Destiny’s children
ZIYA US SALAM
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Bollywood’s half-yearly report card is as bewildering as ever. Multi-starrers like Jhoom Barabar Jhoom and Tara Rum Pum tanked while small movies like Bheja Fry and Metro did exceedingly well
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Small wonders Vinay Pathak stole the show in Bheja Fry.
It could not have been timed better. Just when the film industry was crying over two mega flops from Yashraj Films, unsung (pun unintended) Himesh Reshammiya and our own Dharmendra sprung a pleasant surprise. “Aap Ka Surroor” got the kind
of initial the best of films seek but seldom get.
Dharmendra’s much-awaited “Apne” was on predictable lines.In the age of nuclear families and supremacy of the individual, he talked of some old fashioned virtues. Like Reshammiya’s film, “Apne”, directed by Anil Sharma, too hit the bull’s eye at the end of the first half of the year. Together, the two films restored sunshine in an industry which had sunk into depression following the colossal and wholly unexpected twin failures of Yashraj Films’ Sidharth Anand’s “Tara Rum Pum” and Shaad Ali Sehgal’s “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”.
So, the first half of the year has had two mega hits and two mega flops. Well, it is not as simple. There have been some inexplicable flops just as there have been some surprise hits. Anurag Basu’s “Metro”, a tale of multiple relationships in urban India, rode on Pritam’s super hit music and backed by the hype surrounding Shilpa Shetty, did very good business in A-centres.And Basu is suddenly his own man, not just a Mahesh Bhatt protégé.
Sagar Ballary’s experience has been equally pleasant. His first directorial venture, “Bheja Fry”, a low cost, star-less venture, sent the cinemagoers into peals of laughter. And the producers laughing all the way to the bank. A few notches in the box office collections but quite appreciated was Rahul Dholakia whose “Parzania” – largely in English – got a fine initial before tapering off. Jagmohan Mundhra had a similar experience with “Provoked”, released in Hindi and English. Surprisingly the film did well in Hindi as well as the masses identified with the tale of a victim of marital violence.
While “Provoked”, despite the off-beat subject, at least had Aishwarya Rai to guarantee some business in the first week, Madhur Bhandarkar’s “Traffic Signal”, had no such luck. Not a star of note, the music not quite a rage, yet the film worked at the box office, confounding critics who gave good reviews but did not foresee great business.
Two other films acquitted themselves with credit at the turnstiles. There was Balki with “Cheeni Kum”, a sensitively handled tale of love post-60, that found takers at the multiplexes. There was Reema Kagti whose “Honeymoon Travels” evoked a few laughs and surprised the doubters.
These films, however, were largely niche ventures, very urban-centric. But the film that really stirred the masses before the twin success of “Apne” and “Aap Kaa…” was Vipul Shah’s “Namastey London”, a rare all-India hit. The Akshay Kumar-starrer, a take on second-generation NRIs, rode to thumping success on its hit music and loud humour, easily dwarfing the collections of “The Namesake” – Tabu’s subtle film directed by Mira Nair – that opened the same week. Incidentally, another niche film released around the same time, “Water”, completing Deepa Mehta’s trilogy of elements, got critical acclaim but little else.
Anurag Basu’s Life In A Metro found favour with urban audiences.
“Namastey London” merely continued what was actually a fine beginning to the year with Mani Ratnam’s “Guru” sailing to success in most centres, except the South. The Abhi-Ash-starrer, released before their marriage, started off tremendously well, but could not sustain the tempo. “Shootout at Lokhandwala”, Apoorva Lakhia’s film, also could not sustain after a superb opening.
However, it was not all release-and-reap for the distributors. Much talked about films like “Risk”, Vinod Khanna’s comeback film, “Eklavya”, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s multi-starrer, “Salam-e-Ishq”, another-high-profile starrer, and Ramgopal Varma’s “Nishabd” disappeared faster than they released. Even films on real-life cases, including “Undertrial” and “Miss Anara” failed.
That was expected, keeping in mind the crassness of the ventures. What was disappointing was the failure of Bhavna Talwar’s beautiful “Dharm”, Ganesh Acharya’s low-key “Swami” and Amrit Sagar’s “1971”. The films just proved that you need more than just a dash of class to conquer the box office.
Beyond the hits and flops, the first half of the year posed a constant question: when will the industry organise itself?
While films like “Eklavya”, “Tara Rum Pum” and “Jhoom…” were solo releases, in other weeks there was a clutter of choices with up to eight films being released the same week, followed or preceded by lull.
A case in point was the simultaneous release of “Red Swastik”, “Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar”, “Dharm”, “Swami” and “The Train”. The exhibitors have their problems, the producers their financial constraints, the availability of theatres is another block of the jigsaw puzzle. The solution defies all….
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