(From our issue dated16th April, 1994)
JURASSIC PARK
(dubbed)
Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (UA), dubbed in Hindi, is a thriller. It thrills, terrifies and horrifies and since all these need no language to create an impact, the dubbed version succeeds in leaving the audience spell-bound. The dinosaurs, which used to exist 65 million years ago, have been recreated by computer graphics. These dinosaurs, born in laboratories, are sought to be made the attractions of a novel computer-operated park, by a rich and enterprising businessman. But when the computer system fails, the dinosaurs run riot and create hell for a team that has gone to see them in the park.
The film appears like a documentary in parts but the thrilling moments are so effective that one is literally swept off one’s feet. The thrill/terror is spine-chilling and the tension, almost killing. The size of the dinosaur itself is so awesome that one stares in disbelief.
Jurassic Park has a number of chilling highlights: the first close-up of the dinosaur in the park, the birth of a dinosaur from an egg, the dinosaur striking the car, the children playing with a huge dinosaur, a group of dinosaurs coming charging together, the dinosaur chasing the team of visitors, the children trying to escape from the two dinosaurs, etc.
The film is visually very rich. The shot of the helicopter landing near Jurassic Park looks brilliant. Dubbing is appropriate; since there aren’t too many dialogues, the dubbing is not of primary importance.
Special effects are extraordinary. Performances of Richard Attenborough, Sam Neill and Laura Dern are good. Child artistes Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards are convincing. Jeff Goldblum and Ian Malcolm do well. Background score is very effective.
On the whole, the dubbed version of Jurassic Park will pay rich dividends, thereby thrilling the distributors while thrilling the audience. Business will be the best in cities.
Released on 15-5-’94 at Liberty (daily 2 shows) and 17 other cinemas of Bombay thru Hira Films P. Ltd. Publicity: excellent. Opening: very good. …….Also released in Delhi-U.P., C.P.C.I. Rajasthan. Opening was excellent in Delhi-U.P. , C.P. and C.I. The English version has been released simultaneously.
DO YOU KNOW?
* Maan Singh Deep’s GUNEHGAR is being shot in a 20-day spell at Ooty in the South, and Simla and Sangla in the North. Sangla is a snow-covered valley near Simla and is on a height. It has no hotel and, therefore, the unit and artistes will live in tents to be put up in the valley for four days.
* LAADLA has created a record by collecting 70,000/- in 1st week (20 shows) at Radhika, Satara.
* LAADLA has created a record by collecting 1,04,000/- in 3rd week (24 shows) at Relief, Ahmedabad.
* LAADLA has created a record by collecting 53,294/- in 3rd week at Chitra, Jalgaon.
* LAADLA has created a theatre record by collecting 49,131/- in 3rd week at Shyam, Nagpur.
* LAADLA has created a theatre record by collecting 73,905/- in 3rd week at Yeshwant, Indore.
* LAADLA has created a theatre record by collecting 55,321/- in 3rd week at Metro, Ujjain. It has also created records in 3rd week at Neemuch and in 3rd combined week at Lokendra, Ratlam.
* LAADLA has created a theatre record by collecting 1,58,773/- in 3rd week at Golcha, Delhi.
* LAADLA has created a theatre record by collecting 67,000/- in 3rd week at Anjana, Agra.
HIGHEST ADMISSION RATES FOR DUBBED FILM
* The Bombay distributors of JURASSIC PARK (dubbed) have hiked the admission rates of cinemas screening the film. The highest rate at Satyam and Liberty cinemas of Bombay is Rs. 40.50 per ticket. And this is the highest rate ever in the country! What’s more, the film has taken a very good opening in spite of high admission rates.
YOU ASKED IT
Which is the best month to release a film in?
– The month in which the luck of the concerned people is favourable!
A big star-cast film sometimes gets no opening whereas a non-star-cast film takes a bumper opening. What is the reason?
– Star-cast of a film is just one factor responsible for opening, the others being craze for a film, its music, publicity etc. Sometimes, the stories surrounding a film create an aura around it due to mouth publicity, which attracts the audience to cinemas.
SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR KANCHAN
Kanchan has bagged the special jury award for her acting in A. Purnachandra Rao’s Telugu film, Prema Pustakam, in the Nandi Awards announced by the Andhra Pradesh government.
FMC CONDEMNS FDC’S “DICTATORIAL STAND”
The Film Makers Combine, in a meeting of its executive committee held on 15th April, unanimously condemned the “dictatorial attitude” of the Film Distributors Council (FDC) in forcing producers to seek clearance of the FDC before starting new films. The FDC has resolved that its affiliates will not register films which are not cleared by the FDC.
The FMC has decided not to accept this resolution of the FDC and will inform its members that the clearance authority is FMC and only FMC.
A sub-committee has been formed to chalk out the course of action to counter the FDC resolution. The FMC sub-committee consists of the four presidents of the producers’ associations, viz. G.P. Sippy, Shakti Samanta, G.P. Shirke and Pahlaj Nihalani, besides J. Om Prakash, Yash Chopra, Sultan Ahmed and Harmesh Malhotra.
AFTER ‘SEXY SEXY’
If people called Karisma Kapoor’s ‘Sexy sexy’ dance in Khuddar vulgar, and David Dhawan earned the title of ‘Dada Kondke of Hindi films’ after Andaz, wonder what they would have to say to a song recorded recently by Anu Malik for Compact Disc India Ltd.’s Prashna. The song has Kama Sutra as its base and it will be picturised at Khajuraho!
VOICING ARTISTES FORM ASSOCIATION
Association of Indian Voice Artistes, a body of all languages voice artistes, was formed on 10th April at a meeting held at Andheri, Bombay. Ajay Chaddha was elected its president and Harish Bhimani and Robin Gupta, vice presidents. Vishnu Sharma was elected general secretary while Pushpa Saxena, joint secretary. Rakesh Vidua was elected treasurer. Asha Sharma, Amarnath Mukherji, Kishan Bhutani, Surendra Bhatia, Pradeep Shukla, Dharmesh Tiwari, Ramesh Goyal and Raj Joshi were the others elected on the managing committee.
The office of the AIVA is situated at 82, Bharat Nagar, Juhu Versova Link Road, near Vikram Petrol Pump, Andheri (W), Bombay-58. Phones: 623-1498/ 624-4958.
‘JURASSIC PARK’:
SHOULD THE HINDI FILM INDUSTRY REJOICE OR REPENT?
If the opening response to Jurassic Park (Hindi) is any indication, the experiment of dubbing an English film in Hindi seems to have paid off. There are a number of English films in the pipeline, which will be dubbed in Hindi now. Ashim Samanta and Uday Row Kavi, who have dubbed Jurassic Park, will follow it up with Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. The Ghost is also in queue. Then, there’s a Bond film which will have its all-India premiere with the Hindi dubbed version only.
Does this sound a danger siren for Hindi film producers? Is Jurassic Park a disturbing trend-setter? For, if the audience gets used to the technical finesse of Hollywood, it may find the Hindi films technically poor, especially in the field of special effects. And that won’t be a very good thing for the indigenous film industry. Besides, our ‘copycat’ writers may see red in this dubbing trend. Of course, viewed positively, this can be taken as a challenge, by our writers, producers and technicians. The Hindi industry people may today not know whether they should rejoice or brood over the ‘dubbing disease’ that is spreading. Like Shah Rukh Khan in Anjaam, they’ll, perhaps, have to sing: ‘Main ro-oon ya hasoon, karoon main kya karoon?’
But it may be mentioned here that only English films which have something novel to offer by way of presentation or special effects and which have less of talkie portion, should ideally be dubbed in Hindi. It is those films which would be able to compete with Hindi films.
Sudhakar Bokade Starts Three Films
Producer Sudhakar Bokade launched three films under the banner of Divya Films International on April 12 at his bungalow. A cocktail-dinner party marked the launching.
Sambandh is being directed and cinematographed by Lawrence D’souza and stars Pooja Bhatt, Saif Ali Khan, Atul Agnihotri, Saeed Jaffrey and Vikas Anand. Nadeem Shravan have recorded all its songs, penned by Sameer. The film, written by Talat Rekhi, has art by Ratnakar Phadke, sound by Buta Singh and editing by R. Rajendran.
Jackie Shroff, Sunil Shetty, a heroine (to be finalised), Raj Babbar, Moushumi Chatterji, Kiran Kumar, Avtar Gill and Mohan Joshi comprise the cast of Jai Devaa, being directed by Dayal Nihalani. Music is scored by Anu Malik. Story and screenplay: Pradip Ghatak. Dialogues: Jalees Sherwani. Art: Ratnakar Phadke.
The third film, yet untitled, will be directed by Ramesh Modi. A start-to-finish shooting schedule will be held in Mauritius and Bombay from April 18. It stars Sumeet Saigal, Neelam and Saeed Jaffrey. Vikas Bhalla will be introduced in this film. Music: Aadesh Srivastava. Lyrics: Shyam Raj and Madan Pal. Screenplay & dialogues: Shashi Raj. Editor: R. Rajendran. Art. R. Verman. The first song of the film (Prod. No. 11) was recorded on April 12 at Mehboob Recording Theatre. It was rendered by Udit Narayan.
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Not Nominated
Believe it or not but Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke has not been nominated for the National Award for the most wholesome and entertaining film of the year. According to newspaper reports, the FMC has laid the blame on the producer who “did not get back” to the FMC although circulars are sent by the FMC to all the producers. The films are entered by the FMC in consultation with the Film Federation of India. Aamir Khan, the hero of HHRPK, is said to be of the opinion that the entire system of entering films in this category is questionable. He has suggested that the government authorities which decide the rules and regulations for the entries, should do some rethinking.
Crestfallen Vijay Anand Writes To Anil, Jackie
Vijay Anand has dashed off a letter to Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff, which we reproduce hereunder and which is self-explanatory:
My dear Anil/Jackie,
It was on the 23rd of Nov. ’93 that I met you on the sets of ‘1942 A Love Story’ at Film City when the two of you inspired me to start a film.
It is on the 1st of April ’94 that I have reluctantly but finally realised that, perhaps, on that day, you both were celebrating the April-Fool’s Day with me.
Therefore, with a sad heart but with a great sense of relief, I am informing you that I am dropping the project that I have planned with you for which I performed the muhurt on 2nd Dec. ’93.
I don’t mind telling you that I am very grateful to you both for giving me a master-lesson in human relationships; in the art of evasion; in the craft of making promises not meant to be kept; in the science of rendering apologies which have more substance than thin air; in the game of smiles and embraces that are designed more to hide real TRUTH than to express friendship. I don’t mind having paid a heavy monetary price for learning this lesson. My loss is my gain.
If this was the prelude to my film, I shudder to wonder what the end would have been, had I not seen the writing on the wall on this April-Fool’s Day and decided to save myself from an ultimate disaster (like, for example, jumping off the terrace of a building).
With love and regards and with a hope that our relationship will remain the same that was before 23rd November, 1993.
Yours sincerely,
Vijay Anand
Available For Shootings
Famous, the recording studio which once upon a time used to be the most heavily booked, is today among the least frequented. Situated at Tardeo in South Bombay, the studio’s main ‘drawback’, if one may say so, is its location. Producers who have a number of options in the suburbs, are reluctant to come all the way to Tardeo for their song recordings. Then, there are singers like Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan who do not prefer to leave the suburbs for their recordings. As a result, Famous has now decided to give its premises for shooting purposes also, besides continuing the recording studio, of course. And to think of it, Shanker Jaikishen and Laxmikant Pyarelal used to record all their songs at Famous, Tardeo only.
Video….. But An Excuse
Videos are but an excuse for the poor performance of films. A film’s business cannot be affected much due to simultaneous release of video cassettes. So feels Ramesh Taurani of Tips Cassettes. According to him, films run on their merits, and not a single film has failed merely because of simultaneous release of its video cassettes. Success depends on several factors, he says, prominent among them being a good story, hit music, convincing performances and competent direction.
Bappi’s Background Score
Bappi Lahiri has recorded the background music of Rajeev Kumar Chowdhury’s Premyog in a total of 14 shifts. This is the first film after Ghayal for which Bappida recorded the background score. It is the done thing nowadays for films to have music recorded by one music director and the background score, by another. Incidentally, Premyog is the first Hindi film, the entire background music of which was recorded at B.R. Usually, the theatre is booked for dubbings. Just recently, Filmalaya’s Bengali film, Rakta Nodir Dhara, also had its background music sessions at B.R.
Animal Instinct?
A lady watching Jurassic Park in a cinema began screaming hysterically when the dinosaur chases people in the park. When the others tried to pacify her by reminding her that it was only a film that she was watching, the lady shot back, “Okay, okay, I understand that it is a film. But does the dinosaur understand so? Suppose, it pounces on me. What will I do then?”
That’s Vulgarity!
Overheard this one at a party:
Someone asked Pahlaj Nihalani why Jurassic Park had taken such a fantastic initial while his Andaz hadn’t. Pahlaj replied, “Andaz has limited vulgarity, Jurassic Park abounds in vulgarity.”
“Jurassic Park is vulgar?”, asked the first person.
“Of course,” shot back Pahlaj. “The dinosaur is completely nude.”
