Saath Khoon Maaf in Kashmir

One of the first on-set reporting for Saath Khoon Maaf comes from Mumbai Mirror. Looks like the shooting is on in full swing in Kashmir. It has been for some time in Kashmir, this time, for reel (long time before Bollywood goes digital).

The report title is Murder, she rote, which for all the pun-wizardry of TOI publications, still doesn't make sense.

It's a Mirror Exclisive, btw.

Jyoti Jalaile (Athithi Tum Kab Jaaoge)

In The Blue Umbrella is a prayer scene in the little Himachal village where the story is set. A bhajan begins, but is in a very familiar tune, which turns out to be "you are my soniyaa" ("Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham"). The setting of a prayer song to a popular Hindi film tune is a common feature in many Indian towns (Punekars can summon memories of the aural assaults during the Ganesh Festival).

A similar thing has happened to "biiDii jalaile" ("Omkara"). The soundtrack of "Athiti Tum Kab Jaaoge" has a song called "jyoti jalaile" which runs on the same lines as the original, and is even sung by Sukhwinder Singh (music is either by Pritam or Amit Mishra - hopefully not the leggie, who still has some cricket left in him).

Vishal has some old associations with the makers of this movie. "Athithi..." is produced by Amita Pathak, the daughter of Omkara producer Kumar Mangat. In addition, the lady made a disastrous debut in her father's production "Haal-e-Dil", which had a smorgasbord of music directors including Vishal. The twin versions of the excellent title track (by Raahat Fateh Ali Khan and Rekha B) sank without too much attention as a result of the film doing very badly.

And there's your dose of Vishal trivia for the day.

Susanna's Seven Husbands

Vishal's next, the what-is-the-title-after-all Saath Khoon Maaf/Ek Bataa Saath is based on Ruskin Bond's short story "Susanna's Seven Husbands". This is Vishal's second collaboration with the veteran writer after "The Blue Umbrella".

According to an interview with Bond, Bond describes Susanna thus:

"My protagonist is a femme fatale who bumps off her seven husbands… I had to find ingenious ways of bumping seven people off while writing the story. Not something that I am used to contemplating generally,"

And it seems Vishal's begun shooting for the film in Coorg with a hairline fracture sustained while playing tennis.