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Honour at stake...
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Madhur Bhandarkar's "Aan" opens at cinema halls across Delhi this Friday, ANUJ KUMAR speaks to the director who has a lot to play for.
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Madhur Bhandarkar with Sunil Shetty and Akshay Kumar at a Press conference of "Aan-Men at work".
WHEN HE jolted us with a reality check, Chandni Bar, we sensed that a trendsetter had arrived; then he took us to the corridors of power with Satta, we assumed that the man has faltered in mixing the established trends with his. Now Madhur Bhandarkar is ready with a cop saga, Aan: Men at Work - a lavish production from the house of Nadiadwalas and the sinking feeling is that all the past effort was just to join the crowd that thrives on larger than life images.
"I wanted to do a complete entertainer. Aan is a realistic tale about police, virtues, courage, relationships with a dash of comedy and highly stylised action," maintains Madhur, adding there are item numbers as well.
Things are not as sweet and straight as Madhur makes us believe. There were many firsts for Madhur in this film. Be it the male protagonists, or the multi-star cast which includes Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Shatrughan Sinha, Jackie Shroff, Paresh Rawal, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta and many more or for that matter shooting on a grandiose scale. Then the script was described as a close cousin to Khakee. Amitabh Bachchan was supposed to play Shatrughan's character. And the worst happened when he lost the faith of his producer, Firoz Nadiadwala apparently on his inability to do justice to his budget. Recently Firoz re-shot an item number with model Gauhar Khan and actress Reema Sen to add punch to the stale promotion and a music score that sounds dated.
Madhur counters, "Creative people bound to have differences over creativity. They wanted the feel of Awara Pagal Deewana and Hera Pheri. Their films are known for mass entertainment. Nothing wrong in that. Now if you have Paresh Rawal in the film, comedy is imperative. Still I have tried to make it realistic. You will find a subtle Shatrughan in the film. And the action sequences are not Matrix kind. Cable work is there but they have an indigenous feel. " However Akshay playing a police officer with an Oriya background won't speak with an Oriya accent, perhaps because he has an image to carry. And if the promos are to be believed, it seems Firoz doesn't want to annoy Shotgun's dedicated fans.
As for similarities with Khakee (even the item number is strangely similar to Lara Dutta's number in Khakee), Madhur skirts the issue by calling himself a trendsetter. "When I made Chandni Bar, a number of similar films came up in a short span. Not only Khakee, many films with police background are awaiting release. Amitabh was supposed to work but he opted out because of date problems. Now, the concept of Page 3 is being copied."
Talk of his latest venture and suddenly Madhur starts sounding on a familiar turf. Back to his feminine protagonists, Konkana Sen is playing the role of a journalist who covers page 3. "It is a hard-hitting script on the underbelly of high society - socialites, fashion people, industrialists, etc. It is not a big budget movie, though there are 45 characters in the movie." Aan or no Aan, definitely a sweet turn to strengths.
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