Matru ki Bijli ka Mandola

Following up on 'Vishal's Next(s)', the title for Vishal's Kumar Mangat-Ajay Devg(a)n-Fox production is "Matru ki Bijli ka Mandola" (see this HT report).

Apparently based on a Haryanvi play recommended by Pankaj Kapur, the movie stars Kapur, Ajay Devgan, and Anushka Sharma.

"Vishal's World" - an article in Mint Lounge

"When 19-year-old Vishal Bhardwaj returned from cricket practice that morning, his home had been emptied out on the street. Chairs, tables, utensils, clothes, photo frames—everything lay strewn on the road outside his home in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. In the midst of it, right there on the street, his poet father—for long his best friend—lay sprawled. And lifeless."

Mint Lounge has an insightful interview with Vishal about life, cricket, his family, and music. It's small, but tells us a something about the self-learning streak, the influences, and the journey so far.

(The board behind him in the photo is pretty interesting - among other things, I picked out references to names such as Wadia and Nadia - remember that Vishal was once planning to make "Julia" a film on 'Fearless' Nadia, and in talks with Franka Potente then.)

Baradwaj on Bhardwaj

With "7 Khoon Maaf" around the corner, ace film critic Baradwaj Rangan explores Vishal Bhardwaj's fascination with and ability to render interesting female characters in a piece for Caravan Magazine aptly titled "Blood Sisters".

Warning: the essay contains spoilers about most of the films mentioned.

(7KM music) The official word on "Kalinka"

As reported earlier, "Darrling", the song that accompanies the trailer of 7 Khoon Maaf is based on a Russian folk song called "Kalinka". This news report makes the additional clarification and assuages any potential misgivings about plagiarism:

Vishal confirmed using the Russian track, "Yes, it is based on Kalinka, which is a centuries-old Russian folk song. In fact, original Russian words have also been used in the song as one of the husbands happens to be a Russian." He adds, "It has been used in a lot of films around the world." We hear that he even flew down four Russian singers to sing the Kalinka song. They are also given credit in the album.

7 Khoon Maaf - the trailer

Earlier today, "VBFan" told us about the official poster of "7 Khoon Maaf" and soon after, Punit Jha posted the link to the first trailer on the Gulzarfans Y! Group. On first viewing, this one is as good as Kaminey's trailer (impressive that Indian film-makers too can cut such trailers):



Striking notes:

* Can't figure out the main voice in the song, but there's Usha Uthup in the mix (she's also acting in the film)

* A cross-dressing John Abraham!

* Nice to see Annu Kapoor in a film after a long hiatus

* Great European lilt to the tune

* Oh, and looks like the official title is "7 Khoon Maaf".

Enjoy.

(Poster from Bollywood Hungama)

Update (25 Dec): Fight Club finds the base folk Russian song on which "Darrrling" is based (a Russian song called Kalinka).

Dream Sequence: title, casting, story

It seems that "Dream Sequence" is what it's being called. Vishal's film for Ektaa Kapoor's production house has seen a spate of news about its casting muddles. Fortunately (IMO), one established fact is that Deepika Padukone will not be one of the two leading ladies thanks to scheduling problems. So it's just Priyanka Chopra for now.

Speculation is also rife about the leading man: first it was Saif Ali Khan, who later moved out because he wanted Vishal to do a film for him in return (which Vishal declined). Apparently, Abhay Deol was to replace him, but now SAK is back. It's borderline gossip, so just read this news item instead.

The film is slated to be a smaller, more experimental film. Here's an interview with art director Samir Chanda on some of the pre-production work happening in Kolkata. Incidentally, he says the story has been written by Mukul Sharma. If I'm not mistaken, this is the same MS who writes for the Times of India on topics such as science and spirituality, used to run the popular Mindsport column during the bearable days of the TOI, and is the father of Konkona Sen Sharma (who, but for her pregnancy, should have been a shoo-in for the 2nd lead's role).

More Ruskin, some Deepika

From recent news items:

More Ruskin Bond's Saat Khoon Maaf appearance: Times of India - 23rd August (featuring the tidbit that Bond and Bhardwaj are now neighbours in Mussoorie)

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The news that Deepika Padukone has signed a Vishal film (is he directing or simply producing?), to be featured opposite Saif Ali Khan. More prayers for non-actor to actor transformations.

Vishal for Meghna Gulzar's movie

Mid-Day reports that Vishal will be doing the music for Meghna Gulzar's next film, an adaptation of the play "Double Act" by Barry Crayton . More here.

The new Bond movie and the Seven Deadly Sons

The irreverent moifightclub blog provides a complete list of doomed husbands in Vishal's upcoming Saath Khoon Maaf (original source: The Hindustan Times). They are:
Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Russian actor Alexander Dyachenko, Annu Kapoor and Vivaan Shah (Naseeruddin Shah’s son).

Ruskin Bond's cameo is also confirmed, thanks to a note from the writer himself. Writing in Outlook, the quiet great man talks of his admiration for his director, the toil behind a film, and of being unable to make an offer that Vishal couldn't refuse:

I offered to sing and dance, but I was gently told that I should stick to writing.

Read about the latest 'Bond movie' here.
(There's an funny - unrelated - anecdote at the end of the diary.)

"A Shah among actors" - Vishal on Naseeruddin Shah

Personally, I feel Naseer should quit the movies now. His heart is in theatre — on stage — and I can see that. When he’s on the sets, it’s like dealing with a temperamental child. He’s impatient because he’s a spontaneous actor — retakes are not his thing at all.

Naseeruddin Shah turns 60 soon. To mark the occasion, Vishal Bhardwaj writes a heart-felt appreciation of one of India's greatest actors. The link is here.

Ishqiya - Ibn Batuta

Intrepid, unceasing traveller. Travel writer. Scholar. And now finally, Ibn Batuta is referenced in a Hindi film song, thanks to the Gul-czar.

The Abhishek Chaubey directed Ishqiya is likely to release in Jan, which could mean a music release this month. A look at the first song to make it out on the airwaves (like Dhan Te Nan, more onomatopoeia & Sukhwinder - couldn't figure out the other voice)



Found via the 'Fight Club' blog

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And even the trailer seems to have hit censorship roadblocks for Arshad Warsi's killer (and rather tragic) line.

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Is the movie's title to be pronounced as "ishqaa.n" (the way it is said in the trailer)

Vishal's Broadway Musical?

The Times of India reports that Vishal will be scoring the Broadway version of "Monsoon Wedding", which is to be made by Mira Nair (the film version had music by the talented Mychael Danna).

The news item here.

The original "Dhan Te Nan" (Gubbare) version

In an earlier interview (also posted on this blog before by Abhishek), Vishal had mentioned that "Dhan Te Nan" was reworked from an episode of the same name dfor "Gubbare" (Zee TV, 90s). The episode was one of the early directorial forays by Vishal and by most accounts was quite badly made :-). The video of the opening has surfaced now (Gaurav & Salil pointed to it), and features some bad choreography, a rocking train, and an even more juvenile Sharman Joshi.

Quoting from the interview:

“Dhan te nan was not designed specially for Kaminey. I had first used it in a telefilm called Dhan Te Nan. I had used that catchphrase and the tune in that telefilm.

Dhan te nan is a phrase that belongs to our film and music culture. For us Indians cinema is the biggest cultural entity. We often borrow illustrations and speech patterns from our films. Dhan te nan is used during bedtime stories for dramatic effect.

Whenever I used to tell mey son Aasman stories I’d go ‘Dhan te nan’ to create drama. This phrase remained with me.”

I have always wondered how Vishal's baby steps in film making would have been. Here's an example. Thankfully, he's become much better :-)

Here's the video (sung by Suresh Wadkar & Roop Kumar Rathod, and humming by Rekha Bhardwaj):

Vishal on writing and casting

Nice interview with Vishal (from this article in The Times of India):

I was at the airport and a couple with their little boy recognised me and started talking to me. The boy asked me “Uncle, what is the name of your movie?” and the father immediately said, “I will tell you later. Not now.” I said, “Why will you tell him later? It’s not a maa-behan ki gaali.” And I told the boy that the name was Kaminey. That kid laughed aloud.

Plus more on his other films.

(H/T: Mohit Kataria on the Gulzar Fans group)

The Vishal-Hrithik Roshan project

The Times of India reports:

Hrithik will star in Bharadwaj's next. The project in question is a deeply emotional romantic film, which will have two heroines. None of the leading ladies has been finalised.

Earlier, speculation was that such an alliance would be for Hamlet, but hard to tell.

Kaminey's possible release date: 14 August

With the massive pile-up of Hindi film releases getting cleared in an orderly fashion after the recently concluded producers' strike, Kaminey is likely to see the light of day on the 14th of August. There's no word on the music yet, but one would expect it to be about a month in advance.

Sadly, this is gleaned from speculation from the Kaminey Facebook group - UTV needs to realise that creating social network spaces for promotion isn't enough - got to keep communicate to maintain the buzz & momentum around their product on the said space.

Meanwhile, this is the official UTV page for the film.

Routine news updates - Dec 2008

In what is certain to be the last post on this blog this year, some minor tidbits about Vishal that have appeared online:

Kaminey apparently progresses, though there's not much to report, if you discount the tabloid press's fascination with the lead actor's mysterious hair-style (sorry about that). On a more serious note, the crew were shooting on the day of the Mumbai terror attacks close to some of the assault sites and had to pack up in haste.
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Ruskin Bond, whose The Blue Umbrella" was adapted on screen by Vishal, is apparently "workin on two scripts" for the director.
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And finally, the gossip-vine has it that Vishal got involved in a fracas with Shah Rukh Khan. Yikes. The things we have to discuss when there are no new movies or music to talk about.

Taking stock

There hasn't been much to report on Vishal's upcoming films Kaminey or Ishqiya, unless you consider news items like Vishal drives Vidya crazy, or Shahid Kapur's six injuries.

The only salvage-able bits of interest are that Kaminey is reportedly being shot in and around Pune, and that once again, Naseeruddin Shah is conducting a workshop before a Vishal film. With that kind of preparation, hopefully, the results will be like in Maqbool (ok, with that fan-gush, we'll end this post).

Amol Gupte in Kaminey

Abhishek Toraskar writes in to point out reports that Amole Gupte (currently, more famous for having created "Taare Zameen Par") is to make his film acting debut playing the villain in Kaminay" (still don't know the official spelling). The film, Vishal's directorial next, seems to have a MaraaThii flavour, making Gupte's choice seemingly apt. First plus points for the casting, because we're still a little worried about the stars in the film. Unless Vishal can pull off what he did with a similar cast of stars in Omkara.

Vishal wins National Award #3

Vishal Bhardwaj won a Special Jury Award for his film "Omkara" in the 54th annual National Awards announced today. The awards are running about 2 years late, which explains why a 2006 film is being feted now.

This takes his personal tally to three, the list being:
1999 - Best Music Direction - "Godmother"
2005 - Best Children's Film - "The Blue Umbrella"
2007 - Special Jury Award - "Omkara"

Konkona Sen Sharma also won Best Supporting Actress for the same film. These awards keep intact Vishal's record of having at least one National Award associated with each movie he's directed so far. Recall that Pankaj Kapur won Best Supporting Actor for Vishal's "Maqbool", while Shweta Prasad won Best Child Actor for his debut "Makdee".