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To Dharmendra, with love

ZIYA US SALAM

For the first time ever, Dharmendra and his sons, Sunny and Bobby Deol, star in a film together. Anil Sharma has managed the feat in “Apne” which is also Dharmendra’s comeback film.

Fawning fan After a couple of flops Anil Sharma tries to recover the lost ground with “Apne”.

This Friday Dharmendra makes a quiet comeback to mainstream Hindi cinema. Anurag Basu’s “Metro” features the veteran in a small romantic role opposite Nafisa Ali. And from the early evidence on offer, Dharmendra has lost none of his appeal. At a special show in Mumbai around 150 whistled and clapped when he made his entry on the big screen. But hold on, all those fans of Garam Dharam. This is merely an appetiser. The main course is to come next month when a small slice of history will be made. Probably for the first time ever in the recorded history of cinema, a father and his two sons will star in lead roles in the same film. It will be in the long-awaited “Apne” directed by the Deol family’s old favourite Anil Sharma.

Sharma is naturally excited. Even the lapse of more than five years since the time the “family film” idea was floated has not diminished his enthusiasm. “At the time of ‘Gadar’ Dharamji and Sunny had mooted the idea. The script was not ready for long. I did not want to make an action picture with three of them together. I wanted to make a sensitive film because they are a family steeped in emotion and Indian values. I cancelled eight scripts and meanwhile made ‘The Hero’ with Sunny and ‘Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo’ with Bobby. Even Dharamji had done some forgettable smallish films. Then I got back to working for ‘Apne’ with writer Neeraj Pathak. But nothing moved for some time. I was not happy with the stories I was getting. I was conscious I was going to make a film with no parallel in the history of cinema anywhere in the world. I could not make it with just about any script. I wanted the feeling that I had a brilliant film, possibly a super hit on my hands.”

So, Sharma for a while gave up the idea. “Yes, it was in April last year I decided I won’t do the film. Then Neeraj wanted to narrate an idea. I was not ready to listen to him initially. He persuaded me. Once I heard him, I was stunned. I immediately called Sunny and Bobby. They were home fortunately. Then called Dharamji too. Within an hour everything was narrated.”

Fine, but why did he have to make the film in the first place?

“I have made the film for Dharmendra. He is the USP of my film. He is the sole reason. I wanted him to make a comeback. I have an emotional bond with him. It is his film.”

He wrapped up the film in eight months. It is slated for release this June with nearly 900 prints across the world, a little record for Hindi cinema. Within India, there will be more than 500 prints, Sharma promises. The film, with a heavyweight boxing championship background, has been shot in Chandigarh, Rajkot, Bangkok, New York and a couple of places in Canada besides Mumbai. Sharma plays the fawning fan all over again when he narrates a couple of incidents during the shooting of the film.

“Whenever Dharmendra shot, people went berserk. In Chandigarh so many women came only to see him. In Canada, where I was shooting last Sunday, 2500 people waited for him for more than a couple of hours. When they saw him they went crazy. He had to go back that day without shooting. He is a huge star and people still respect and remember him, as his films, like ‘Phool Aur Pathar’ and ‘Satyakam’, still play on television. We are not able to understand Dharamji. All the people in their 40s now have grown up watching him. He is part of their soul, their existence. They are thirsty for him.”

All that adulation for the veteran aside, “Apne” is a comeback of sorts for Sharma too. He had started his career with films like “Shradhanjali” and “Bandhan Kache Dhaago Ka” though he later won popular approval with action films like “Hukumat”, “Elaan-e-Jung” and “Gadar”.

“I make emotional films. Even ‘Gadar’ was an emotional love story. ‘Shradhanjali’ is one of my best films and a personal favourite. ‘Apne’ I hope, turns out to be a milestone in my career. It is a hundred per cent audience film. It does not belong to any genre or niche. It is a film for the masses.” Predictably, Sharma has chosen masses’ heroines like Katrina Kaif and Shilpa Shetty as the leading ladies, though Kiron Kher gets to play the Punjabi wife to Dharmendra. “Since I signed her, Shilpa has become a huge star. I took Kiron because she looks like a Punjabi mother,” Sharma states.

So, what is the USP of “Apne” besides the fact that it brings Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby on the screen together for the first time?

“It is a unique film. People make films for business. I have made it for my heart with my soul. I have made the film for Dharamji. ‘Hukumat’ many years ago was a comeback for him when video culture was threatening the industry. ‘Apne’ is another comeback vehicle for him. I am his fan, his follower. It is my salute to him.”

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