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Charm of a bygone era Sudhir Mishra with Soha Ali Khan, the leading lady of “Khoya Khoya Chand.”

Hopelessly caught between the allegation of playing favourites for “Eklavya,” the Indian Oscar entry, the mixing of just completed “Khoya Khoya Chand” in which he seeks to recreate the magical moments of Hindi cinema of the fiftiesand non-stop night-shift shooting of the new Prakash Jha production, “Tera Kya Hoga Johnny” at the Mukesh Mills around the Mumbai dockyard, director Sudhir Mishra had to be snatched away for a brief conversation.

He vehemently denied that “Khoya Khoya Chand” is even loosely a remake of Guru Dutt’s immortal “Kaagaz ke Phool” or the reported Guru Dutt-Waheeda Rahman romance.

““Khoya Khoya Chand” is a tribute to the great cinema of the fiftiesand the great people who were around, people with whom filmmaking had been a passion. And even if they made compromises here and there that were not in conformity of the film, they were perfectly valid. No, my film is not a remake of “Kaagaz ke Phool.” It is not even loosely based on Guru Dutt-Waheeda Rahman relationship. I think “Kaagaz ke Phool” is a very trashy story. It is too self-indulgent for my liking. I think it failed because it is not a very well constructed film, it has some brilliant moments but it wallows in its own despair for my liking. Although I have great respect for Guru Dutt as a filmmaker, he is not my inspiration for ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’. For inspiration, I have borrowed from the personal story of my father, D.P. Mishra. I have put in a lot of experiences that are ours working in the film industry. Sao Zafar, the character that Shiney plays in the film is a bit like my fatherand his profession is mine.” The maker of such interesting, critically acclaimed off-beat films like “Dharavi”, “Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin”, “Chameli”, “Hazaron Khawishen Aaisi” did not shy away from postponing the release of “Khoya Khoya Chand” to December 14 because neither he nor the producer wanted a clash with big bonanzas like “Om Shanti Om” and “Saawariya.” “You see both these films are big budget films while mine is a comparatively low budget one made at less than 15 crores, which is probably the publicity budget of these films. This does not mean that ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ is not an epic of sorts but then it is my kind of cinema, the cinema I believe in.”

On whether he was aware of the similarity of the theme with “Om Shanti Om”, Mishra was candid to admit, “Only sometime after I started shooting my film. But it deals with the seventies and the eighties when cinema had lost much of its sheen. I have seen some visuals of the film which seem quite interesting. But I guess there is nothing wrong in two films on a similar theme being made at the same timeand both of them could be good. But I think the similarity ends with both being films on films.”

Elaborating on the theme of “Khoya Khoya Chand,” the sensitive, articulate director said, “It is a film about an aspiring actress who is spotted by a superstar. As she is groomed to be a star, she also gets into a relationship with him. And into their world enters this cocky, arrogant writer from Lucknow who does not know the ways of the film world. Yet he is arrogant and misbehaves with everyoneand he is accepted. But in doing everything wrong he becomes successful. He becomes a director and he tells this actress there was no reason she should be grateful to anyone for her success because she is responsible for it. They get involved. So, the film is also the story of their tempestuous journey in this wild world of movies.”

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