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February 8, 2000
5 QUESTIONS |
Pukar opens to mixed responseKomal Nahta
Taal was an exception for two reasons -- Subhash Ghai and A R Rahman's music. So it wasn’t really surprising that Pukar did not open too well at several places. Frankly, what was surprising was the fact that it opened to good houses in some places. Both Anil Kapoor's and Madhuri Dixit’s performances have come in for a lot of praise. What hasn’t are the songs. Rahman’s music should have been better, considering the canvas of the film. Also, since the film has such a strong patriotic flavour, there should have been a hit desh-bhakti number. PM, home minister clear Pukar Pukar ran though the censor mill in a most unusual manner. First, the film was viewed by the army. Then, it was cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification in Bombay without a single cut. After which, director Rajkumar Santoshi had a brainwave -- in the form of a new scene which he felt could be added to the film. Santoshi's wish was producer Boney Kapoor’s command. Just six days before the film was to be released, off trotted Santoshi to Hyderabad with his crew. Anil Kapoor was already there, shooting for Boney’s Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hain. Santoshi canned the additional scene for Pukar in four hours. It was shown to the censors in Bombay three days before the film’s release. They refused to pass it. The scene, which happens in the pre-climax, was thought by the censors to be too inflammatory. Boney had no time to do reshoot since the film was due for release in three days. So he immediately managed a special screening for the prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee. The next day, Anil and co-producer Bharat Shah flew to Delhi with a print of Pukar for the special screening. In the audience were the prime minister, his family as well as home minister L K Advani and his family. After the show, Anil requested Vajpayee and Advani to see the new scene they had shot. After showing the scene, he explained how they had added it just a day ago and were now being forced to delete it because the censors thought it wasn’t fit for public exhibition. That was it! The PM and the home minister sent a message to Information And Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley that the scene had nothing objectionable and, in their opinion, the Censor Board should it reconsider its opinion. Censor Board chairperson Asha Parekh and her committee saw the film, with the new scene, in Bombay on Friday, by which time the film had already been released in theatres across the country. And, like Vajpayee and Advani, felt that the scene was not objectionable in the flow of the film. Which is how this particular scene came to be included in Pukar. And, believe it or not, it is this scene that is generating the maximum amount of applause in the theatres. Tera jadoo chal gaya Producer Vashu Bhagnani has done what very few would dream of doing. He has picturised at least two songs for his forthcoming film, Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa, twice over! While the first picturisation of the two songs is on foreign locations, the second one is against the backdrop of the Taj Mahal at Agra in India. The songs shot on Indian locales will be shown in the Bombay and overseas territories. But the rest of India will be shown the songs picturised on foreign locales. The process will be reversed after three to four weeks. The confidence Bhagnani has in his film -- indicated by the amount he has spent to shoot these songs -- is indeed praiseworthy in today’s times, when films are falling like ninepins at the box office. Ekta turns producer
The film, launched on February 1 with a song recording, will be directed by David Dhawan. Sushmita Sen may not, due to date problems, be acting in the film as originally planned. David is trying to untangle that knot and if he is successful, Sen will jump on the bandwagon. Govinda will, of course, star in the film which is to be presented by Jeetendra. Tushar, in the meanwhile, is being groomed to face the arc-lights. Who's Tushar, you ask? He's Jeetu's young and shy son who has, so far, managed to avoid the limelight. But now, he too has succumbed and will soon make his debut as an actor. Bonding with India
James Bond has, over the years, come to occupy a special place in the hearts of the Indian audience. Truly, for this Bond, the world is not enough.
A look at the week
Komal Nahta edits the popular trade magazine, Film Information. Do tell us what you think of this column
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Boney Kapoor’s Pukar opened to mixed responses last Friday. This is in keeping with the trend of Anil Kapoor starrers, which usually never start well. So much so that Anil is dubbed a non-initial hero in the film world because his films rarely, if ever, take start off as house-full ventures.
Both Jeetendra's daughter, Ekta, and wife Shobha have been bitten by the production bug. After trying their hand at a number of successful television serials, the mother-daughter duo is now attempting a film.
James Bond has done it again. Swept India with The World Is Not Enough, we mean. Barring Bombay, the film opened to tremendous houses. So much so that its opening -- both of the English and the dubbed version -- better that of Pukar in several places.