PYAAR KOI KHEL NAHIN
Tri Star International’s Pyaar Koi Khel Nahin (UA) is a love triangle with a difference. Two brothers love the same girl in this story. The younger brother decides to silently sacrifice his love but the girl refuses to accept the elder brother’s proposal for marriage because she loves the younger one. When the elder brother gets to know of the younger’s sacrifice, he immediately and happily gets his reluctant family to give their nod for the marriage of the girl with the younger one. The family, which is angry with the girl for having earlier spurned the elder brother’s offer, has a change of heart when it soon realises that she is a girl with a golden heart. By a quirk of fate, the younger brother meets with a car accident and is presumed dead. His wife delivers his child after some months. The elder brother and the widowed daughter-in-law are forced by the elders in the family to get married to each other so that life can become easier for the widow and her new-born baby. All hell breaks loose when, after some months, the younger son surfaces again. Whom should the daughter-in-law now treat as her husband — the younger son or the elder one? The dilemma is resolved in the climax.
The film, which reminds of Deewana, has a weak first half. But the scene just before interval holds promise of a better second half. The first 30 minutes of the post-interval portion, in fact, live up to the promise. This part is full of ladies sentiments and a good drama, but after that, the screenplay resorts to clichés and convenient turns and twists to round up the film. So many are the happenings in the plot that after the interesting part is complete, it (plot) gets a bit tedious. Dialogues are good at places.
Sunny Deol does a praiseworthy job as the elder brother, adding the right amount of sensitivity to the role. But the audience in general and his fans in particular will still be disappointed because the role does not do justice to his action image. Mahima Chaudhry is splendid and acts with utmost confidence. She is especially very good in emotional scenes. If only she will be more tasteful in her make-up and choice of costumes, Mahima could go places because she has tons of talent. Apoorva Agnihotri looks weak and tired and also gives a weak performance. Reema, Dina Pathak and Bindu act ably. Mohnish Bahl, Dalip Tahhil, Nawab Sha and Aasif Sheikh play the bad men quite effectively. Ravi Gosain (Apoorva Agnihotri’s friend) leaves a mark with a natural performance. Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Alok Nath, Neha Pendse, Smita Kalpvriksh, Shama Deshpande and Ritu Narula lend fair support.
Debut-making director Subhash Sehgal handles the dramatic scenes competently. But the light scenes leave a lot to be desired. His editing is loose and the film could do with some trimming in the first half. Music (Jatin Lalit) is good. The title song and the hijra (eunuch) number are appealing, the second one for its emotional content. The Yaad piya ki aane lagi song, already a super-hit, should have had a much more exciting picturisation. The other songs are melodious. Camerawork is okay. Other technical values are alright. Production values are appropriate. Action is fair.
On the whole, Pyaar Koi Khel Nahin is good in parts only and will remain an average fare where it has taken a respectable start, but it faces bleak prospects at the ticket-windows where the opening was not really exciting. Should make some mark in West Bengal and C.I. on the strength of ladies and ‘class’ audience.
Released on 30-7-’99 at Dreamland, Eros (matinee) and 21 other cinemas of Bombay thru Veekay Enterprises. Publicity: very good. Opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening was excellent in Gujarat (due to Jaya Parvati vrat) and in Bengal and Nizam.
LATEST POSITION
It was a normal week except that rains adversely affected collections in several parts of the country. In Ahmedabad, the situation continued to be tense. But the Jaya Parvati vrat in Gujarat saw collections take a big jump.
Hindustani Ki Kasam has collected excellent in the first week in spite of a drastic drop from 5th day onwards in most of the centres. At places, collections have come down to 40% and 50% already. As expected, it is quite good in East Punjab, U.P. and Bihar. 1st week Bombay 77,99,894 (86.50%) from 16 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 20,35,819 from 7 cinemas, Baroda 2,17,984 (100%), Padra 2,66,061, Jamnagar 1,49,093 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 14,05,307 from 5 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 76,82,974 (85.88%) from 16 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Lucknow 4,71,049 (100%), Agra 4,36,929, Bareilly 3,05,337; Calcutta 28,55,047 from 16 cinemas (1 in noon); Nagpur 11,32,151 from 6 cinemas, Jabalpur 3,37,604, Amravati (6 days) 3,53,822 from 2 cinemas, Akola 3,25,694 from 2 cinemas, Raipur (6 days) 3,97,439 from 2 cinemas (1 nett and 1 gross), Durg 1,28,800, Jalgaon (6 days) 2,82,810, Chandrapur 2,35,101, Yavatmal (32 shows) 1,85,230; Indore 2,96,000 (4 on F.H.); Jaipur 17,49,803 from 5 cinemas, Bikaner (gross) 3,81,135; Hyderabad (gross) 28,01,859 from 11 cinemas (8 on F.H.), share including from cinemas on F.H. 27,30,000; Guntur (gross, 3 days) 56,805.
Dada is a loser. 2nd week Bombay 3,84,916 (36.86%) from 3 cinemas; 1st week Pune 1,18,170 from 2 cinemas (2 unrecd.); 2nd week Delhi 1,75,304 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.); 1st week Lucknow 76,273, 2nd Agra 41,430, 1st week Bareilly 62,516; 2nd week Nagpur 46,181, Amravati (6 days) 29,214, Bilaspur 22,191; Jaipur 75,332.
Mann 3rd week Bombay 30,69,877 (71.17%) from 8 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 55,000 (2 unrecd.), 2nd week Valsad 2,51,807, 3rd week Rajkot 1,52,690 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar 59,000 (1 in matinee unrecd.); Pune 7,59,882 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,55,055; Delhi 28,00,336 from 9 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Lucknow 3,62,118, Agra 1,87,462, Meerut (6 days) 1,57,024, Bareilly (6 days) 54,043; Calcutta 14,71,892 from 14 cinemas; Nagpur 2,21,259 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 80,242, Amravati (6 days) 1,11,468, Akola 77,000, total 4,53,500, Dhule 47,758, Raipur (6 days) 1,60,426, Jalgaon (6 days) 83,183, 1st week Wardha 94,964, 3rd week Yavatmal 45,466 (2nd 76,030); Indore 1,43,000; Jaipur 1,86,798, Bikaner 91,364; Hyderabad (gross) 9,52,289 from 5 cinemas.
Haseena Maan Jaayegi 5th week Bombay 15,47,610 (54.31%) from 7 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 44,003 (1 unrecd.); Pune 2,39,400 (1 unrecd.), 1st week Barsi 57,002; 5th Delhi 11,26,901 from 5 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Lucknow 1,59,682, Agra 1,73,000; Calcutta 1,54,063; Nagpur 45,264, Jabalpur 31,394, total 5,77,973, Amravati 59,602, Akola 49,279, total 5,61,681, Jalgaon 47,000, 2nd week Gondia (gross) 76,384, Chandrapur 1,17,244, total 3,24,893; 5th week Indore 54,140; Jaipur 1,59,144; Hyderabad (gross) 3,60,829 from 3 cinemas (1 in noon).
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam 6th week Bombay 43,22,792 (76.99%) from 10 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 11,44,108 from 5 cinemas, 1st week Cambay 89,235, 6th Rajkot 97,580 (1 in matinee unrecd.), Jamnagar 38,680; Pune 6,06,732 from 4 cinemas, 2nd week Barsi 25,559 (1st 53,837); 6th week Delhi 6,29,498 from 2 cinemas; Lucknow 2,48,756, Bareilly (6 days) 23,000; Calcutta 3,69,257 from 3 cinemas; Nagpur 81,119, 4th week Jabalpur 1,30,411, total 8,58,691, 6th Amravati (6 days) 80,164, Akola 75,500, total 8,76,600, Raipur (6 days) 1,12,815, 5th week Chandrapur 36,387, total 4,39,221; 6th Indore 1,08,905; Jaipur 2,37,910; Hyderabad (gross) 5,87,498 from 3 cinemas (1 in noon); 2nd week Guntur (gross) 75,634, total 1,69,753.
SRIDEVI RETURNS TO FILMS
Sridevi is all set to face the movie cameras once again. She will play the female lead in Boney Kapoor’s next, to be launched soon.
INDUSTRY LOSES FIVE SOUND RECORDISTS IN TWO MONTHS
The months of June and July have been rather harsh on sound recordists. As many as five veteran sound recordists breathed their last in the two months.
K. Dashrath (68) passed away in the last week of June in Bombay due to heart problems. He had done the sound recording of more than 65 films. A. Rodrigues expired in June following a heart attack. He was in his seventies. Yashwant Mitkar, also in his seventies, died last month in Bombay after a prolonged illness.
Veteran Navin Zaveri, who had been hospitalised due to illness, passed away in the hospital in Bombay on 26th July. He was 67 years old.
Before that, veteran Ranjit Biswas died in Hyderabad on 16th July. He was in Hyderabad for the shooting of Champion.
CCCA TO HAVE BIENNIAL ELECTIONS
Elections to the executive committee of the Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA) will henceforth be held every two years instead of annually, as at present. A resolution to this effect was passed at an extraordinary general meeting of the CCCA held on 30th July in Indore. Another resolution passed at the meeting stipulates that a maximum of four persons can be co-opted on the executive committee as advisors.
YOU ASKED IT
It is said that hit music is very essential for a film to command a great opening. Then how did Hindustan Ki Kasam open to bumper houses although it did not have hit music?
– Hit music is a pre-requisite, generally speaking, for love stories. HINDUSTAN KI KASAM, on the other hand, is an action film which managed a bumper initial without hit music.
Does Akshaye Khanna have a future?
– Reportedly, Akshaye is correcting his falling hair problem by going in for hair weaving. His sunken cheeks are another worry but correcting that should not be a problem. However, most importantly, the talented Akshaye needs a success badly and he hopes TAAL will do the trick. So basically, it’s a question of baal, gaal and TAAL for Akshaye! One success, and Akshaye’s future will be bright.
If banks do begin to finance films, will a bank be willing to lend money to a film titled Bank Robbery?
– Yes, so long as the bank is assured that the producer of BANK ROBBERY doesn’t loot the bank itself!
PRODUCTION NEWS
‘Champion’ Unit Returns
The unit of Shree Shiv Bhakti Films’ Champion returned from Hyderabad on July 26 after completing a month-long shooting stint at Ramoji Rao Film City. Many action and other other scenes were picturised on Sunny Deol, Manisha Koirala, Kashmira Shah, Rahul Dev, Vivek Shauq, Surendra Pal, Tom Alter, A.K. Hangal, Anil Nagrath, Krishna Mishra, Dina Pathak, Neha Sharad, Vikram Gokhale and Deepak Parashar. The film, now 90% complete, is being produced by Sujit Kumar and directed by Padam Kumar. Screenplay: N.K. Mahajan. Dialogues: Sanjay Masoom. Action: Tinnu Verma. Lyrics: Javed Akhtar. Music: Anu Malik.
Negative Cutting
The first negative of G.S. Entertainments’ Hello Brother was cut by Salim Khan last week. The film is written and directed by Sohail Khan and produced by him jointly with Bunty Walia. It stars Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Rani Mukerji, Johny Lever, Neeraj Vora, Razzak Khan and Shakti Kapoor. Music: Sajid-Wajid and Himesh Reshammiya. Action: Mahendra Verma. Cinematography: Santosh Thundiyil. Dances: Ganesh Acharya. Editing: Yusuf Khan. Gautam Gupta presents the film.
ANNOUNCEMENT & LAUNCHING
Aamir, Shah Rukh, Aishwarya In Santoshi’s Next
Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai have been teamed for the first time in Santoshi Productions’ Prod. No. 3, written and being produced and directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. The film has music by A.R. Rahman and lyrics by Javed Akhtar. Other cast and credits are being finalised. Bharat Shah presents it.
CENSOR NEWS
Tri Star International’s Pyaar Koi Khel Nahin was given C.C. No. CIL/2/22/99 (UA) dt. 23-7-’99; length 4558.43 metres in 16 reels (cuts: 37.17 metres).
Mehul Movies P. Ltd.’s Kohram was given C.C. No. CIL/2/23/99 (UA) dt. 28-7-’99; length 4106.01 metres in 17 reels (cuts: 76.86 metres).
Essel Vision’s Tune Mera Dil Le Liya was given C.C. No. CIL/3/35/99 (A) dt. 27-7-’99; length 4453.87 metres in 17 reels (cuts: 70.76 metres).
TRAILERS
Trailer no. 2 of Devgans Films’ Hindustan Ki Kasam was given C.C. No. CIS/2/13/99 (UA) dt. 28-7-’99; length 85.64 metres.
Trailer of Tri Star International’s Pyaar Koi Khel Nahin was given C.C. No. CIS/2/12/99 (UA) dt. 23-7-’99; length 102.11 metres (cuts: 3.62 metres).
MIX MASALA
KASAM SE!
It never pays to swear by Hindustan in the Hindi film industry. Chetan Anand realised it in 1973 when his Hindustan Ki Kasam was released. And now, it is Veeru Devgan who has realised the same!
MAHIMA’S NET FACE VALUE
Those who have seen Pyaar Koi Khel Nahin are apt to wonder why Mahima Chaudhry has worn (or has been made to wear) a funny-looking net mask on her face in the song, Chudi jo khanki haathon mein. The reason is the car accident she met with some time back near Bangalore. The car mishap left her with scars on her face. And, therefore, the net was used to conceal the scar marks. That should explain Mahima’s net face value in the film’s song!
TOPICALLY ‘STAGEY’
The Chudi jo khanki haathon mein song of Pyaar Koi Khel Nahin is a stage item. And the stage’s backdrop mentions that the show is in aid of war widows. The film’s subject has nothing to do with either the war or war widows but since the song had been picturised only very recently, a hurried attempt seems to have been made to cash in on a current topic viz. Kargil. Some topicality, this!
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Hearty Integration
The subject idea first occurred to Rajkumar Barjatya about three years back. Thus the idea became a thought to ponder over for his writer-director son, Sooraj. Sooraj’s creativity gave birth to a plausible plot. And after two years of hard labour was a script born. This is how Hum Saath Saath Hain took shape on paper. The subject is about the benefits of a joint family. “We are not advocating living in a joint family. What we are trying to say is that our hearts should be together, should beat for each other,” says the shy Sooraj.
Script-Perfect
To say that Sooraj Barjatya is a stickler for perfection would be stating the obvious. But even as a director, he remains steadfast to the written script, right to the commas and dot till the last shot. When we asked whether he had followed the same policy even while shooting Hum Saath Saath Hain, Sooraj confessed that there was only a part of one scene which had remained unwritten because he was not able to work it out to his satisfaction during the scripting stage. Therefore, the entire film was shot exactly the way it was written except that one scene (or part of it)! This trait Sooraj shares with many great directors. As one such great — Alfred Hitchcock — used to maintain, “Shooting is a necessary evil for me. My film is complete the day my script is complete.”
The ‘Mohabbatein’ Brigade
Among the young brigade which has made it to Yash Chopra’s Amitabh Bachchan – Shah Rukh starrer Mohabbatein ‘Hall of Love’ are Aishwarya Rai (opposite Shah Rukh Khan) and the youngsters comprising Jugal Hansraj, Jimmy Shergill, Preeti Jhangiani, Kim Sharma and Shamita Shetty (sister of Shilpa Shetty). Besides, of course, Uday Chopra, who is Yash Chopra’s younger son, and the brother of the film’s director, Aditya Chopra.
Background Not In Background
What makes a film musically elevating these days? Did you say, just two-three super-hit songs (or more)? You are right, when you say that. But that’s a sad fact of film life today. Gone are the days when well-meaning filmmakers considered the background music also an integral part of a film. Today, the aspect of background music is literally relegated to the background. It needs only a few days to complete the recording of background music. In such a setting, Sooraj Barjatya, a man of great creative imagination and determination, has ventured to fastidiously work on the background score of his film, Hum Saath Saath Hain, for which he has booked Mehboob for one whole month! This should be an all-time record, in filmi parlance. At the end of it, the background score might truly proclaim with telling effect, “Hum (film and background score) Saath Saath Hain!”
The High And The Low
Mann may not have done well in India, but in the UK, it has managed to be among the ‘Top 10’ for three consecutive weeks. It was at no. 8 in the 1st and 2nd weeks, and at the no. 9 position in 3rd week. This is indeed a record. Of course, in the UK and the USA too, the film remains average.
Sights To Behold
A colleague of ours, who was on a tour, was struck by a ‘moving’ sight at a restaurant on a South Bihar road. The circular part of the pendulum of a clock was showing Raveena Tandon moving her head from left to right and vice versa just as she does in her dances in films! Another sight that amused him equally was an ad of a birth control device named after Mithun! This ad was on every available space throughout the highway in South Bihar.
In Passing…
An example of how drastically times have changed: Producer K.P. Singh recalls the time, many years ago, when he had to go to Khandala to sign a very busy Dharmendra for his film, Patthar Aur Payal. “And it became such a big issue in the trade,” remarks Singh, “that I had gone all the way to Khandala to sign my hero. Compare this to today’s scenario and you will see that producers even travel to far-flung places like New York, that too, only to narrate their stories to the stars!” Obviously, the world has become a much smaller place. Or might we add — chamchagiri has become a much bigger game!
Title Of The Week
Main Chudail Tu Daayan.