AASHIQ
Shweta International’s Aashiq (A) is a romantic story. A rich girl falls head over heels in love with an advocate’s son. The shy son takes a while to reciprocate her romantic advances but when he does so, it is too late. For, the girl is kidnapped and sold to a brothel-keeper. The guy sets out in search of her and succeeds in rescuing her in the nick of time, but not before he overpowers an army of villains.
The film, which is all along light in the first half, changes tracks completely after interval. The second half reminds of Sadak. While the entertaining and light scenes are quite enjoyable, the tense drama post-interval does not hold the audience’s interest. For one, because it lacks novelty. Secondly, the concept of forcibly selling educated and modern girls in the flesh market looks contrived and dated. The track of the heroine’s forever-fighting parents is unwanted and even jarring. Also disturbing is the mother’s threat to her daughter (heroine) to be wary of her father’s ire and temper. Disturbing, because in a previous scene, the mother is shown slapping the father who does nothing in reaction! Then, what ire and what temper is the mother referring to?
At least two songs in the second half come at situations when one would least expect a song. The impact of those two songs is, therefore, diluted immensely, their melodious tunes notwithstanding. The hero helplessly roaming in search of the heroine for a good part of the second half will not go down well with the viewers. Some comedy scenes lack punch. A couple of emotional scenes, too, fall flat if only because they do not come after a proper build-up. An instance in point is the scene in which the boy wishes the girl a happy birthday in great style. The emotional impact of the scene is completely lost because the girl reveals her pain (at her parents not remembering to wish her) only after the guy wishes her. The better course would have been to build up her pain before the scene.
Bobby Deol tries hard to get into the skin of the character he plays, but fails. He grimaces more than he acts in the second half and is quite a letdown in the film. Karisma Kapoor puts in all the sincerity at her command and does a wonderful job. Whether in light or in dramatic scenes, she is simply superb. Anupam Kher gets limited scope and is average. Rahul Dev is effective as the flesh trader. Johny Lever’s comedy is enjoyable up to a limit. Dina Pathak is natural. Smita Jayakar and Anjan Srivastava are dull. Their patch-up, after major and frequent fights, looks hurried and manipulated to suit the need of the script. Ashok Saraf has not been well exploited. Mukesh Rishi is so-so. Nasir Khan does a reasonably good job. Vrajesh Hirjee is lovely. Mrinal Kulkarni, Kashmira Shah and the rest lend average support. The dog has been exploited quite well.
Director Indra Kumar is not in his element. He doesn’t seem to have had a grip on the subject which, in any case, suffers due to a weak screenplay (Rajiv Kaul and Praful Parekh). Even comedy, which is Indra Kumar’s forte, is not as hilarious as it should’ve been. Dialogues (Anwar Khan) are good at places. Music (Sanjeev Darshan) is melodious. ‘Aashiq mujhe aashiq’, ‘Tu hi aashiq’, ‘O mere dholna’, ‘Gore gore gaal’ and ‘Gori tera nakhra’ are appealing numbers, but it must be added that there is not a single hit tune. Some songs come at such inopportune time that they lose their beauty. Song picturisations should have been much better. Cinematography (Harmeet Singh) is eye-filling. Editing (Sanjay Sankla) is not sharp. Action scenes (Abbas Ali) provide thrill only at places. The set (Bijon Dasgupta) of Karisma Kapoor’s house is rich.
On the whole, Aashiq is a dull fare, with the holiday period in the first week and lack of releases in the forthcoming weeks as its best scoring points. Lacking in merits, it seems unlikely that its romance with the box-office will last very long and that any distributor will reap dividends from it.
Released on 26-1-2001 at Minerva and 17 other cinemas of Bombay by Shweta International thru Metro Films. Publicity & opening: very good. …….Also released all over. Opening was up to the mark due to Republic day holiday.
LATEST POSITION
Both the releases of last week fared badly at the box-office.
Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi left a sour taste in the mouth with shockingly poor collections in almost every centre. 1st week Bombay (6 days) 28,82,241 (72.13%) from 11 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Vapi 2,54,326; Pune 7,32,595 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 42,243; Delhi 31,10,219 (43.84%) from 10 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Agra 1,75,000; Calcutta 3,34,138 from 2 cinemas (one for 6 days and the other for 3 days; others undisclosed); Nagpur 3,12,919 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 63,140, Amravati 1,05,495, Raipur (6 days) 72,767, Durg (6 days) 54,648, Jalgaon (6 days) 89,260, Wardha 51,331, Yavatmal 60,647, Bilaspur (6 days) 70,000; Indore 1,00,000 (3 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,11,824 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 2,86,365 (25.24%) from 2 cinemas; Hyderabad (gross) 14,05,406 from 9 cinemas (1 unrecd.).
Zubeidaa earns praises from the elite but that’s all; in money terms, it comes a big cropper. 1st week Bombay (6 days) 22,37,596 (63.32%) from 7 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Pune 4,54,925 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 24,73,057 (51.20%) from 8 cinemas; Agra 75,000, Bareilly 26,623; Calcutta (6 days) 3,56,438 from 4 cinemas (2 cinemas for 3 days each); Nagpur 1,90,625, Jabalpur (6 days) 39,510; Indore 94,000 (1 on F.H.); Jaipur 2,52,319 (48.75%); Hyderabad (gross) 4,98,732 from 4 cinemas (2 in noon).
Bhairav is disastrous. 1st week Bombay 4,71,455 (27.90%) from 4 cinemas (5 unrecd., 2 on F.H.); Delhi 2,62,801 (12.05%) from 5 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Nagpur 63,124 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 84,694, Amravati 40,848; Jaipur 46,343 (12.18%), Bikaner (gross) 66,597.
Farz falls further. 2nd week Bombay (6 days) 21,79,803 (57.35%) from 8 cinemas (8 on F.H.), total for 2 weeks 67,02,573; Vapi 1,39,109; Pune 3,40,446 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 66,383 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 14,76,629 from 10 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Agra 2,28,000, Meerut 2,52,032 (1st 3,33,186), Bareilly (6 days) 81,217; Nagpur 91,156 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 84,694, Amravati 1,72,056, Raipur (6 days) 88,288, Jalgaon (6 days) 97,592, Gondia 50,989 (1st 1,30,132), Wardha (6 days) 46,112, Chandrapur 74,562, total 2,58,566; Bhopal 73,937 (1 unrecd.); Jaipur 2,31,924 (23.57%) from 2 cinemas, Bikaner (gross) 1,54,688; Hyderabad (gross) 4,94,858 from 2 cinemas.
Mohabbatein 13th week Bombay (6 days) 11,66,548 (57.51%) from 7 cinemas, total for 13 weeks 4,50,32,594; Pune 1,82,369 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 2,97,011; Agra 1,61,000; Calcutta (6 days) 1,83,954; Nagpur 83,706, Jabalpur (6 days) 78,612, 4th week Balaghat 48,403, total 2,64,643, 13th week Amravati 73,930 (12th 82,479), Jalgaon (6 days) 66,184; Indore (6 days) 45,735; Hyderabad (gross) 3,82,282 from 2 cinemas.
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Chundadi Ni Laaj (Gujarati, TF) did poor in 1st week in Ahmedabad.
Mor Chhainha Bhuinya (Chhattisgarhi) 13th week Raipur (nett) 1,06,704, total 22,94,662, city record, 9th week Rajnandgaon 80,742.
BHARAT RATNA FOR LATA MANGESHKAR
Lata Mangeshkar will be awarded the nation’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. Veteran shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan will also be conferred the Bharat Ratna. The Ustad’s strains of shehnai as interlude music in some of the songs of Goonj Uthi Shehnai and Sehra still ring in the ears of music lovers. Indian music — film and classical — has indeed been elevated to a new crescendo with these national honours.
Among the film celebrities who have been conferred with the second highest civilian award — the Padma Vibhushan — are Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who had also won the Dadasaheb Phalke award last year; Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma; and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, the sarod wizard.
The Padma Bhushan award-winners include actors Amitabh Bachchan, Dev Anand, Pran, South Indian film actress and filmmaker Bhanumathi, filmmaker B.R. Chopra and music director Bhupen Hazarika. Kavita Krishnamoorthy’s husband, L. Subramaniam, has also been conferred the Padma Bhushan.
In all, 109 prominent personalities were announced for Padma awards on the eve of the Republic Day.
CLASS APART!
The subject of Aamir Khan’s Lagaan may be rustic, but its publicity sure packs class in it. Calendars, designed to promote the film, stand out in the crowd of promotional calendars of other films. The large calendar depicts an impressive still of Aamir’s face alongwith a group still of 11 — yes, 11 — actors from the cast in their get-ups. The background has a map of British India and a coin of the British rupee to allude to the period the movie is set in. The calendar of 2001 highlights two important dates — 6th April, when the film’s audio will be released, and 1st June, when the film will be released. That is, if perfectionist Aamir doesn’t need to yet again postpone the release of his very first ‘baby’!
PUNJAB GOVERNMENT SETTLES DUES
The Punjab government disbursed Rs. 60 lakh by way of subsidy to Punjabi film producers earlier this month. Although more was payable, the cash-strapped state government could only disburse Rs. 60 lakh among the many producers whose patience had run out.
It may be recalled that the claimant-producers, under the aegis of the Chamber of Motion Picture Producers (CHAMPP), had decided to boycott all functions of the Punjab government if their dues of subsidies were not settled. They also threatened to go to court.
The subsidy committee met in Jalandhar earlier this month and decided to pay off all the producers from the Rs. 60 lakh available. Although subsidy is payable at the rate of Rs. 12 lakh, Rs. 8 lakh, and Rs. 4 lakh for ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ class films respectively, no producer was given Rs. 12 lakh due to shortage of funds.
K.D. Shorey was the industry representative in the subsidy committee meet.
HRITHIK IN THE CROSSFIRE OF SA POLITICS
Hrithik Roshan was again almost sucked into the labyrinth of controversy on distant shores of South Africa. In fact, he was drawn into the firing line in the political fight between South Africa’s ruling party, African National Congress (ANC), and the opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA). It began with a poster circulated with the November 29 edition of Post, a popular weekly among the 1.5 million-strong Indian community in South Africa. The poster showed Hrithik in a dance pose and it carried the caption, ‘Vote DA for all the people’. This had its effect. The Indian community, by and large, voted for the DA.
The ANC contended that Hrithik appeared to be urging the Indian community, traditionally supporters of ANC, to vote for the opposition.
The ANC dashed off a letter to Hrithik Roshan, complaining that he was interfering in the domestic party political affairs of another country and thereby placing the future of the Indian community in great jeopardy.
Rakesh Roshan wrote a letter to the editor of Post, clarifying that Hrithik does not endorse any political party anywhere in the world. He asked the magazine to tender an apology, which the weekly did. And thus the ban, which was to be imposed by the ANC on all Hrithik Roshan starrers in South Africa, was averted
Bharat Shah Still In Judicial Custody
‘CCCC’ Release Matter To Come Up On 30th January
Financier and diamond merchant Bharat Shah was on 22nd January further remanded to judicial custody till 29th. The case came up for hearing on 22nd in the special court hearing MCOCA cases. Nazim Rizvi, the producer of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, who was also produced before the special court, was also remanded to judicial custody for one more week (till 29th January).
The police, in its application for Shah’s remand, said, he was “not co-operating” during the interrogation. Shah reacted, saying, “All the charges made against me are baseless.”
Special public prosecutor Rohini Salian made an application for Rizvi’s transfer from jail to police custody.
Shah’s counsels, led by V.R. Manohar, said that the police had given Shah the copy of the remand application of January 18 but had not handed over the first remand application (RA) copy of January 8. V.R. Manohar also complained that most of the FIR and remand copies given to them were blacked out. He said, “Not giving us access to the complete application is a mockery of the Bombay high court order and is interfering with Shah’s right to make a bail application.” It may be recalled that the Bombay high court last week ordered the police to give Shah copies of the FIR and remand application. Designated judge A.P. Bhangale directed the prosecution to provide Shah with FIR copies and remand papers of January 8 after concealing the identities of the witnesses.
V.R. Manohar sought a two-hour interview with Bharat Shah. This was objected to by the special public prosecutor. The judge also observed that a “team” of lawyers could not be permitted to meet Shah. He called Bharat Shah into the witness box to choose an advocate. Shah chose four of his lawyers, but when the judge told him that only one would be permitted, Bharatbhai consulted his son, Rashesh, and chose Shiraz Rahimtoola. Bharat Shah’s lawyers did not press for bail in the absence of the complete FIR and RA.
The judge read out from the earlier remand application in which it was mentioned that Shah allegedly had a telephonic conversation with Shakeel regarding extortion of money from a businessman.
‘CCCC’ RELEASE
In the meantime, the process for the release of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke is on. The all-India distributors of the film have been asked to appear in court on 30th January. The prosecution, it may be recalled, told the Bombay high court that it did not have any objection to the appointment of a court receiver for the purpose of releasing the film all over. While some of the distributors have arrived in Bombay, others are expected to reach the city in a day or two.
Major Fire At City Pulse Multiplex
One Screen Gutted, Foyer Ravaged
The first multiplex of Gujarat — City Pulse at Gandhinagar — was the scene of a devastating fire on the night of 24th January. The fire, believed to have been caused by short circuit, has completely destroyed one auditorium and the spacious foyer. Property in the other two auditoria of the 3-screen multiplex has also been destroyed. The total loss is estimated to be about Rs. 1 crore. A print of Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi was also completely destroyed.
City Pulse, owned by Ashok Purohit, had opened on 7th May ’99. As it was the first multiplex and a grand one at that, it soon became like a picnic-spot on weekends. Even the Rs. 100 admission rate did not deter families from thronging to the cineplex which has screened such blockbusters as Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, Taal, Hum Saath-Saath Hain etc. The multiplex has had such filmland visitors as Subhash Ghai, Rakesh Roshan, Anil Kapoor, Boney Kapoor, Sridevi, Aishwarya Rai, Akshaye Khanna, Akshay Kumar, Karisma Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Shah Rukh Khan and Amrish Puri, among others.
By an uncanny coincidence, Ashok Purohit was scheduled to reduce the high admission rate from Friday (January 26) due to competing multiplexes having come up in nearby Ahmedabad and Adalaj. In place of the Rs. 100, the new rates were to be Rs. 60, Rs. 80 and, for English films, Rs. 50. Just two days before the reduction in rates, the devastating fire reduced part of the multiplex to ashes!
YOU ASKED IT
Our films are shot in London, New York, Paris, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Canada and even Russia and Africa. Which foreign location now remains to be exploited?
– Pakistan and the Sahara Desert!
What do you think of this idea: making a Punjabi film, packing all popular Punjabi pop songs into it?
– This is not an idea — it is a gimmick!
When a producer and a director go on a location hunt, who all go with them?
– The cinematographer and, sometimes, the art director and writer, too. In fact, the producer often doesn’t accompany the team.
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Royal Controversy Or Royal Flop?
The subject of Shyam Benegal’s Zubeidaa, written by film critic and writer-director Khalid Mohamed, has made Maharana Mahendra Singh Mewar of the erstwhile Udaipur state raise his royal eyebrows. He has shot off letters to the Rajasthan chief minister, union I & B minister Sushma Swaraj, the all-India Kshatriya Mahasabha and to the former rulers of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Bhavnagar, stating, “In the last 50 years, a bizarre and one-sided tirade in the media and films has become the order of the day to the accompaniment of debauchery and courtesans thrown in for good measure. This has ended up in vilifying one class as well as a handful of people making them appear as abject lessons of worthlessness. I wish to record my vehement disapproval of such repeatedly presented, intended and convoluted distortions where a whole class or section of our country’s citizens are maliciously derided.”
Though this part of the letter is general in content, the allusion is surely to the subject of Zubeidaa in which a Rajput maharaja is shown having an affair and ultimately marrying a divorced Muslim woman, Zubeidaa.
According to the Bombay edition of The Sunday Times dated 21st January, “…the seeds of controversy are sown by the fact that the scriptwriter Khalid Mohamed really did have a mother called Zubeidaa who died in a plane crash along with the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Hanuwant Singh.”
In a very brief interview in the same paper, director Shyam Benegal has said that the film is “inspired” by a true story. When asked by the paper whether he foresaw any controversy, Benegal replied, “No way. The characters in the story have no bearing on the Jodhpur royal family, either directed or indirectly.”
But the report says that Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur “is reportedly upset that the memory of his father has been treated with disrespect. And at the centre of it all, is his mother, the Rajmata of Jodhpur, Krishna Kumari, the dignified matriarch, in whose eyes you see an era lost and who is played (if indeed the film is about the Jodhpur house) by Rekha.”
But even while the controversy rages, the film itself has bombed at the box-office. As a smart Alec remarked, “The controversy is more exciting than the film!”
Not Rishi Ke Kabil!
Rishi Kapoor would do well not to ever again get ‘trapped’ by the Hindi remakes of Parent Trap. The first Parent Trap-inspired Rishi-starrer was Pyar Ke Kabil (1987) and the second one is Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (2001). Needless to say, both of them bombed. A khatta experience for Rishi! But AVM’s Do Kaliyan, which was the first Hindi film to be inspired by the English original, proved a meetha experience for Rishi’s better-half, Neetu Singh. She was introduced as baby Sonia in a double role in Do Kaliyan which clicked.
