HEY! RAM

Raajkamal Films International’s Hey! Ram (A) is a fictional film set against the backdrop of an important chapter of Indian history. The story of a Hindu archaeologist, who is caught in the Hindu-Muslim riots that erupt in 1946, it talks of how a section of the Hindus at that time blamed Mahatma Gandhi and his insistence on non-violence and love for Muslims and Hindus alike, for the killings in India. The Hindu archaeologist was great friends with a Muslim colleague. The two are separated when the former goes to Calcutta to be with his wife whom he adores. Muslims in his locality, irked by an incident, rape and kill his wife. The archaeologist loses his mental balance for this one singular incident, and sets out on a path of violence. He goes on to kill Muslims, to avenge the rape and murder. He, too, like some others, holds Mahatma Gandhi solely responsible for the riotous state of affairs in the country. Time passes by and his family gets him married off to a girl. Even as he is trying to erase the harrowing past from his memory and lead a happy married life with his new wife, an old acquaintance reignites his ire against the Mahatma. A stage comes when he decides to leave his family and set out on a single-minded mission, to kill the Mahatma and thereby put an end to all the sufferings of Hindus in India. It is at this time that he meets his old Muslim archaeologist-friend who makes him see reason and convinces him that not all Muslims are bad. Having, therefore, given up the thought of killing Gandhi, he then decides to confess his evil plans to the Mahatma and ask for his forgiveness. But even while he is about to do so, the Mahatma is shot dead by Godse, right in front of his eyes and of hundreds of others.

The film juxtaposes fact (history) and fiction but the result is far from satisfactory. For one, the fictional part is a micro issue (concerning an individual) as compared to the macro one, that of Hindu-Muslim hatred. Secondly, except among a section of the educated elite, Mahatma Gandhi is even today revered, and hence the negative talk against Gandhi may not be appreciated or even comprehended by a majority of the masses. Thirdly, the film has the effect of a documentary at several places. Fourthly, it is too lengthy to be true and can easily be chopped off by about 30 minutes! Light moments are few and far between and even they are generally of the kind which will be appreciated by the class audience only. In fact, the plot, the treatment, the ambience and the authenticity — all of these make the film one with limited appeal, for the elite. What, however, is there in the film for the masses is a good dose of sex and kissing scenes.

Ilaiyaraja’s music is a terrible letdown. Except for the ‘Chahe pandit ho’ song, the others are very dull. Even the ‘Chahe pandit ho’ song will appeal to the city audience mainly.

Kamal Haasan acts ably but the camera is focussed on him just too much. He goes overboard in some emotional scenes and it sometimes appears as if the film is a mere exercise to prove the actor’s by-now well-known versatility. Shah Rukh Khan is effective as the Muslim friend, but his fans among the masses are bound to be disappointed as he does not offer the usual stuff. The pre-climax scenes between the two heroes is too lengthy and boring. Rani Mukerji is excellent and endears herself to the audience with a free performance. Hema Malini is good in a brief role. Girish Karnad is natural to the core. Naseeruddin Shah plays Mahatma Gandhi beautifully. His get-up, as also the get-ups of Kamal Haasan, are brilliant. But the make-up artiste’s job on Naseeruddin Shah is not technically up to the mark, it appearing as mere make-up. Vasundhara Das is cute and performs well. Atul Kulkarni leaves an impact. Saurabh Shukla appeals and so does Vikram Gokhale. Shadab Khan leaves a mark in an effective brief role. Irawati Harshe, as Shah Rukh’s wife, is natural. Om Puri, Nasser, Ram Mohan, Mohini Mathur, Sowcar Janaki, Nagmani and Goutham Raghu lend admirable support. The special appearance of Tushar Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma Gandhi) has no impact or meaning for the majority of the audience.

Kamal Haasan’s direction is excellent at times and his eye for details and authenticity is praiseworthy but, on the flip side, he has given a documentary-like colour to the film and has made it of relevance for the classes mainly. Some of his shot executions, such as the rape scene, some mob scenes and the like are masterly. As a writer, he has left something to be desired. Manohar Shyam Joshi’s dialogues are very appropriate for the mood of the film. Action scenes are good. Sets (Sabu Cyril) are fantastic. Cinematography (Thirunavukkarasu) is absolutely wonderful. Background score is good. Special effects are stunning. Other technical values are top class. Production values are grand but, viewed differently, it also looks like a criminal waste of resources.

On the whole, Hey! Ram will appeal to the class audience and will, therefore, do well in selected cinemas of some cities mainly. For the masses, it will remain a dull and dry drama, notwithstanding the liberal sprinkling of sex and violence. Heavy editing is a must. Not just the boredom which creeps in, even the running time of the film (more than 3 hours) warrants major trimming of scenes and songs.

Released on 18-2-2000 at Metro and 11 other cinemas of Bombay thru V.I.P. Enterprises. Publicity & opening: very good. …….Also released all over. Opening was good at places and below the mark at others.

LATEST POSITION

Except for KAHO NAA…PYAAR HAI, no film is creating ripples. The release of HEY! RAM has not added much excitement except in Bombay.

Badal is strong in U.P., East Punjab and Rajasthan. Expected to touch 3 crore in Delhi-U.P. and 1.5 crore in East Punjab. 1st week Bombay 56,07,259 (73.46%) from 13 cinemas (9 on F.H.); Padra 2,16,018, Cambay 1,72,726, Jamnagar (matinee) 27,546 (1 in regular unrecd.), Bhuj 1,36,001 (60.42%); Pune 11,24,233 from 5 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 49,48,589 (60.17%) from 14 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Kanpur 6,21,929 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 7,74,854 from 2 cinemas, Varanasi 4,31,961, Allahabad 3,11,140, Meerut 3,59,639 (98.50%), Bareilly 2,91,025, Hardwar 1,25,000; Calcutta 23,48,393 from 13 cinemas; Jabalpur (gross) 3,04,217, Amravati 2,04,711, Akola 2,27,238, Raipur (gross, 6 days) 3,48,919, Durg 1,19,324, Jalgaon (6 days) 1,92,920, Wardha 1,57,166; Indore 2,08,545 (3 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,49,452; Jaipur 10,05,741 from 4 cinemas, Ajmer (gross, 29 shows) 3,17,358; Hyderabad (gross) 30,95,715 from 11 cinemas (2 on F.H.).

Aurat Ki Pyaas (dubbed) did ordinary in 1st week in Delhi-U.P., East Punjab and C.P. Berar.

Pukar slides further. 2nd week Bombay 40,64,786 (63.90%) from 11 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Jamnagar 76,630; Pune 8,44,696 from 5 cinemas; Delhi 35,03,238 from 11 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,48,307 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,86,320, Allahabad 1,04,476, Varanasi 1,66,458, Bareilly (6 days) 76,143; Calcutta 9,99,245 from 14 cinemas; Jabalpur (6 days) 52,055, Amravati (6 days) 1,52,248, Akola 1,14,142, total 3,10,924, Raipur (gross, 6 days) 1,11,110, Jalgaon (6 days) 98,000, Yavatmal 24,288; Indore 2,02,158 from 2 cinemas, Bhopal 74,984; Jaipur 76,099, Ajmer (gross) 1,01,313, Bikaner 50,846; Hyderabad (gross) 7,65,242 from 3 cinemas (1 in noon, 1 on F.H.).

The World Is Not Enough (dubbed) 2nd week Bombay 4,36,741 from 3 cinemas (4 on F.H.); Baroda 1,30,737; Pune 2,46,072, Sangli 95,175 (1st 1,77,000); Delhi 1,76,350 (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 95,916, Lucknow 81,824, Allahabad 64,308, Varanasi 87,886; Calcutta 84,232; Jabalpur 31,902, total 1,54,268, Akola 52,642, Raipur 46,850, Chandrapur 50,768, total 1,78,706; Bhopal 84,165; 1st week Jaipur 3,85,623, 2nd Hyderabad (gross) 5,16,453 from 3 cinemas (1 on F.H.).

Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani 4th week Bombay 13,08,964 (56.97%) from 5 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Pune 3,37,983 from 5 cinemas (2 in matinee); 1st week Bijapur 1,34,059; 4th Delhi 2,74,168; Kanpur 57,210 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,54,741, Allahabad 39,370, Varanasi 36,173, Bareilly (6 days) 11,172, Muzaffarnagar 15,000; Calcutta 3,87,264 from 3 cinemas; Jabalpur (6 days) 1,35,313, Amravati (6 days) 43,006, Akola 27,500, 3rd week Durg 86,117 (2nd 1,05,035), 1st week Gondia (gross) 97,995, Yavatmal 1,13,220; 4th week Bhopal 39,560; Jaipur 1,12,124; Hyderabad (gross) 1,20,569 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon).

Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai is growing from strength to strength and writing box-office history. 5th week Bombay 44,23,819 (100%) from 10 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Baroda 2,31,808 (93.91%), 4th week Jamnagar 65,695; 5th week Pune 10,62,465 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Sangli 81,255 (82%); Delhi 21,03,301 from 6 cinemas; Kanpur 2,65,687 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 3,89,765, Allahabad 1,33,380, Varanasi 1,97,948, Bareilly (6 days) 76,143, 2nd week Hardwar 90,000, 5th Muzaffarnagar 50,000; Calcutta 13,48,882 from 7 cinemas; Jabalpur 1,57,957, total 8,20,155, Amravati 1,58,893, Akola 1,30,339, total 7,41,858, Raipur 1,66,633, 4th week Chandrapur 2,09,031, total 8,35,104, 2nd Yavatmal (gross) 1,32,198 (1st 1,29,726); 5th week Bhopal 2,16,000 (4th 2,37,301); Jaipur 2,77,234, Bikaner 1,30,243, Kota (gross) 2,42,000 (4th week 2,76,000); Hyderabad (gross) 16,84,514 from 5 cinemas (1 in noon).

Hum Saath-Saath Hain entered 16th week at Liberty Bombay; 15th week Pune (matinee) 30,942; Kanpur (6 days) 41,214, Lucknow 70,285, Allahabad 23,350; Calcutta 79,973; Jabalpur 32,972, Amravati (6 days) 60,850, Akola 42,280, total 18,83,989, share 13,99,395; Jaipur 4,22,187.

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SHAH RUKH OPERATED UPON FOR KNEE INJURY

Shah Rukh Khan underwent surgery in Austria on 16th February for a knee injury.

SANTOSH SINGH JAIN’S GRANDSON TO WED

Sachit, son of C.I. distributor Jitendra Jain (Sanman Films, Indore) and grandson of CCCA president Santosh Singh Jain, will wed Aarti today (19th February) in Jaipur at Community Hall, Tilak Nagar, behind L.B.S. College, Surya Marg.

FRENCH FETE’S TRIBUTE TO SHABANA AZMI

The 2nd Panasia Film Festival, to be held from 17th to 19th March at Deauville in France, will pay tribute to Shabana Azmi for her outstanding achievement in films. A special screening of four of her films will be held as part of the tribute. The festival promotes Asian films in Europe, and will screen films from 15 Asian countries this year.

PIRATED VCDs OF ‘PUKAR’ SEIZED

The Bangalore police, in conjunction with Feature Films Copyright, raided the Jet Airways cargo counter at Bangalore airport and seized 800 unauthorised VCDs of Pukar on 9th February. The raid was conducted after an unnamed source tipped the FFC about pirated VCDs being shipped from Madras to Bangalore in a Jet Airways flight. Three persons were arrested for their involvement in the piracy racket. The names of the arrested persons are Sanjay Punjabi, Deepak Rai and Hitesh Parmar.

LAKDAWALAS’ SOUND CITY INAUGURATED

A new sound recording studio, Sound City, located at Empire House at Andheri (W) in Bombay, was inaugurated on 11th February with the song recording of Sain Productions’ Zindagi Khoobsoorat Hai. The song was composed by Anand Raaj Anand and rendered by Sonu Nigam.

Sound City offers extensive audio recording services including music recording, dubbing, track-laying, editing, effects recording, etc. It is owned by the Lakdawalas and can be booked through Feroz Lakdawala. The installation work of the recording studio was done by K. Sethuraman.

The telephone nos. of Sound City are 635-4040/4141/4242.

DILIP DHAWAN DEAD

Well-known character actor Dilip Dhawan passed away on 15th February at his residence at Bandra, Bombay, due to a massive heart attack. He was 45. He was the son of well-known character actor Krishan Dhawan. He is survived by his mother and wife.

Dilip Dhawan had acted in about 50 films, notable among which were Ek Baar Kaho, Virasat, Swarg and Henna. He was recently seen in Rajshri’s Hum Saath-Saath Hain as Neelam’s brother-in-law. He started his acting career as a child artiste in Dilip Kumar starrer Sunghursh. He had produced Saath-Saath, directed by Raman Kumar.

Dilip achieved tremendous popularity with the television serial Nukkad in which he played the role of Guru. He acted in a number of other serials too.

‘HEY! RAM’ CHANGES HANDS

Till 16th February, the distribution rights of Hey! Ram for Nizam circuit were held by KCN Enterprises, and it was to be released thru Hansa Pictures. The main cinema was announced as Tarakarama in newspapers. On 18th, however, it was released by Sahyog Films at Maheshwari as the main cinema. The film was released at only two cinemas, Maheshwari and Sudershan 70mm — due to other prints not reaching Hyderabad till Friday evening.

YOU ASKED IT

How bleak is the future of the Hindi film industry?

– Not as bleak as your question suggests! But yes, market forces will act fast to correct the ills that plague the industry. For example, unrealistically high prices of films will come down.

Looking to the escalating box-office graph, what, according to you, will be the total business of Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai in Bombay circuit?

– Over Rs. 8 crore!

I totally agree with your editorial last week that admission rates at cinemas should be within limits. But will anybody pay heed to such a good point that you have made? I think that one day, cine goers will protest against such high admission rates in cities like Bombay and Delhi. Am I going overboard in my thinking?

– You are, my dear! Because the public in India is very patient. It will not protest against the film industry because it loves films. But it seems, our industry people don’t love the public — or, rather, don’t care for the public.

PRODUCTION NEWS

Rahul Dev Injured: ‘Champion’ Unit Returns From Hyderabad

Actor Rahul Dev fractured his leg in an accident while participating in a recently picturised climax action scene for Shree Shiv Bhakti Films’ Champion at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad. The film’s shooting, which was to be held in a 15-day schedule in Hyderabad, had to be cut short by a few days due to the accident. However, one song, two scenes and a part of the climax were picturised before the unit returned to Bombay on 16th February. Being produced by Sujit Kumar and directed by Padam Kumar, the film stars Sunny Deol, Manisha Koirala, Kashmira Shah, Rahul Dev, Vikram Gokhale, Surendra Pal, Tom Alter, A.K. Hangal, Dina Pathak, Neha Sharad, Rakesh Pandey, Vivek Shauq, Anil Nagrath and Deepak Parashar. It has music by Anu Malik and lyrics by Javed Akhtar. Dialogues: Sanjay Masoom. Action: Tinnu Verma. Choreography: Ahmed Khan and Raju Sundaram. Only one song and a little portion of the climax remain to be picturised to complete the entire shooting.

20-Day Schedule Of ‘Mission Kashmir’

Writer-producer-director Vidhu Vinod Chopra commenced a 20-day marathon shooting schedule of Vinod Chopra Productions’ Mission Kashmir on Feb. 15. Many scenes are being picturised at various locations in Bombay. The entire cast is participating. The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Gulshan Grover and Sonali Kulkarni. It has music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Lyrics: Sameer and Rahat Indori. Cinematography: Binod Pradhan.

DO YOU KNOW?

* KN…PH has created history by collecting 100% in 5th week in Bombay city and suburbs. 1st week was 99.81%, 2nd week 99.67%, 3rd week 99.18%, and 4th week 99.73%. At Sahakar, a cinema in a central suburb (Chembur) of Bombay, it has created history by drawing all shows full in 5th week after 24 shows full in each of 1st and 2nd weeks, 25 shows full in 3rd week, and 27 shows full in 4th week. At Topiwala, Goregaon (another Bombay suburb), admission rates have been reduced from its 3rd week there despite bumper collections (1st week 96.20%, 2nd 98.51%, 3rd 100%).

* KN…PH has created theatre records in 5th week at the following cinemas of Calcutta: Hind (3,77,862/-), Menoka (3,47,478/-), Talkie Show House (1,76,330/-), Ashoka Behala (1,51,960/-, 4th week was 1,51,127/-), Jaya (1,25,553/-). It has also created theatre records by collecting 69,411/- in 4th week at Narayani, Calcutta, and 1,00,288/- in 3rd week at Rakhee, Calcutta.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

‘Badal’ DVD Rights: The Real Story

Last week, we had mentioned in this column, how producer Salim had sold the DVD rights of his new film, Badal. The detailed story is as follows:

C.A. Corporation had acquired the Overseas distribution rights of Badal from Salim for Rs. 1.70 crore. The Overseas rights included, inter alia, DVD rights of the film. As the release date approached, Salim asked Chandrakant Mehta of C.A. Corporation to agree to a price hike. When Mehta did not give the nod and, instead, asked for refund of the under-production instalments paid by him to Salim, the latter reportedly refused. Mehta’s resolve to not agree to a price hike became stronger when he saw the television promotional trailers of the film as they (trailers) were indicative of the film being an action flick. Action films do not have too strong a market in Overseas. Salim’s insistence on a price hike was countered by Mehta, who insisted that if a hike was inevitable, he’d rather take his money back and relinquish the rights. According to Chandrakant Mehta, he even agreed to forgo Rs. 10 lakh from what he had paid to Salim.

Perhaps, irked by Mehta’s refusal, Salim sold the DVD rights of Badal to one Digital Entertainment. It was pure chance that Mehta got to know of the double deal when the customs official at the airport casually mentioned to him on the Friday before the release date of Badal that another person had booked a print of the same film for San Francisco. This set Mehta thinking and he was quick to act.

Enquiries with the laboratory (Filmcenter) revealed that Salim had taken the print under the pretext of sending it to Bengal. Incidentally, Salim himself is the distributor of Badal for Bengal. No clearance from the Indian Film Exporters’ Association (IFEA) was obtained by Salim and, therefore, he had to forgo the claim of duty drawback.

Chandrakant Mehta, who has already started correspondence with Digital Entertainment, plans to proceed legally against Salim. “I’ve suffered losses in Badal,” he lamented.

Guddu’s Good Times

With his Bichhoo fast nearing completion and scheduled for release in June, Guddu Dhanoa will be spending a good deal of his time at the fields. Well, he is not building a huge farm house, as of now, nor is he making plans to own a vast agricultural plot of land in Punjab. (The word ‘field’ is what you understand when you are told “field khaali karo” at a shooting site.)

So, coming back to Guddu, this energetic director will be directing five films shortly, thus becoming the busiest director in the millennium year. The films he will be captaining are those of Harish Shah, Vijayta Films, Time, Firoz Nadiadwala and Salim. Guddu’s surely in for a good time.

A Pukar Of Praises

Anil Kapoor has always considered Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and Mammootty as among the few top actors of the country. Imagine Anil Kapoor’s surprise then when the three of them congratulated him separately for the same reason. Dilip Kumar, who saw Pukar at Dimple preview theatre in Bombay last week, spoke for almost half an hour to Anil, praising him for his performance. Amitabh Bachchan, who viewed the film at the private show of the Ambanis, heaped encomiums for Anil’s histrionics. Wife Jaya Bachchan informed Anil that hubby Amitabh had been raving about the performance to everyone he met since the time he had seen Pukar. And Mammootty, the top star of Malayalam films, called up from Madras after making efforts to trace Anil’s telephone number, and he, too, was all praise for Anil’s awards-deserving performance. With such copious commendations, Anil Kapoor need not wait for awards. He has got more than he could ask for. And, deservingly so!

Water, Water Everywhere…
But No Spot To Shoot

Water, it is said, finds its own level. But Deepa Mehta’s Water could only meet with levels of resentment. Forced to pack up abruptly following fiery protests from pro-Hindu fundamentalists and the failure of the Uttar Pradesh government to heed to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s advice to provide protection to the film unit, Deepa Mehta’s unit was invited to Madhya Pradesh with an assurance by MP chief minister Digvijay Singh, of “full protection” to them. The shooting was to resume on 12th February, but thanks to the threats from Uma Bharati (BJP) and Acharya Dharmendra (VHP), the shooting could not materialise even in Madhya Pradesh. And then, it was Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, who invited the filmmaker to shoot in Maharashtra. But Manohar Joshi and Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) expressed their animosity publicly, saying that they (and their party) would not allow her to shoot anywhere in Maharashtra state. RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav also made an offer of extending full support and protection to the film’s unit in Bihar. But Laloo is himself on slippery ground, what with the Bihar assembly elections indicating his party being watered down by the opposition parties. There is hope still. Shabana Azmi has now requested West Bengal CM Jyoti Basu to allow the shooting in Calcutta. Basu-da has expressed his willingness to allow Deepa Mehta to shoot in his state, but there, too, one hears whimpers of threats from BJP activists.

Alas! Water water everywhere, not a spot to shoot!?! Nowhere on earth has water fuelled so much fire!

Kaho Naa… Two Much!

On 13th February, the C.I. distributor of Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, Aditya Chowksey (Prachi Films, Indore) happened to see a huge crowd outside Abhinayshri cinema in Indore, which was screening the film. In the same compound, another cinema — Devshri — was screening a repeat-run film. Aditya immediately had the repeat-run film removed from Devshri, and, instead, screened Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai. One must have thought that it would be too much of a good thing to screen one film at two cinemas housed in the same compound, that too in the fifth week. But it wasn’t! Both the cinemas recorded 100 per cent collections in the three shows that day. And what’s more, Ellora, the main cinema screening KN…PH was not even a bit adversely affected! Incidentally, the film collected over Rs. 2 lakh in the 5th consecutive week at Lily cinema, Bhopal, which is a record for the cinema.