JUDWAA
Nadiadwala Grandson’s Judwaa (UA) is a comedy about a pair of twin brothers. The two brothers are separated at the time of their birth, but their reflex actions are the same even though they grow up in different countries. The one brought up abroad comes to India and what follows are comic situations. The film is a remake of the Telugu hit, Hello Brother.
The story affords scope for a lot of hilarity but the screenplay leaves something to be desired. Although the film does have its share of brilliant comedy, at other times, it looks patchy and even the comedy portions sometimes look contrived. In fact, more concentration on the writing could have made a world of a difference.
Salman Khan does well in a double role. He has also danced ably. It’s a pity to see a talented actress like Karisma Kapoor being given such an inconsequential role. Although she performs well and dances beautifully, there’s nothing about her role which leaves an impression. Her character (why she indulges in petty thefts) is neither established nor explained. Rambha has even lesser to do. She dances well. Kader Khan is quite nice. Shakti Kapoor evokes laughter but his dialogues are incomprehensible, at places. Anupam Kher and Satish Shah’s comedy falls flat most of the times. Bindu is average. Mukesh Rishi, Ishrat Ali and Deepak Shirke make reasonably good villains. Dalip Tahhil does a fair job. Tiku Talsania is quite impressive. Reema and Jack Gaud pass muster. Shashi Kiran, Dinesh Hingoo, Vikas Anand, master Siddhant Kapoor and master Omkar Kapoor lend the required support.
David Dhawan disappoints with direction that is inconsistent — good sometimes and bad at other times. While some scenes have been conceived and executed well, there are others which give the impression of a job hurriedly done. There are some glaring mistakes in scripting too. For instance, the police inspector’s (Dalip Tahhil) friend (Kader Khan) asks the former to go abroad for his wife’s treatment and to leave the responsibility of his business here in India to him (Kader Khan). What ‘business’ a police inspector runs, is a mystery. Such flaws from a seasoned maker like David Dhawan are not digestible. At times, though, he appears to be in full from. In particular, the scenes of swimming pool, garden and hotel (with Jack Gaud) are superb and bring the house down with laughter.
Anu Malik’s music is a major plus joint. ‘Chalti hai kya nau se barah’ and ‘Oonchi hai building’ are the best songs and have racy tunes. Song picturisations are quite good but the same can’t be said of the song situations. Action scenes are fairly nice. Camerawork is good in parts but not so throughout. Dialogues are okay. Editing could have been better.
On the whole, Judwaa has fair merits, good music and, more important, a fantastic initial value and a good period ahead (Idd; no major release next week) to keep its distributors of most circuits smiling.
Released on 7-2-’97 at Liberty and 21 other cinemas of Bombay thru Raj Enterprises. Publicity & opening: excellent. …….Also released all over except in Nizam. Opening was bumper everywhere except in parts of C.P. Berar.
YESHWANT
Shalimar International’s Yeshwant (A) is the story of a supremely honest police officer and his wife who is a deputy collector. The police officer is so sincere about his duties that he can’t think of anything else except cleansing the corrupt system. He is framed for a murder and put behind bars. Once out of jail, he is led to believe that his wife has had relations with her bodyguard. All hell breaks loose in his life and he makes his wife’s life also miserable. In the end, not only is his misunderstanding about his wife cleared but he also succeeds in eliminating the villain and dismantling the chief minister who is also involved in a drugs scam.
The film is a Nana Patekar show from the word ‘go’. Although Nana’s character is a bit too loud and unreasonable, the viewer gets used to it by interval time. In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that several drawbacks in the screenplay and direction get camouflaged by the sheer presence and performance of Nana. He breathes fire and mouths dialogues that are raw, bold and hard-hitting. It must be said to the credit of the censors that they’ve let a lot of swear-words pass their watchful eye so as not to dilute the impact of the character.
Although the treatment of the subject has a bit of class appeal and a lot of dialogues are unnecessarily spoken in English, the character and dialogues of Nana Patekar make the film mass-appealing. But a drawback for circuits other than Bombay and C.P. Berar (Maharashtra) is that the film has a lot of Maharashtrian flavour. The caricature of an ex-chief minister of Maharashtra will be enjoyed by the audiences in the state but not so in other places. Generous use of swear-words will restrict ladies audience.
To describe Nana’s performance in a few lines would be doing injustice to the great actor in him. The guy is just too brilliant and the best part about his acting is that even in scenes where he shows villainish traits, the audience (especially in Maharashtra) wants to applaud him. An award-winning performance, indeed. Madhoo gives a restrained performance. Atul Agnihotri is good. Mohan Joshi does an impressive job. Shafi Inamdar is also effective. Shivaji Satam is natural. Bala Thakur does a splendid job. Ravindra Sathe is good. Achyut Potdar, Gavin Packard, Nagesh Patekar, Ashok Shinde and Ashok Maurya lend very good support. Master Prasad Parkar is superb. Usha Nadkarni shines in the solitary scene in which she appears.
Anil Mattoo’s direction is quite good. The first half could’ve done with some more light moments. The director could have also advantageously avoided giving the film such a heavy regional colour. Music is a terrible letdown. The ‘machhar’ song is a craze for its content rather than its tune. Dialogues (Hriday Lani) are top class and clapworthy at many places. Cinematography is good. Background score is effective. Sham Kaushal’s action scenes are thrilling.
On the whole, Yeshwant will keep its investors happy. Business in Maharashtra will be hit.
Released on 7-2-’97 at Dreamland and 25 other cinemas of Bombay thru Mahalakshmi Film Distributors. Publicity & opening: excellent. …….Also released all over. Opening was excellent in C.P. Berar but below the mark in Rajasthan.
SANTOSH SINGH JAIN’S GRANDSON TO WED
Chirag, son of Rajasthan distributor Narendra Jain and grandson of CCCA president Santosh Singh Jain, will wed Nidhi on 14th February in Jaipur.
GOGA KAPOOR’S DAUGHTER TO WED
Marriage of Shailee, daughter of Goga Kapoor, with Amit will be solemnised on 17th February in Delhi at Tikona Park, Sheikh Sarai, Phase 1, near Soami Nagar. A celebration party was held on 7th in Bombay.
RAMESH JAIN’S SON TO WED
Rishi, son of Delhi-U.P. and Rajasthan distributor Ramesh Kumar Jain (Magnum Films, Delhi, and T. Naveen Pictures, Jaipur), will wed Kajal on 16th February in New Delhi at Gulmohar Park Ground. A sangeet programme will be held a day earlier at Chhoti Dada Badi, South Extension-II, New Delhi.
NITIN GHELANI’S DAUGHTER TO WED
Marriage of Binita, daughter of Bombay exhibitor Nitin Ghelani, with Niraj will be solemnised on 11th February at Catholic Gymkhana, Marine Drive, Bombay.
KISHORE SINGH DEAD
Kishore Singh, proprietor of Sai Kishore 70mm cinema, Hyderabad, expired on 6th February in Hyderabad due to a brief illness. He was cremated the same day. A condolence meeting was held the same evening at the office of The Hyderabad State Film Chamber of Commerce.
ARREST WARRANT
The 44th metropolitan magistrate’s court, Andheri, Bombay, has issued an arrest warrant against Dinesh P. Pai, proprietor of Vardan Enterprises, Davangere (Karnataka), under section 420 IPC. A case under the said section was filed by producer B.S. Shaad when a cheque (for Rs. 30,000) given to him by Dinesh Pai for part payment towards the Mysore distribution rights of the film, Pehla Pehla Pyar, bounced.
NEW CINEMA IN BOMBAY
A new cinema, Madhuban, will open on February 14 or 21 at Dombivli, a distant suburb of Bombay. It was scheduled to open on 7th February with Yeshwant, but the opening has been postponed.
NO DIRECTIONS ON ENT. TAX YET
The rate of entertainment tax applicable in Maharashtra continues to be a question mark. When cinemas in the state reopened on 30th/31st January after a month-long closure in protest against the new (100%) rate of entertainment tax, it wasn’t clear as to what rate would be applicable. The industry leaders had maintained that directions to the effect that 50% tax be collected would be given to the collector in a day or two.
However, even nine days after the reopening, no directions to that effect have been issued. This would imply that the government will collect tax at the rate of 100% since this was the rate made effective from January 1, 1997, the day on which cinemas downed shutters. This is also borne out by the collector’s communication dated 6th February, asking cinemas to deposit tax at the rate of 100% with the treasury.
While cinemas in Bombay city have not yet deposited the tax, those in several other parts of Maharashtra have deposited it at 100% since the collector has refused to accept tax at 50%.
Even though it is now clear that the industry will have to pay entertainment tax at the rate of 100%, at least till March 5 — the date till which the election code of conduct is applicable — industry leaders continue to assure distributors and exhibitors that 50% tax rate would be made applicable with retrospective effect, latest from Tuesday (February 11). In fact, it is because of these hopes given by industry leaders that cinemas in Bombay city are refraining from preparing DCRs (daily collection reports) till a clear picture emerges.
In the meantime, convinced that what the industry leaders say will not materialise, many cinemas have decided to hike admission rates from next week to provide for the additional 50% entertainment tax. The final decision to increase the rates will be taken on Tuesday, February 11, the last day on which the tax has to be deposited.
‘Raja Hidustani’, ‘Khamoshi’ Sweep
Screen-Videocon Awards
Raja Hindustani was adjudged the best film of 1996 at the Screen Videocon awards held on 1st February at the Andheri Sports Complex, Andheri, Bombay. The film also fetched awards in six other categories — best direction (Dharmesh Darshan), best actor (Aamir Khan), best comedian (Johny Lever), best screenplay (Robin Bhatt), best music (Nadeem Shravan), and best male playback singer (Udit Narayan). Manisha Koirala bagged the best actress award for Khamoshi. The awards for the best supporting actor and actress went to Amrish Puri (Ghatak) and Seema Biswas (Khamoshi). Jury special awards went to director Shekhar Kapur for Bandit Queen, and outstanding child playback singer master Aditya Narayan.
Ashish Vidyarthi won the award for the best actor in a negative role for Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin. Rekha bagged this award in the female category for Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi.
Khamoshi also fetched awards for the best lyricist (Majrooh Sultanpuri), best female playback singer (Kavita Krishnamoorthy), best cinematographer (Anil Mehta), best art director (Nitin Desai), and best debut-making director (Sanjay Leela Bhansali).
Another film which bagged a number of awards was Maachis. Gulzar got the awards for its story as well as dialogues. Narinder Singh got the best sound recordist award for the same film while Chandrachur Singh bagged the award for the most promising new actor, again for the same film.
Sulbha Arya got the award for the best comedienne for her role in Masoom. Master Omkar Kapoor and Chinni Prakash were adjudged the best child artiste and the best choreographer for the same film. The award for the best background music went to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Bandit Queen), for best editing, to Renu Saluja (Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin), and for best action, to Akbar Bakshi (Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi). Binda Thackeray bagged the award for the best debut producer for Agni Sakshi. The most promising new actress award went to Priya Gill for her role in Tere Mere Sapne.
Lata Mangeshkar and Dev Anand were honoured with lifetime achievement awards.
Putravati was adjudged the best Marathi film, and it also fetched awards for the best actress and the best director (Sukanya Kulkarni and Bhaskar Jadhav respectively). Vijay Chavan was adjudged the best Marathi film actor for his performance in Ashi Asavi Sasu.
DO YOU KNOW?
* A Hindi film, JAYA GANGA, has been released this week at Sterling, Bombay, after a gap of 22 years.
* HAHK..! has been revived in a big way this week to take advantage of Idd. While 25 prints have been engaged in Bombay-Karnataka, 20 have been engaged in Nizam, and 18, in Mysore. Over 100 prints are engaged all over India.
* YESHWANT has created a city record by collecting 53,218/- on the opening day at Rajkamal, Akola.
* YESHWANT has created a city record by collecting 44,084/- on the first day at Raj, Raipur.
* YESHWANT has created a theatre record by collecting 35,005/- on the opening day at New Basant, Bhilai.
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has created a record by collecting 93,207/- in 1st week at Naaz, Jambusar (Gujarat).
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has created a city record by collecting 1,57,617/- in 2nd week (better than 1st week) at Laxmi, Idar (Gujarat).
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has created a city record by collecting 1,97,173/- in 2nd week at Darpan, Dahod (Gujarat). 1st week’s collection was 1,97,978/-.
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has created a theatre record by collecting 87,675/- in 13th week at Apsara, Meerut.
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has created a city record at Wardha by collecting 69,020/- in 7th week at Durga.
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has created another city record by collecting 1,61,396/- in 10th week at Jyoti, Jabalpur. Total: 19,56,252/-.
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has created a record in Bhopal despite dull Ramzan days, by collecting 90,650/- in 12th week at Radha, and 64,387/- in 7th week at Jyoti.
* TERE MERE SAPNE has created a theatre record by collecting 74,031/- in 5th week at Anand, Raipur.
* Chiranjeevi’s HITLER (Telugu) is doing wonders in Nizam circuit. Its distributor’s share of the first 6 days from Nizam alone was a whopping 52 lakh. The share of first 4 weeks was 1.25 crore!
YOU ASKED IT
Will 1997 see a fall in film prices?
– At the rate at which distributors are paying fancy prices for films, it doesn’t seem likely that film ratios will go down in 1997.
What is the best thing about the film industry you like?
– Its ability to withstand any and every shock as also any and every opposition.
Is it true that production today is a profitable enterprise as never before?
– Yes, producers can make a profit of anywhere between 1 and 7 crore today, if their proposal is ‘A’ class.
Will Koyla be released on 18th April if Mrityudaata comes a week earlier?
– Why not?
MIX MASALA
FAMILY DRAMA
Now that the release of Auzaar has been postponed by a week, it will be coming with Judaai. Which means, the audience will get to see Anil Kapoor, Sridevi (Judaai) and Sanjay Kapoor (Auzaar), all of the same family, on 28th February. Bhaiya, bhaiya, bhabhi. That’s what one calls a family drama! Baap re baap!! Yes, daddy Surinder Kapoor is the producer of Judaai.
NOT SIMULTANEOUS RELEASE NOW
When Hero No. 1 and Auzaar were both announced for release on 21st February, Vashu Bhagnani (producer of Hero No. 1) used to justify the simultaneous release plan thus: “Ramesh Taurani and I have decided to get both the films on the same day so that the money (box-office collections) gets divided between us only. Paisa ghar mein hi aana chahiye; mere ghar aur Tauranis ke ghar mein koi phark nahin hai.” But still, one got the feeling that since the Tauranis and Vashu are so close (the latter’s Coolie No. 1 was presented by the former), the two films would not come on the same day. As it is, Ramesh Taurani is known to have no ego in matters such as postponing his release if that is for the betterment of the film.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
STOP VIDEO PIRACY
Dear Sir,
I have a cinema, Janta Talkies, at Maheshwar (M.P.) which has a population of 15,000. A video cinema was started by another at Maheshwar in May 1992. The cinema has an Entel projector with a big screen.
Earlier, all new films used to be released first at the video theatre and thereafter at my cinema. But in the last two years, release of video cassettes of new films is being delayed. Further, the Indore Distributors Forum had also a couple of years ago launched a tirade against illegal video cassette circulation and against video piracy. Due to this, I released a number of big films at my cinema and they were not shown in the video theatre thereafter. Because of this, my cinema as well as the distributors concerned made good profits then.
It is unfortunate that the business of illegal video cassettes is flourishing once again. In January ’97 itself, the video theatre at Maheshwar has shown Ghatak, DDLJ and Raja Hindustani, all of which haven’t yet been released at my Janta cinema. Of course, the video cassettes were camera copies of poor quality.
I would appeal to the INFACT, the CCCA and the Indore Distributors Forum to once again initiate the strictest possible action and check against video pirates and those who indulge in telecasting illegal video cassettes.
– Shyamlal Malviya
Janta Talkies
Maheshwar.
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Black Is Beautiful
If Rajiv Rai’s Gupt was in such demand among distributors, can its calendars be far behind? Simply splendid! That’s the only way one can honestly describe the 1997 calendars of Gupt brought out in black by Rai. There’s one ‘sore point’, though. The 8-leaf calendar has two months per leaf (that is, six leaves for the 12 months, one front leaf and one last leaf). Had there been one leaf for every month, there would’ve been more to be admired. For, the stills on every leaf are wow! The calendars, printing of which is excellent, have been designed by Himanshu and Rahul Nanda.
Stars’ Favourite Too
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is not just a favourite of our music directors for the immense ‘inspiration’ he gives them for their tunes, he seems to be very popular among the stars and filmmakers too. This was evident from the good attendance at the function hosted by Tips on 3rd February to felicitate Nusrat Khan, at Holiday Inn. The music maestro, who is scoring the music in Tips’ Kachche Dhaage, gave a live recital at the function which was graced by names like Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Ajay Devgan, B.R. Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Surinder Kapoor, Tutu Sharma, Sharad Kapoor, Mukul Dev, Namrata Shirodkar…… Let’s hope, the audience too accepts Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with open arms, as the industry has.
Title Tattle
If Raja Hindustani has come, can Rani Hindustani be far behind? Well, at least an enterprising producer (Roopvati Films) has got registered the title with the title registration committee of the IMPPA. Some more interesting and some funny titles: Dulah No. 1, Aaja Mere Raja, Hello Miss Jeans, Coolie Chala London Japan, Coolie Chala America, Mere Do Anmol Rattan, Guru Gantaal, Chudeil, Teen Titliyan and Rangila Hindustan.
Trial Habits
Not only is financier Vinod Doshi fond of kulfi, he also likes to treat his friends and family to kulfi. And he has a soft spot for the special kulfi from Sion, a suburb of Bombay. So, you can be sure that if it is a trial show of a film, arranged by Vinod Doshi, the guests will be treated to kulfi and, maybe, samosas too, called in specially from Sion. How cool! Well, if you happen to see a preview with Tips boss Ramesh Taurani, be sure to find a huge chocolate bar in his hand. If you are lucky to be seated near him in the preview theatre, rest assured that you, too, will be offered a piece of the chocolate. How sweet!