I will wait for you till doomsday comes, May God wish for doomsday and hasten your arrival

IIPM Reviews

Hum intezar karenge tera qayamat tak Khuda kare ki qayamat ho aur tu aaye (I will wait for you till doomsday comes, May God wish for doomsday and hasten your arrival)

Urdu poet and lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri must have longed for doomsday for sure. But who knows if his beloved ever arrived! If doomsday did come, would the poet have lived to see another day?

Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, too, probably had a foreboding. Why else would she have got a time capsule buried in Red Fort in Delhi on August 15, 1973. The 'history' contained in that pot became the talk of the town.

It is 2012 and everyone is talking about doomsday all over again. What if the world does indeed come to an end this year? What would we, as a nation, want to pass on for posterity – if there is one – to remember us by?

Anand Prakash and Sanjay Srivastava draw up a bucket list of ten things/concepts/symbols that define the India of 2012, things that would necessarily make the cut if another time-capsule were to be lowered into the bowels of the earth.

Lathi

For the rest of the world, the pen might be mightier than the sword. But in the Indian context, nothing can be stronger than the lathi. Via Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the wooden staff became a totem of our freedom struggle. From political firebrands battling for a cause to men in uniform staving off trouble to schoolmasters waving a firm hand at students, they have all wielded the lathi to great effect.

Jalebi

The juicy, crispy, yummy sweetmeat with many a delightful twist is an integral part of Indian street food. It not only satiates our collective proverbial sweet tooth, it serves as a great leveller in a mind-bogglingly diverse country, binding the rich and the poor, the south and the north, and the high and the low. Jai ho, jalebi!

Cuss words

Want to get something done in a rush? Hurl a choice gaali and see the kamaal unfold! In a land blessed with a multiplicity of languages and dialects, these colourful expletives that are used to soften up friends and enemies, and everyone else in between, emit just the right sound waves to dispel all prospective opposition. No blow is too low when a swear word is unleashed with intent and no effect that it has is too surprising! We are like this only.

Roti

The spherical, handmade wheat-bread makes the world go round in this part of the globe. In India, when we pray for our daily bread, it is roti that we always mean. The nation has its share of rice eaters no doubt, but can the roti ever be dislodged from our dietary spread, no matter which part of the country we live in? Roti-boti, rozi-roti and aatey-dal ka bhaav are inseparable from our upcountry patois. The parantha is, clearly, a neglected and limited species.

Uparwala

We probably hate the idea, but we are undeniably a land of snake charmers. India is home to a million superstitions and rituals. Every joy has a divine reason. And every woe is caused by God's wrath. Births, deaths, floods, droughts, lightning, thunder, happiness, sorrow, madness, delirium – everything is blamed on uparwale ki marzi (God's will). Thousands may die of snake bites every year in this country, but millions turn out every Nag Panchami day to celebrate the power of the serpents. Faith always wins even if life doesn't.

Song and dance

If literature is society’s mirror, cinema is its lens. But what this lens usually captures is a larger-than-life reality that demands a complete suspension of disbelief. Indian popular cinema peddles dreams and sugar-coated lies, but we love to lap it all up. Fashion, passion and tashan are the three pillars on which these yarns stand and whirl: India wouldn't be half as interesting a place without its 24-frames-a-second song and dance extravaganzas.

Paan

This is probably the only widely consumed edible item in the country – and the world – that is meant for nothing else but spitting out. The betel leaf juice is believed to activate the digestive system after a hearty meal, but this activity has defaced the innards of many of our monuments and other public edifices? But do we ever see red? A vital part of India's mass culture, we live with it in absolute harmony.

Joint family

The storyteller grandparents have become stories themselves. The joint family was supposed to be a specialty of this country. Grandparents, parents and children used to live under one roof. The oldest member used to be the head of the family. Call it the need of the hour or a modern-day compulsion, one can't live in a joint family today even if one wants to. Joint families are a thing of the past. Bring on the time capsule!

Kamasutra

The timeless text that turned carnality into an art is India's cultural meal ticket in the West. Nothing sells like sex. In a country where moral policemen frequently dismiss any overt display of sexuality as a Western aberration, the Kamasutra, a celebration of sexual adventurism, remains the essential riposte to all the killjoys who want to reduce India to a sexless land where you would do 'it' only to procreate and nothing else. Thank God for Vatsyayan!

Neta

Our political leaders are a breed so apart that they could put Marie Antoinette to shame. They are the butt of constant mass ridicule but they continue regardless, powered by the ballot. More than 60 years after Independence, their greed and incompetence have ensured that India languishes at the bottom of the human development index. Time was when the neta would hide under a Gandhi topi. Today, he has discarded all vestiges of purity. So, why would we want anybody to remember them? Simple. So that history isn't repeated!

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Patiala House: Pitching for perfect emotions

Imagine a cricket match – the winning runs need to be scored of the last ball with one wicket remaining. Akshay Kumar and Nikhil Advani find themselves in a similar state after the spate of their recent box office duds. Patiala House is akin to the last ball of their innings and they manage to scrape through with the skin of their teeth and not anywhere near in spectacular a manner as a last ball six.

Gattu, a gifted cricketer has to cut short his dream of playing for the England cricket team because of his father who is dead against his son playing for the British. How Gattu manages to break free and pursue his dream for the sake of his extended family forms the crux of the story.

The premise of the film seems a bit outdated if one were to look at it purely from the perspective of the overbearing, overindulgent, British bashing father. The format is quite linear and the viewer knows in advance what to expect at the end. However, what works in the movie’s favour is the high emotional quotient that it carries throughout.

Akshay Kumar as Gattu delivers a restrained performance while Rishi Kapoor does the exact opposite as the father. Anushka Sharma plays her part as the spunky catalyst with refreshing maturity. Rest of the supporting cast adds to the riot of colours on screen. Other technical departments do a competent job. Overall it’s a movie with its fair share of flaws yet fair enough to merit a watch.

No Strings Attached

No zing attached

The so called ‘friends with benefits’ or ‘sex friends’ has been a concept that has received a lot of press in lifestyle magazines and newspaper sections in India, but never really talked about much on the big screen. That way, Ivan Reitman’s No Strings Attached is a refreshing take on the matter as it tells the story of a busy doctor, Emma (Natalie Portman looking awesomely good!) and her TV producer friend Adam (Ashton Kutcher) who get hooked just for the physical part of it. However, the script’s raunchiness overawes its comic potential and the lack of conflicts and swift plot developments makes it a slightly boring watch. Predictable, love or something like it intervenes and throws the strictly physical relationship out of gear for our lead pair and that is where Reitman loses the cool and calculated touch he had shown with the superb Up In The Air. Portman is quite good, though obviously not Black Swan good while Kutcher plays just another version of what he’s played countless times in other rom-coms. Adam’s conflict with his dad (played by Kevin Kline) after he finds out that his ex-girlfriend is sleeping with his father is an angle that is not cut neatly enough into the story. A fairly original concept thus gets mired in the cloak of ordinariness and your search for any punch in the jokes is sure to be futile. You may still want to watch it though, in case you wanted a ‘sex friends 101’ class.

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Gulliver’s travails: Seemingly cool idea to modernize an epic misfires due to scrappy writing

IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri

Of all the people you might imagine as Jonathan Swift’s intrepid voyager, Lemuel Gulliver, Jack Black would probably be the unlikeliest candidate. Which is why his casting in this 21st Century update of the classic tale is quite the twist.

Alas, the rest of the film is mostly predictable and in your face product placements and a constant torrent of self-referential jokes (for the studio – 20th Century Fox). “Gulliver’s Travels” is converted into a dyed in the wool Jack Black comedy, with our man Black playing a good for nothing slacker who listens to rock music and dreams of making it big as a writer. There are obvious shades of Dewey Finn, a character Black played in “School of Rock”. In order to impress the travel editor Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet), who he has a crush on, Gulliver writes a plagiarised article and lands his first assignment – investigating the Bermuda Triangle, or more accurately, hunting down a man who happens to know about it. In the Caribbean, he gets lost in a storm and lands up on the shores of the land of Liliput, inhabited by little people who treat Gulliver as a giant beast who’s come from another land. The rest of the story is fairly well known among children and adults alike – Gulliver saves Liliput from the nearby evil kingdom and befriends the royal family but a General in the Liliputian army conspires to have him banished off the land.

With the rewriting for a modern time, the funny situations with the Liliputians had a lot of potential but beyond a few sparks (like the scene on the Foosball table), there are hardly any laugh worthy moments. For a majority of the audience the story would appear predictable, given their knowledge of the source material before hand. And that is where the studio wastes the opportunity of having Jack Black play the lead character. Gulliver with a dash of Jack Black’s classic comic style would have been loveable but the portrayal here is a little too safe to be irreverently enjoyable.

Modernising a classic tale is one thing, but limiting your imagination only to the visual setting is a criminal waste. The miniature Times Square that Gulliver creates in Liliput is quite a fun idea; one wishes the rest of the movie were more so. The edge and bite of Swift’s satire and wit that populated the original work sadly receive neither an upgrade nor a mention.

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Spreading cheer in the New Year!

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

You’ve seen the remarkable strength of the Deols, now judge their comic timing as Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby attempt to start the year with a rip-roaring comedy. Bobby Deol speaks to Anu Gulmohar about their film “Yamla Pagla Deewana,” his reverence for his father, the power of Sunny Deol, and lots more…

Bobby Deol’s very first film “Barsaat” released in 1995, which made him the heartthrob of teenagers. The fan following only strengthened in the latter 90s as he ‘soldiered’ on delivering hit upon hit. As I lay my eyes on him at the newly opened Jynxxx club in New Delhi, I am reminded of his hit club number from “Gupt” and the crush I had on him in my teenage years. And I can't help but notice that 15 years post his debut, this Jat boy is still quite a looker. “You cannot be a favourite of teenagers always,” he comments to me in the middle of this interview. He goes on to reason, “Teenage is a very fickle age, one day they like something, the next they like something else. The flavours keep changing. Every new boy who comes into the
industry becomes a teenage sensation and then it changes, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is eventually how long you’ve been here and how much people still want to see you.” He declares all this pragmatically, confident that people are indeed waiting for his next film, “Yamla Pagla Deewana,” which stars him alongside his father Dharmendra and elder brother Sunny Deol. It is a special film for the family, not only because it marks the second film starring all three Deols, but because it is being released in the 50th year of Dharmendra’s career in
cinema.

It is only by co-incidence that this remarkable achievement is being commemorated with a film in which his son Bobby mimics one of the most memorable scenes of his career –the water tank scene from “Sholay”. “I don’t think I can better his performance, and when I was doing the scene I wasn’t thinking of bettering it either, because I can’t,” states Bobby rather humbly. “The character I play, Gajodhar, is a fan of “Sholay” and Dharmendra, and he looks up to this actor and thinks that ‘I can be like that…if I do that will I get the girl?’ So, Gajodhar stands on the tank trying to be Dharmendra, thinking it will happen. But then his brother shakes him and says hello, times have changed and you can’t climb tanks and get what you want. I was definitely nervous because it was something my dad had done, but it was fun also; to have a moment like that was something special.” There are other times that Bobby has imitated his father off-screen. “My gestures are like my dad because when I was a kid I was like any child who looks up to his father. I used to always watch him and I picked up his habits.”
Where this film is a tribute to Dharmendra, Bobby’s immense respect for his father keeps recurring during our chat, even when talking about all the fun they had shooting in Punjab. “We haven’t gone together to Punjab since so long, and we were all there together for 45 days, shooting right next to my mum’s village; so we got really great food from there! My dad is an amazing actor, his comic sense is superb. So, when you’re working with him, you improve too, and you start enjoying it even more,” smiles Bobby.
“People think that it’s easy for an actor’s son, but there are so many actors’ sons who have not made it. Definitely, there is a very big hype around your launch because people want to see Dharmendra or any big actor’s son, but then after that it’s your own work that speaks for you,” claims Bobby. But the going hasn’t been going so good for Bobby in the last few years, and many of his films have been rather disappointing. “Every day is a new day. Things may be going right for you one moment and the next they’re not, but these things keep happening,” states the star.

From sending a chill down our spine with his thrillers to now trying to tickle our funny bone, Bobby seems keen on testing new ground every time. “For me, I would love to do every genre…I have not done many comedies and it’s very difficult to make people laugh.” Action is after all the forte of the Deols, Sunny in particular. But Bobby assures that there will be action in “Yamla Pagla Deewana” too. “There are action scenes obviously, as there is Sunny Deol. But the action is something everybody will enjoy, because people will find it funny, yet the power of Sunny Deol will come across.”
Film magazines by the dozen are able to cash in on the interest people have about knowing more about celebrities and their families. So, why shouldn’t the celebrities themselves profit from our banal and rather invasive curiosity? “The USP of this film is the chemistry we share on-screen too, and that is what people enjoyed when they saw the promos,” remarks Bobby casually. Get ready to see a lot more of this chemistry between the father and sons, and for some crazy fun with the Deols in 2011!

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Do Dooni Chaar: An uncommon film about the common man

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Duggal ki paathshaala

The hopes, aspirations, troubles and problems of the common man has for long been associated with RK Laxman’s old, dhoti-clad The Common Man.

After watching "Do Dooni Chaar", Rishi Kapoor could well replace the image in your mind when the subject of middle-class pathos rises. Indian cinema in the 70s and 80s often depicted the lives of the average Indians, but with the major bulk of the films of the last 20 years focussing on gorgeous locales and glamorous stars, it’s a bit startling to see the lead actress in this film in almost clownish sweaters and ill-fitting nighties. But then, this is a film that doesn’t tread the beaten path. The star cast too doesn’t include any commercial heavyweights, but instead has seasoned actors Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor, a duo reuniting on-screen after 30 long years. The film addresses issues that cause much agony and frustration to the Indian middle-class, yet it does so in a light, breezy manner that does not make it too serious and arty to lose its appeal for the average Indian. One can hardly guess that this is Habib Faisal’s first outing as a director of a Hindi feature film.

"Do Dooni Chaar" begins with an excited Duggal family arguing over how an Income Tax refund of Rs 7200 will be spent. The mother (Neetu Kapoor) wants to buy a refrigerator, her teenage daughter Payal (Aditi Vasudev) wants an iPod while the son Sandeep (Archit Krishna) demands a Dish TV connection. A school teacher, Santosh Duggal (Rishi Kapoor) earns just enough to send his children to good school and sustain a modest living – this after working in a coaching centre as well. While the parents attempt at living cheerfully with what they make, the children cringe at their near poverty. Things only get tougher when Santosh’s sister invites them to her sister-in-law’s wedding and insists that in order to keep up appearances they must come in a car. How they go about borrowing a car to eventually owning one is the simple premise of this film. Within this plot are incidents that will warm people’s hearts, provide unusual and compassionate solutions to parenting problems, demonstrate how ‘honesty is always the best policy’ is not just an old cliché unpractical for these times, show the pitiful state of our country’s teachers, and also comment on how consumerism has begun to dictate the terms of our happiness.

Santosh Duggal is a lovable character, and as Rishi pulls a long face or cajoles his son to make the right decisions in his life, you cannot help but adore him. One could’ve never imagined Neetu would make a comeback in such a deglamourised role, but her honest and effortless portrayal of Mrs Duggal is likely to leave a stronger impression in people’s mind than a more run-of-the-mill role would have managed to achieve. Debutants Aditi and Archit deliver strong and believable performances, Archit more so than Aditi.

The greatest triumph of the film is giving the common man the centerstage he so thoroughly deserves. There is a certain joie di vivre that shines through in this entertaining yet touching tale. People will leave the film with a smile on their lips and thoughts to ruminate about long after.

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Back in the seventies, the pairing of Rishi Kapoor and Neetu kapoor meant spunky romance and sprightly humour

'Do Dooni Chaar', according to Shubho shekhar BhattaCharjee, CEO and Creative Director, Planman Motion Pictures, promises to be that and much more.

What do you feel is the USP of "Do Dooni Chaar"?

In the last few days I’ve been scanning newspapers and magazines; if you look at "Do Dooni Chaar", there’s a distinct flavour about it. The posters of upcoming movies come across as typical Hindi films. On the other hand, our movie has a family feel to it. I think we’re offering a very unique proposition at this time, considering it’s Navratras and celebration time with families is around the corner. Also it’s a Rishi-Neetu comeback after 30 years which is why we stand out.

How difficult was it to convince Rishi and Neetu for this film?

It wasn’t difficult to convince Rishi. Habib Faisal and I were sitting together and deciding the cast and the first name we thought of was Rishi Kapoor. We went together to him for the narration. After that, he asked, "What do you want me to play in the film?" and we told him it was the lead role. He loved the script. He asked if we had a producer and we were all ready for it.

It was difficult to get Neetu ma’am involved. Many other filmmakers have been waiting to re-launch Neetu ma’am and their positioning has been on the glamorous side. For this, she had to be completely de-glamorised and she wouldn’t agree. So, at one point we approached Juhi Chawla.

But she had issues. So we went back and asked Neetu ma’am to hear the narration just once. She loved it and said, "This has to be my comeback film!" She actually coloured her hair black, wore ill-fitting salwar kurtas and absolutely ill-fitting nighties, something not expected of Neetu Kapoor.

What made you believe Habib Faisal, a debutant director, would make a good film?

Habib is a very dear friend of mine. Whenever we met, I would talk about making a film together. He was writing for other producers but he wished to be a director. We talked about many ideas; discarded many. He’s a trained professional. He’s from Jamia and has been involved in film courses in New York. So I was very sure about his technical competence and was more convinced that he is a great storyteller.

Films from Planman Motion Pictures have won several awards. Do you see "Do Dooni Chaar" adding to your tally?

Yes, we have won a lot of awards, mostly National Awards. We definitely don’t make films with that explicit purpose. This was a very noble story that we wanted to tell and if we win, I’d be very happy.

Critical acclaim or box office revenue – what do you want more for "Do Dooni Chaar"?

For me, it’s not an either-or situation. Why can’t it be both? Yes, we have made films which have been for niche audiences, like "The Last Lear", but this film is for the masses. It’s for the middle class family. The entire country would be able to identify with that.


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Director Habib Faisal speaks on the making of 'Do Dooni Chaar'

how his personal experiences helped mould the script and how the common man is being wronged as he doggedly pursues the 'Do Dooni Chaar' way.

From television to cinema, how has the transition been?

Both are very entertaining mediums. The economics of television is such that your risks are much lesser. I strongly believe that television is able to tackle many more issues. I did my Masters in Cinema and then instead of getting into direction or writing, I chose to become a news cameraman for NDTV. I did that for five years and I covered the Kargil War, floods and poverty. I moved on to doing television fiction and then through friends, accidents happened and I got into writing films.

"Do Dooni Chaar" is set in the ethos of the modern, liberated and aspirational India. What drove you to conceive this story?

It all started when a small segment car was launched. Newspapers and television channels were full of stories about the middle class people being euphoric that a car was within their reach. It got me wondering why a car was so important. I read and researched and found out that when people prioritise their desires they put a car as the first thing that they want to buy, which is not a necessity such as shelter or education. I hail from a similar background and still remember the kind of excitement we had gone through when we had bought our first car, which was a second-hand car. So I got this thought in my head about a family and its journey from scooter to car, and I thought it would make for an interesting story. My dad was also a teacher and I have grown up with the same kind of complexes that the two kids in the film have, like why is my dad a teacher and earn a meagre salary despite being an educated man? Often we would run into his ex-students who would be doing well in their careers and driving cars while my dad would still only own a scooter. Such personal experiences found their way into the story. I had two intentions when making this film, one was to portray middle-class aspirations and how the common man doggedly sticks to doing things the right way, which is the "Do Dooni Chaar" way as against the "Do Aur Do Paanch" way followed by the rich, powerful and corrupt. The second reason was to highlight the position of the teachers in the society and show that it is a thankless job. The salary for a teacher who teaches the senior grades is around Rs 1.98 lakh. You can imagine how much the primary teachers would be making.

Was it intimidating to work with seasoned actors like Rishi and Neetu?

Only the first meeting was intimidating. I was star-struck like anyone else would be. I have grown-up watching their movies. But the moment a star says, "Oh you have scripted a great script!" you feel confident about your work. Once they had said yes to the film, we were like partners bringing the script alive.

How was the experience working with Planman Motion Pictures?

It takes a lot of guts to make a picture on the premise of a person’s journey from owning a scooter to a car. Most people want projects where there is a possibility of naach-gaana, glamour, sensuality, some chases… For a premise such as this and a script which is obsessively trying to be true to the fabric of the story, it was very gutsy of Shubho and Arindam Chaudhuri to stand by this film.

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Sona Jain's first film 'For Real'

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For a first time filmmaker, Sona Jain is fairly intrepid. A writer and director who believes in the power of the story, her first film 'For Real', which is a story about a six-year-old girl who thinks that her mother is an alien, is set to hit Indian screens on 17th September. Ahead of the release, she talks to Tareque Laskar about the challenges of independent film making and the evolution of audience taste in India.

'For Real' has a very intriguing premise set in the backdrop of a family drama. How would you classify the film?
'For Real' is a story of a family living in New Delhi and it's seen through the eyes of a six-year-old child. The film is a depiction of the workings of a child's mind whose heart is very innocent. When she sees anything which doesn't make sense to her, her interpretation of it to the outsiders is completely odd. Such as the fact that she thinks the mother is an alien. So if you see the mother is an unhappy person, her first instinct is to say this is not my mother this is someone else, which may be in the adult world a wrong interpretation. So that is what the child picks up. So it is a drama and it is being through the eyes of a child and it really is an opportunity for all of us to not only see how kids look at us but alternatively also for 90 minutes of your life get an opportunity to once again be a child and you know go back at looking at the world through the eyes that you probably used 30 years ago.

This film has been in the making for a while but now has been received very well in the festival circuit. What has kept the film from being released in India?
The release date hasn't been delayed at all. The film was finished only in November last year and it was a strategic decision to take it for a whirlwind tour of the international film festival circuit, and it's been a strategy that's paid off for us. By doing that we have won five international awards till date and insha-Allah more would be forthcoming before the year is out. And we have had the opportunity to showcase the film before leading film makers like Mira Nair, Vishal Bhardwaj and Sudhir Mishra. Mira (Nair) has seen the film, I didn't know Mira. She surprised everyone by showing up at the screening at a film festival in New York and she said it was a Sunday afternoon, and she wanted to watch a film so she showed up. And you know as soon as the film finished, she was on her seat and she talked about it for 10 minutes. You know it's not like that these people are associated with the film or they are known to me, but it's just been incredible'the kind of response and support we have received because of the story telling of the film itself.

For an independent film maker who wants to make something which is off the beaten track when it comes to films in India, what are the typical challenges that you have faced and what has your experience been like?
See, I wrote this film in 2001 and Sarita Chaudhary was the first person I showed it to. Zakir Hussain was the second, and they both came on board. But it still took me about four years to put enough money together to shoot this film. A lot of instances went into it, when I think in retrospect. I was very young, I was a student. I had graduated from NYU in 2005. A young Indian girl in New York trying to raise money was quite a challenge. The funny thing 'For Real' is that in the West they call it an Indian Film and back home they call it an English Film. But everyone loves it. So as an artist you just want to tell the story that you want to and if you don't want to be bogged down by these kinds of criteria then it makes for a greater struggle. But my reward is that my product - my film - touches so many people across continents. As I've seen from the film festival that the struggle is totally worthwhile.

If I were to do it again, 'For Real' would always be my first film. As you made the movie, what have you observed in terms of the evolution of the film scene in India?
You know in the 1980s a very interesting phenomenon happened in America. The American studios had cracked the formula which they called commercial / mainstream. And then what happened was that quality films started coming. They were smaller films which told really intimate stories and these films were stealing away a large pie of the box office. So all the studios wondered who these little guys were who came and took away their box office. And not only that, they were winning all the awards also, because they were actually that good. So you know this movement which was spearheaded by film makers like Steven Sorderbergh and his 'Sex, Lies and Videotape' that led to the creation of studios like Miramax which Disney bought and then Fox started Fox Searchlight. All the studios started their speciality divisions, which were smaller budget, high concept films and I see the same movement happening in India, which is really good. Whether it's an 'Udaan' or a 'Peepli Live' or 'For Real', just the fact that not only these films are being made but they are being backed by big players like Aamir Khan, UTV and PVR. It shows that somewhere these people have started realising that the terms 'commercial' and 'mainstream' are changing.

Where do you see this trend going in terms of fragmentation of the audience? How to make a film viable which otherwise might not be a commercial mainstream subject as such but something that needs to be told in terms of a story?
I don't think it's about audience segregation, I think especially more than any other audience in the world, our Indians love cinema. And if you give them good cinema they will love to watch it. The imagination has been limited by the film makers and the producers themselves.

I recently showed my film in Ahmedabad. Initially we were in two minds whether to open the film there or not. This was at a film festival and it so happened that the film festival was at a PVR. It was a packed house; there were local people from the city and the audience response was just flabbergasting. Not only that, you have the audience now coming on to forums like Facebook and writing reviews of your film. The nuances of storytelling that the audience picked up was amazing. It is not that the same audience will not enjoy a 'Dabaang' or a 'We Are Family' ' of course, they will. But they will equally love an 'Udaan' or a 'For Real'. The audience taste had always existed but we never fed it. One of the all time greatest movies in India is 'Mother India'. If the film were produced today, would you call it mainstream or parallel cinema? Not at all. It is about storytelling and storytelling is when somebody goes and watches a piece of cinema, they see a reflection of their own emotions.

Your film doesn't boast of any big stars but deals with a sensitive and nuanced subject. Was it a conscious decision to avoid casting any famous names?
There is only one star on my set and that is my story. And I was blessed that everyone ' the cast and the crew ' were there to tell the story. At every award I accept the award on behalf of my cast and crew because I believe we all made this film together like a family. I am not making the film for a star; my star was the script so I wanted to cast the person who would show your character the best and give you the best performance. The kids casting was the biggest challenge, especially the little girl ' she was the make-or-break for the movie. I knew I was casting someone too young. We had over a 100 kids auditioned and I took a decision after 20 odd auditions that I did not want a child with any prior acting experience because for someone so young, they get trained into bad acting habits. I thought I'd rather take someone who is untainted and train them to act like real children on the film sets. And both my kids have won awards at international film festivals.

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TSI Five-O: A visual delight but a tepid take on a timeless tale

Mani Ratnam's new endeavour reaching out to the masses in two variants is a stale tale. A carefully amalgamated version of an intense jungle story coupled with run of the mill 'excuses' to base a two-hour-long movie on India's most famous mythological story is what 'Raavan' is all about. Of course, it has been spectacularly picturised, to the extent that the picturesque insights to the God's own country might even enamour the National Geographic Channel. With all scenes wet, wild and essentially green, one feels one with nature but not the plot of the movie.

The dull first half where one pans in and out of one narrative and then the other will put you right off. And the irritation will only amplify as you listen to the horrendous chik-chik-chik-chik and the annoying bak-bak-bak-bak of Beera (Abhishek Bachchan), who tries hard to pull off intense expressions but disappoints to the core. Beera goes overboard with his wild side, especially when he rubs his head time and again with his tongue hanging out. Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) is introduced with a scene that has her shrieking; a not often seen trait of hers. She too shouts a lot in the due course of the film. But with her mesmerising eyes and decent acting, Ash just about manages to scrape through.

In Ratnam's adaptation of Ramayana, Raavan tugs on a huge baggage of expectations and collapses too soon. Beera is the so-called Robin Hood of his village and he is no less than a barbarian when it comes to justice for his people or the ones he loves. Already a criminal according the books of law, Beera does well in giving the cops a run for their money while in hiding. He is wronged by the police when his sister is raped by the cops. In order to get back, Beera kidnaps the Superintendent of Police, Dev's (Vikram; the South star looks dashing in his Ray Ban shades) wife Ragini. The chase begins when Sanjivni (Govinda), the forest guard (or the Hanuman in this saga), assists Dev in the hunt. How Ragini sees the innate goodness of Beera and is forced to question her own loyalties and how the clash of the titans leads to a blood bath is no big surprise really. Just like in Ramayana, even in this, the 'Sita' (Ragini) is asked to give agni pariksha and go in for a polygraph test to prove her fidelity. Yes, the adaptation is almost that literal, and that's where the problem lies.

The climax is not too glamorous, some of the scenes far outstay their welcome and all the actors punch below their weight and the result is a boring concoction that only livens up in the last quarter of an hour or so. Ratnam may have tried to dish out a fresh take on an old story, but his screenplay does little to highlight Mani, the master of the nuanced and many layered tale. 'Raavan' is mostly unidirectional traffic set amongst some stunning artwork and cinematography.

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