Sooraj R. Barjatya’s “Vivah” is a pleasant surprise. It has just completed silver jubilee at 25 theatres across India. RANA SIDDIQUI
Defying all projections, mocking at a section of critics, Rajshri Productions have done it again. The banner that gave us films like “Maine Pyar Kiya” and “Hum Aapke Hain Koun!” has delivered an ace again. Completely unexpected yet completely married to Indian tradition, the typical Rajshri way. Yes, one is talking about the much talked about “Vivah” that arrived ever so quietly at the box office but has gone on to become the first all-India hit since the heady days of “Lagaan” and “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha”. You may call it the triumph of tradition. Urban Indians may decry it as an expression of an age long dead, but there is no denying that the Shahid Kapoor-Amrita Rao starrer is a winner all the way. It has completed a silver jubilee at places as geographically removed as economically and socially diverse: Mumbai and Gorakhpur, Indore and Amritsar, Aligarh and Indore.
Metros’ response
Those who thought it wouldn’t do well in metropolitan cities have been surprised. At MMX theatres in Ghaziabad near Delhi, the film has already entered its 29th week. Says Dinesh Gupta, Rajshri’s distributor for Delhi-U.P, “It is not that the collections are coming down every week. They are growing. This week’s collection at MMX is more than the last week’s.” It has broken all records in cities like Ahmedabad where it is screened in six cinema halls including big ones like Fun Republic. The film has already completed its 27th week in Jaipur, Mumbai, Aligarh, Amritsar, Baroda and Nanded.
The film has even scored at the supposedly upmarket preserve of Metro Adlabs in Mumbai, besides Liberty, Central Plaza, Alankar and New Excelsior. Also in Kolhapur, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Belgaum, Gwalior, Indore and Gorakhpur, the film has been released in various cinema halls. The weeks combined in these halls have already hit the silver jubilee mark!
NOT JUST A FILM The success of “Vivah” mocks at all predictions.
In the Delhi-UP combine, the gross collection of 25 weeks has hit Rs.472 crores. While in MMX alone, it is close to Rs.11 lakh. The collection of the 25th week in Mumbai is Rs.5,54,101 from seven cinema halls, while the total collection of 25 weeks is 2.67 crores. In Jaipur alone where the film is running at Rajmandir, the collections stand at over 1.5 lakhs. The film’s Delhi distributor reveals an interesting phenomenon.
“The audiences in the cinema halls are repeat viewers. One Ankit Jain from Ahmedabad has watched it 42 times. In Delhi, one cinemagoer has requested Sooraj Barjatya to make part two. In Noida, an online fan club has been launched. It has already received more than 2300 fans.”
Not just in India, the film has gained worldwide recognition. If Melisa Roccaforte from Italy says that it made her cry, Prithwiraj from London thanked Sooraj for changing his attitude towards arranged marriage, and so on.
So, what is important about “Vivah”? Apparently it attempts to sanctify the institution of arranged marriage.
It’s the period between the engagement and marriage in the life of a young girl from the small town of Madhupur played by Amrita Rao and a Delhi-bred boy played by Shahid Kapoor. It is also a story of two middle class families coming together and standing by each other against all odds.
It brings into focus the restrained but stronger feelings of a jealous woman played by Seema Biswas who plays Rao’s aunt. There is a bit of Cinderella thrown in with the character of Biswas who does not like Poonam, as she is more beautiful than her own daughter.
Says Biswas, “Though Sooraj was convinced I could play a mother who controls her anger, his father wasn’t. He thought that being more aggressive I wouldn’t be able to do justice to the role of a family-bound chachi
. But credit goes to Sooraj for giving me a very detailed sketch of chachi.”
For Rao the role didn’t come as a surprise because, “I couldn’t question any move of Poonam for it was so well justified in the film.”
Jain’s music
The lyrics and music of the film by Ravindra Jain have also caught the fancy of the masses. Recalls the veteran who made a comeback of sorts, “When Sooraj chose me for the film, I asked him, beta tumhe kaisa music chahiye. He
said ‘Jaisa aap banate aaye hain. If I wanted fast music I wouldn’t have come to you’. I worked hard on each note. A few of the notes were ready for several years. I used them. I also met Shahid and Amrita, marked their mannerisms to make music. But hearing the outcome, my wife said, ‘Ye kya banaya hai?” I assured her that if she hears it in the context of the scene she would like it. And that’s what has happened,” beams Jain.
All said and done, the film has only re-established the supremacy of Indian values, and united cinemagoers across the country.
An all-India hit is not a mere dream.
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