not like to overlook — even when the hero gets to know that his beloved is a terrorist, he is crazy about getting married to her; the thought of saving his country from the terrorist group is shown as coming to his mind as secondary, his primary aim being to possess the girl. In a country where mother and motherland are above all else, even above love, this kind of crazy love may not appeal too much to the masses. It is in this context that the hero’s love appears to be totally selfish. The flashback of the heroine is not as convincing as it should have been for one to appreciate her becoming a terrorist.
Shah Rukh Khan does a splendid job but goes a bit overboard in the last few reels. Manisha Koirala plays the terrorist with perfect understanding of the role. Her character should have been more well-defined, though. Preity Zinta looks endearingly cute and makes a pretty impressive debut with emphasis on natural performance. Raghuvir Yadav, bankable as usual, is very good. Mita Vashishth has no role worth her while. Zora Sehgal, Arundhati Roy, Sabyasachi Chakravarthy, Piyush Mishra, Ken Philip, Sanjay Mishra, Aditya and Krishnakant lend good support.
Mani Ratnam has given the film great gloss but could have, instead, worked harder on the weak screenplay. Had the hero been shown as being equally concerned for his country as for his beloved, it would have served two purposes — the film would have become mass-appealing and it would have brought in clap-traps. Dialogues are natural but not intense.
Santosh Sivan’s camerawork is mind-blowing and so are the landscapes and locations. Editing is loose. Action is alright. Sets are very appropriate. Mixing is not up to the mark — dialogues at several places are incomprehensible, sometimes due to overly loud background score.
On the whole, Dil Se.. has the too heavy price of a ‘mass’ film but remains a ‘class’ appealing fare which will find more patronage in ‘A’ class centres, mostly in Bombay, Maharashtra and South. It gives the impression of being a romantic drama but, along the way, changes track and becomes a terrorist fare. The film may fetch awards for A.R. Rahman, Farah Khan and Santosh Sivan but it will not bring box-office rewards at the astronomical price at which it has been sold to distributors. Besides music and song picturisations, the other point most in its favour is that there are hardly any major new releases for five to six weeks now, and, therefore, the film has a relatively clear field. This would help distributors reduce their losses.
Released on 21-8-’98 at New Excelsior and 21 other cinemas of Bombay thru V.I.P. Enterprises. Publicity & opening: excellent. …….Also released all over. Opening was superb in most places but below the mark in a couple of centres like Ahmedabad and Jaipur. …….The Tamil dubbed version of the film (Uyire) opened in Tamilnadu to bumper response. The Telugu dubbed version opens today (22nd).
‘TITANIC’ FACT FILE
Twentieth Century Fox’s Titanic is continuing its voyage all over the world, capturing newer and newer territories week after week. Director James Cameron’s magnum opus has collected more than US $1 billion overseas as well as over $800 million in North America, thereby becoming the largest grosser ever in the history of feature films. The film’s success story in India has been no different from anywhere else. It has grossed Rs. 44 crore in India so far, achieving a number of firsts in the process.
Titanic is the first ever English film to have completed 25 weeks in more than 10 centres across the country. An estimated 2.5 crore Indians have seen the film. It has also been the first English film to have run to full houses for its first 10 weeks. What is more remarkable is the fact that Titanic achieved such a huge success despite having only 86 prints in circulation, and all in the original (English) version! In fact, the collections of Titanic in India are the fourth highest in the whole of Asia, after Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Emboldened by the film’s tremendous 25-week run in India, Fox is planning to introduce another 30 prints of the film with an aim to gross at least Rs. 75 crore from the country.
PROTIMA BEDI FEARED DEAD
Protima Bedi, mother of Pooja Bedi and ex-wife of Kabir Bedi, is believed to have perished in a landslide near Mansarovar (between Nepal and Tibet) on 18th August. It is feared that over 200 people, including 60 pilgrims, died in a landslide which washed away several houses in Malpa village, 60 kilometres off Dharchula on the Indo-Tibet border. Protima, a renowned Odissi dancer, established a dance school, Nrityagram, near Bangalore a few years ago. She was proceeding to Mansarovar for a darshan of Lord Shiva. This may be the second tragedy to have hit the family in recent times as Protima’s young son, Siddharth, died last year in a tragic accident in New York.
PERSIS KHAMBATTA DEAD
Persis Khambatta, the Indian actress who won international recognition for her bald-pated appearance in the Hollywood film, Star Trek, died of a heart attack on 18th August in Bombay. She was 49.
Persis had been crowned Miss India in 1965 and she also participated in the Miss Universe contest. She joined films after doing some modelling jobs and won the best newcomer award for her performance in Bambai Raat Ki Bahon Mein, made by K.A. Abbas and released in 1967. Not satisfied with the Bombay film world, she moved to London with an assignment to star opposite Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine in The Wilby Conspiracy. She later moved to Hollywood. Her other English films are Conduct Unbecoming, Night Hawks, Warrior Of The Lost World and Mega Force. She left Hollywood a few years ago and came back to India to work on her book on Miss Indias, called The Pride Of India, which was released some time back. She was also planning a serial based on her book.
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
‘Dil Se..’ Magic At Cine Magic
Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se.. finally released yesterday (21st), thereby bringing the tremendous anxiety about the film among cinegoers to an end. The music of the film had already become a rage a month ago and the television promos depicting Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora dancing to Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan atop a moving train had subsequently precipitated a further rage among the public. In fact, the public in Bombay had become so crazy about Dil Se.. that a new cinema, Cine Magic at Andheri, Bombay, witnessed long queues at the advance booking counter — there were people more than four times its seating capacity (362 seats)! Looks like Chal Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan has translated into Chal Dil Se.. Dil Se.. among the Bombay cinegoers!
Cable Talk
Overhead this one when our telephone cables got cross-connected with the cables of Rekha and Sridevi on 18th August, the day of the industry rally against cable piracy of new Hindi films:-
Rekha: Sri, are you going for the rally?
Sridevi: I would have loved to, but I don’t want to miss Satya which my cable-wallah is showing today at 11 a.m.
Rekha: Really? You have a lovely cable-wallah, it seems. My cable-guy just doesn’t show new films. That is why, I’m planning to participate in the rally against these bloody cable-wallahs. After all, why do they charge such high monthly fees if they are not going to show us new films?
Cable Piracy Rally A Success Sans Stars
Maharashtra Government Promises Action Against Pirates
The Maharashtra government has decided to take stringent action against cable operators airing pirated films, as is being done in Tamil Nadu. Moreover, the state government also proposes to bring cable piracy under the purview of a law similar to the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act (MPDAA), commonly known as the Goonda Act, under which an accused can be jailed for a year without trial. These assurances from the government came as a result of the film industry’s concerted efforts in drawing the authorities’ attention to the growing menace of cable piracy. In an unprecedented show of solidarity, the film industry registered its protest against the cable piracy of Hindi films, on 18th August in Bombay. The entire Bombay film industry downed shutters on that day and nearly 2,500 people connected with the industry took out a procession from Bandra to Azad Maidan in response to a call given by the Action Committee Against Rampant Cable and Other Piracy of the Mumbai Film Industry a few weeks ago. Those who participated in the rally comprised representatives from all sectors of the film industry, and included artistes, producers, directors, distributors, exhibitors, technicians, dancers, junior artistes, workers as well as others affiliated to the Federation of Western India Cine Employees. In a rare show of solidarity, the Pune film industry also remained closed on 18th.
Just like most filmi functions, the Bombay rally began later than its scheduled time. A convoy consisting of over 40 buses, apart from some jeeps, several cars and two-wheelers, started from Mehboob Studios at 11 a.m. About a hundred participants, who arrived after the convoy of buses had left Mehboob, organised their own means of transport and joined the procession midway. That the participants’ mood was upbeat was evident in the way they participated in shouting various slogans in protest against the people engaged in cable piracy in India. The procession then tarried along to the Worli office of SitiCable and still latter, to the office of IN CableNet, also at Worli. As announced beforehand, the participants registered their protest against the perpetration of cable piracy by those two networks. As a precautionary move against the industry’s protest march, both the cable networks had obtained a court order stipulating that the participants of the rally maintain a minimum distance of 25 feet from their offices. Heavy police bandobast was also arranged by the networks to control the participants. But, this ploy could yield no dividends for the networks as the industry folk, while still remaining within the legal limits, made their protest clear by shouting slogans at the top of their voices. Some junior artistes and dancers were also seen standing on top of the buses while voicing their protests.
Having demonstrated outside the cable networks’ offices, the convoy then wound its way to the Azad Maidan — the termination point of the rally. Once the participants arrived there, a number of speeches outlining the ill-effects of cable piracy on the industry, were delivered by various industry spokespersons. The chairman of the Action Committee Against Rampant Cable and Other Piracy of the Mumbai Film Industry, K.D. Shorey, CCCA president Santosh Singh Jain, G.P. Shirke, actors Aamir Khan and Raza Murad were among the principal speakers at the termination of the rally. The prevalent mood at the end of the rally was one of determination to fight till the end. Santosh Singh Jain mentioned during his speech that the CCCA, following the Bombay film industry’s example, had decided to down shutters of the entire film industry in Madhya Pradesh on September 1. He further added that the other states should also begin tackling the issue in a similar manner so that the fight against cable piracy in India continued till the evil was rooted out completely.
Finally, the rally officially ended after a delegation from the industry met Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi and deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde. The delegation handed over a charter of demands (see box on next page) which was accepted by the ministers with promises of action to be taken soon on the industry’s demands.
In the end, though some people viewed the rally as one lacking in glamour (most stars, unfortunately, stayed away, with Asha Parekh, Madhuri, Aamir, Salman, Sunil Shetty, Arbaaz, Johny Lever, Raza Murad, Kunika, Ghanshyam, Gajendra Chauhan, Saahil and a few others being exceptions), what counts is that the industry, nevertheless, succeeded in achieving the main objective of organising the rally — to demonstrate its solidarity. It is only hoped that the fight continues in the same enthusiastic manner in the future and gathers momentum as time passes — that is, till results are achieved.
FILM INDUSTRY’S CHARTER OF DEMANDS
The delegation of the Action Committee Against Rampant Cable and Other Piracy, which met Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi on 18th August, raised the following demands on behalf of the film industry:
(1) Police should immediately take cognizance of a complaint lodged by a producer/copyright holder or his agents, supported by an affidavit that he has not parted with the rights, together with an affidavit of an eye-witness of the film illegally screened on cable TV network. Video piracy being a cognizable and non-bailable offence, the inspector on duty must immediately arrest the operator and should not insist on or wait for the result of a raid on the cable control room.
(2) For vigorous implementation of the anti-piracy laws and to strengthen the enforcement machinery in this regard, the state government should set up special police cells. These cells should thoroughly study the related legislation, gather intelligence and take prompt action against pirates.
(3) Hearing of pending cases in courts should be expedited. If possible, special courts should be set up to try offences committed under the Copyright Act. The copyright law was first amended in 1984, but not a single pirate has been convicted so far.
(4) Publicity machinery of the government should be used effectively to counter video piracy.
(5) The pirates should be arrested under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act and should be detained for at least one year without any trial.
(6) The licences of all video parlours should be cancelled for screening pirated films, as no producer has parted with the commercial video rights of any film.
(7) The government should encourage construction of new cinemas in Maharashtra. The government should grant tax holidays to newly constructed cinemas for at least five years.
SIDELIGHTS
* The Bombay film industry rally on 18th August had more than its share of light moments. A leading Naaz distributor, looking to the large turnout of Naaz-wallahs, commented, “First, we had thought of sending just Tolu Bajaj to represent the entire Naaz building in the rally. Because, as it is, if Tolu is in the forefront, people standing behind him can’t be seen.” Tolu Bajaj, it may be mentioned here, is very tall and well-built.
* The much needed bottles of mineral water for the participants in the rally were supplied free of cost by T-Series who bottle pure water.
* Because there were just four leading stars — Aamir Khan, Sunil Shetty, Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan — they were, obviously, stationed in two jeeps which led the rally. Curious onlookers had a great time seeing the stars in flesh and blood, but their searching eyes, trying to recognise more stars in the huge procession of buses that followed the jeeps, met with disappointment. For, there were no stars other than the ones in the jeep! Aamir and Sunil Shetty took part in the entire rally, while Madhuri and Salman were there for some time.
* Ajay Devgan had been to his Naaz office a day before the rally. He was shooting nearby and visited his office for lunch. This led to the Naaz people to speculate that Devgan would definitely partake in the rally the following day. But that was not to be. Both, Ajay and dad Veeru Devgan, were conspicuous by their absence.
M.P. FILM INDUSTRY TO OBSERVE BANDH ON SEPTEMBER 1
In a bid to follow the example set by the Bombay film industry, the Madhya Pradesh film industry will also remain closed on 1st September in protest against the rampant menace of cable piracy of Hindi films. This decision was announced by CCCA president Santosh Singh Jain while addressing the participants at the rally on 18th August in Bombay.