PHIR BHI DIL HAI HINDUSTANI

Dreamz Unlimited’s Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (UA) is a satire on the satellite channel wars being waged today. Two competing channels have their ace reporters — one, a boy, and the other, a girl — who are engaged in a continuing battle of one-upmanship with each other. The  comedy gives a peep into how stories are cooked up and even enacted to cater to public tastes and, alongwith it, to make loads of money. There are no scruples, no principles, no considerations for feelings in the game. Even while the game is being played, a minister’s brother-in-law is murdered in one such channel-backed meeting. The murderer is dubbed a terrorist because it suits the bereaved but over-ambitious minister. The so-called terrorist happens to come in contact with the two ace reporters of the competitive channels and he explains to them the truth behind his killing. Convinced that he is not a terrorist but rather an innocent common man who has been wronged, the two reporters bury their differences and join forces to get justice to the killer who, in the meantime, has been awarded the death sentence. The television icon (male reporter), who is a star in his own right, for the first time decides to use his popularity with the masses to garner public support for saving the life of the common man. How he succeeds in doing so forms the climax.

The film, by its very content, has been aimed at the elite audience. Not many among the masses understand what channel wars are. Not just the content, even the treatment by director Aziz Mirza is of the kind which will appeal to the city audience mainly. Too many cinematic liberties have been taken in the name of satire and comedy. Besides, most of the gags are of the kind that have been seen earlier.

The first half is light and quite interesting for the elite audience, but the mass audience would find it very difficult to appreciate and enjoy the jokes in it. The pace slackens and the focus shifts a little before interval. The second half has more appeal for the masses as it has some drama and emotions too. The best part of the film, however, is the fairly lengthy climax which has a good dose of patriotic flavour and a couple of clapworthy dialogues. But the question is: will the mass audience endure the less enjoyable two hours of drama to watch the entertaining climax? The answer doesn’t seem to be in the affirmative! Manoj Lalwani and Raaj Kumar Dahima’s screenplay and Aziz Mirza’s narration cater to the class audience and overlook the masses at many places. Sanjay Chhel’s dialogues are witty and funny at several places but, again, the target audience seems to be the city folk.

Shah Rukh Khan does a very good job as the television icon. Juhi Chawla looks glamorous and she, too, acts very well. Paresh Rawal impresses a lot. Satish Shah and Dalip Tahhil, as television channel owners, are alright. Shakti Kapoor is fairly good. Govind Namdev is effective. Johny Lever is a highlight and endears himself with his comedy. Anjan Srivastava leaves a mark. Neena Kulkarni shines. TV anchor-person Suhaib Ilyasi comes as a surprise in a cameo role. Hyder Ali, Smita Jayakar, Bharti Achrekar and Vishwajeet Pradhan lend admirable support.

Direction, as mentioned earlier, restricts the film’s appeal to the class audience. Music (Jatin Lalit) is a mixed fare. The title song and ‘Tu yaar tu hi dildaar’ are very well-tuned. ‘I am the best’ has too much of a city flavour. Song picturisations (Farah Khan) are brilliant but a couple of them are so boring, they can be deleted or, at least, edited. Camerawork (Santosh Sivan) is superb. Technically, very good. Production values are of a good standard. Special effects (Rajtaru) are splendid.

On the whole, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani will click in good cinemas of ‘A’ class centres on the strength of class audience and kids, but owing to lack of mass appeal, business in lesser cinemas and smaller centres will be dull. It, therefore, will fetch returns in Bombay, C.P. Berar and South mainly. The Republic Day holiday this week and the absence of any major release next week will prove a boon.

Released on 21-1-2000 at New Empire and 17 other cinemas of Bombay thru Yashraj Film Distributors. Publicity: extraordinary. Opening: excellent. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull in parts of U.P., East Punjab and just about fair in many other circuits.

RAKESH ROSHAN ESCAPES BID ON LIFE

Producer-director Rakesh Roshan was shot at by two unknown assailants on the evening of 21st January outside his office at Santacruz, Bombay. Extortion is said to be the motive behind the attempt on Roshan’s life.

Rakesh Roshan had left his office for the day and was seated in his chauffer-driven car when he noticed two armed assailants approaching his car. Sensing danger to his life, he asked his driver to start the car and speed away. But before that could happen, the assailants pumped a series of bullets at him from close range. Roshan, who was rolling up the windows, held his hand up in a reflex action but one bullet brushed past his chest. The hitmen fired a couple of more rounds even after the car left the spot and one of them hit Rakesh Roshan on his left arm. One bullet also hit the driver. Both were rushed to the nearby Nanavati Hospital at Vile Parle. Roshan was operated upon for the removal of the bullet from his arm. He is out of danger and is likely to be discharged tomorrow (23rd January).

Within hours of the incident, Nanavati Hospital was flooded with visitors from the Bombay film industry who called on the producer-director to express their concern. The episode has sent shock waves throughout the film industry which has been targeted by the underworld for the third time in the past one month and for the fifth time in recent months.

PREMIERE CINEMA OPENS IN BOMBAY

Premiere, an extensively renovated cinema at Parel, Bombay, previously known as Dharti, was opened for public patronage from 21st January with Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. The cinema boasts of Dolby, DTS sound systems. It has a total of 465 seats — 397 in dress circle, and 68 in box class. Admission rates are Rs. 50 (dress circle) and Rs. 75 (box) from Mondays to Saturdays. For Sundays, the admission rates are Rs. 55 and Rs. 80 respectively. The weekly capacity for 28 shows is Rs. 4,34,300. Phone nos.: 410-0450/415-7147. The cinema is controlled by Shringar Cinemas.

SUNDERDAS SONKIYA’S SON TO WED

Naveen, son of Rajasthan distributor and financier Sunderdas Sonkiya (Jaipur Films, Jaipur), will wed Kavita on 25th January in Jaipur at Hotel Rajmahal Palace. The engagement ceremony will be held on 23rd at Ghatiwala House, Prithviraj Road, C-Scheme, Jaipur.

ANAND ROMANI DEAD

Writer Anand Romani, 79, died in New Delhi on 19th January due to heart attack. He had gone there to attend the International Film Festival of India. He is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

Anand Romani had been associated as a writer with many a successful film, including Bhappi Sonie’s Brahmachari. He had always wished “to die seeing a film in a film festival” and though he died while he was attending a film festival, he was not watching a film while he actually passed away.

I & B minister Arun Jaitley condoled Romani’s death. A condolence meeting of Bombay and Delhi journalists and delegates was held on 20th. Tributes were paid by Ali Reza, Dr. R.K. Verma, Devendra Kumar and Jagat Gupta.

DO YOU KNOW?

* East Punjab distributors have stopped releasing films in Amritsar because exhibitors there have formed a pool and are not offering MGs to distributors.

* Boney Kapoor will show his PUKAR to the defence authorities in Delhi on 24th January for their clearance, as the film deals with the armed forces. The CBFC is also likely to see the film on 24th or 25th in Bombay. The first copy came out at Adlabs on 20th January.

* Almost all the cinemas of West Bengal remained closed on 15th and 16th January following a token strike by cinema employees who were demanding increased wages.

* Producer Firoz A. Nadiadwala, who had done a swell job of the publicity of his last film, KARTOOS, is at it again. For his forthcoming HERA PHERI, he has made as many as five dialogues-and-scenes-based trailers for satellite channels. This is over and above the four musical trailers. For the non-musical trailers, he has had the background music specially recorded. Firoz plans to change the trailers aired, every 12 days.

* NFDC, which telecasts films on Doordarshan, does minimal publicity of the telecasts. Besides adversely affecting advertisement revenues, this lack of publicity also agitates producers who have to constantly keep tabs on whether their film/s is/are being telecast so that they can pester NFDC for their cheques. Yes, pester, because NFDC is quite slow in disbursing payments.

* The Maharashtra government seems to have discontinued its policy of granting tax exemption to films which win National Awards. Although KKHH bagged the National Award for the best film providing wholesome entertainment in 1998, the state government has refused to exempt it from entertainment tax.

* JAANWAR and HUM SAATH-SAATH HAIN are turning out to be the biggest hits of 1999 in West Bengal.

YOU ASKED IT

Not very long back, the audience used to applaud when photographs or statues of veteran national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Shivaji were shown in films. But this doesn’t happen nowadays. Why such a change of attitude?

– Values have changed. What are you talking of attitude?

When the news of the plight of veteran cinematographer Rajendra Malone is being highlighted in Bombay dailies, why does the government not release funds from the Cine Workers’ Welfare Fund?

– Wonder whose welfare the fund is for?

Despite 80 per cent of our films flopping every year, what makes the public eager to see a new film?

– The hope that at least this new film will be a part of the 20%! Publicity, too, draws in the public.

Why are TV serials not censored?

– Perhaps, the government has big faith in producers for the small screen, and small faith in producers for the big screen.

In 1999, how many Indian feature films were certified as ‘A’, ‘UA’ and ‘U’? Give percentage-wise, please.

– A: 469 (61.39%); UA: 98 (12.83%); U: 197 (25.78%). Total : 764.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Enviable MGs For ‘Pukar’

Boney Kapoor and Rajkumar Santoshi’s Pukar is beginning to generate heat among exhibitors. An exhibitor of Aurangabad has reportedly offered an enviable MG of Rs. 12 lakh to the film’s Nizam distributor, Ravi Machhar! In Madras, a side cinema with a weekly capacity of approximately Rs. 1.5 lakh has offered the film’s Tamilnad distributor an MG of Rs. 3.5 lakh.

‘Taal’: The Beats Go On

When does Subhash Ghai feel really thrilled and complimented? The answer, in Ghai’s own words: “The biggest compliment I receive is when Indians abroad tell me that their children are learning Indian values and customs, thanks to the Indian films.” What is notable here is that Subhash Ghai spoke  about Indian films in general and not of his Taal in particular. Ghai made this observation at the inauguration of the mainstream section of the just-concluded 31st International Film Festival of India at Plaza Cinema in Delhi. The mainstream section opened with Taal. Subhash Ghai was present on the occasion with the film’s two lead men, Anil Kapoor and Akshaye Khanna. Union I & B minister Arun Jaitley, who presided over the function, said that after seeing Taal, he was convinced that it was a good work of art. He thanked the captains of mainstream cinema for bringing the audience back to the cinema halls by blurring the lines between art and commercial cinema. Shabana Azmi, who inaugurated the mainstream section of the festival, lauded mainstream cinema and said that it was difficult to ignore films like Taal which gave Hollywood stiff competition. Even six months after its release, the beats of tributes for Taal still continue. And what’s more, Taal will celebrate silver jubilee next week at Ashok Purohit’s City Pulse, Gandhinagar, where the film’s lead artistes will be present with Ghai to celebrate the occasion. It will also enter 25th week in Hyderabad at Maheshwari (noon).

Correct Pricing

There is no need to repeat the success story of Vijay Kondke’s all-time Marathi hit, Maherchi Saadi. But the story of its long run needs to be reiterated here to highlight the importance of correct ticket pricing. To remind readers, the film ran for 25 weeks at Bombay’s Roxy in regular shows. Thereafter, it was shifted to a neighbouring cinema, Central (now Central Plaza), where also it ran in regular shows for weeks together and then in matinee shows. In all, it ran for 145 weeks (combining regular and matinee shows) at Roxy and Central Plaza. After exhausting its run, the film was then released at another nearby cinema — Dreamland — for a week. Before the commencement of the first show at Dreamland, the cinema witnessed a massive crowd of ladies. The Naaz folk, surprised at such a strong reception to the film at the cinema, congratulated Vijay Kondke, marvelling at the film’s running stamina. Even Vijay Kondke was surprised at such a large turnout. But his surprise was short-lived. When the representative came to his office in the evening, Vijay Kondke was shocked to know that the film had collected only 15%-20% of the capacity. When asked the reason for such dismal collections despite an impressive display of ladies’ excitement outside the cinema in the first show, the representative replied, “The ladies who had thronged the cinema during the first show were put off by the ‘high’ admission rate of Rs. 10 (‘high’ by 1993 standards). Many of them had seen the film at Roxy and Central, where admission rates were comparatively lower.” (Rs. 5, 6 and 7).

High time, our distributors and producers realised this simple fact — that reasonable admission rates add to a film’s patronage. But these days, everyone wants to make a fast buck in a short time. However, the buck stops with those wishful producers and distributors. At one time, distributors blamed the producers for false prices. About time, someone protested against false admission rates.