Ok, I have been on trip for enough now. My
first outing as a filmmaker happened 3 years back & was quite a successful
effort (…and forgetful too) to place me in the club of ‘filmmakers of young
generation’. So, it’s time to hit back since everyone around me is expecting it…but
with what? Or in this case, with whom? Well, with my mentor who has always been
in the business and not a hard nut to crack if it is anything associated with
candyfloss urban romantic comedies! Who else but the Karan Johar and his Dharma
Productions!
So, it’s final! It would be another
boy-meets-girl romantic film with some good peppy song & dance numbers
[nicely planned 3 before interval & 3 after interval], charmingly cute
hero, the most desirable zero-sized heroine and all glossy decked up stylish
look & feel. Done. After all, it is the safest bet in Bollywood. But wait;
there should be something new, something additional, some kind of twist that
can set me up as a sensitive filmmaker who dares to push his boundaries. Yes, we
will literally push our boundaries from posh apartments in Metros to some
remote village with a name vaguely resembled with Bollywood’s pet ‘Jhumri Telaiya’.
And guess what? LAGAAN has always been my all-time favourite film. I always have
this dream about shooting my film in a village, at least remade in Mumbai Filmcity
with all necessities [Luxury is so negative] intact.
Now the story! Do we really need one? Only
if you are asking, the boy is a spoilt brat who doesn’t want to spend his
nights at home and sings ‘izzat se, kiss my a**’ at the discothèque. The girl here
is fun loving, dynamic & very much focused in life. She can be seen dining in
the best of the restaurants in town & shaking her bum on ‘Tooh’ in a
high-profile ‘shaadi’ but still she is very much an environmentalist reminding
one of Shabana Azmi. They meet. Love happens. Principles clash. They break-up. Enters
a new girl! She makes him realise that all he really wants from life is nothing
but the girl. Interval. Now to win her back, boy has to travel all the way to
our ‘Jhumri Telaiya’ and work for the welfare of its villagers. Interesting no?
& now to make it a sure-shot
success, all we need is good casting. What about Imran Khan? He looks one
spoilt brat, more than that he looks great on screen. He fits the bill. Really?
But our boy belongs to a Tamilian family. What about dialect? Who cares, especially
when even his simple Hindi sounds as some tough tongue-twister! We will also play
some cheesy one-liners around his fairness as ‘hospital mein badli ho gaya tha’.
Funny, isn’t it? The girl can only be played by the glam doll Kareena Kapoor
Khan. She is meant to be a sensible actor who can look exactly as pretty-as made-up
as she could be, even if she is playing a deglam role [remember her real life journalist
in SATYAGRAHA].
So, this is yours truly Punit Malhotra
and since my second film GORI TERE PYAAR MEIN! is out now; I am here to sell my
film to you. Well, it is anything but a regular love-story as you can decide
yourself by going through paragraphs written above. The film in fact is so
satisfying [or annoying with clichés], you would like it to end in the interval
only. Songs will give you plenty of time in between to take loo-breaks. Our village
is very different from what you have seen in real life. People here are either workshy
or professional dancers responsible for entertainment & only entertainment.
Overall, it is a film that will not harm
you if you won’t mess with it. It is a film that believes in ‘forgive &
forget’. You should forgive all the clichés and forget it immediately after
leaving the theatre. It is a film that is best to enjoy if you have nothing
else to do…and I mean NOTHING else to do. [2/5]
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