"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.

Rope to hang yourself by

The news is that Vishal Bhardwaj seems to be roping in Aishwarya Rai for the next film. So frankly, we can write this one off.

Saath Khoon Maaf, par Ash in Vishal movie, inexcusable!!

Now that we mention it, Saath Khoon Maaf shooting seems to be complete. Hope the post production doesn't take a lot of time. PC interview here

Usha Uthup replaces Mohanlal

Sorry, made that one up!

But jokes aside, seems like the original pop ki raani, Usha Uthup, is part of Saath Khoon Maaf.

Usha who has already shot with the director for three days says, "I had stopped acting in films as I didn't get a role which was good enough".
Everyone was only asking me to play myself. I almost jumped out of my skin when Vishal sir offered me such an exciting role in his film. It's got layers to it and is very challenging. It's a dark comedy"

Will be interesting to see how Double U is used/ approaches the role - hope we don't have her making kathakali faces just to pump up the scare factor.

the first husband leaves

Saat Khoon Maaf is what the Vishal/Priyanka flick written by Ruskin Bond is called and the roster of the seven bridegrooms has looked interesting ever since it started out with Mohanlal. Alas, the list which also features Naseeruddin Shah, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Irrfan Khan and Anu Kapoor will be missing the thunder from down under, because, reportedly, Mohanlal is no longer of the film. Little else is known yet. Perhaps it's just a joke. Perhaps it's not. Only time will tell.

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.