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.)

An interview in The Hindu with Rekha Bhardwaj

The amazingly talented Rekha Bhardwaj, who recently performed (riffed?) in the Rajasthan International Folk Festival, speaks of her singing, Vishal's direction, singing "Namak", and how Vishal romanticises the fact that he took up music just to woo her in college. The full interview here.

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.

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)

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.

Fa-fever, Double Dose, and The Big G

George has been digging around for Kaminey news for the last week or so and has dug out the juicy tidbit that the other Vishal (Dadlani, do not confuse like IMDB) sings under this Vishal's baton and puts to rest speculation about who the lyricist is (by pointing to Gulzar-saab's oblique confirmation).

And to underftand why he replafes the phoneme "f" by "f" (;-)), you'll juft have to read thif, won't you?

Update
Abhishek Toraskar points to more evidence of Gulzar's association with the film in this link.

Kaminey - of speech therapists and release dates

Usually the accoutrement of slapstick sidekicks, Kaminey features speech defects in a central form. As this article reveals, great pains were taken by director and actor to try and get the 'flaws' right.

While this article says the film is going to release only in June. That's a long way off.

'Blood Brothers' - a short film by Vishal

Blood Brothers is one of four films made for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the AIDS Jaago project on the subject of AIDS awareness. Directed by that unheralded master, Vishal Bhardwaj, this short film of less than 20 minutes is a marvelous piece of drama. Featuring a top cast of Siddharth, Pavan Malhotra, Ayesha Takia, and the peerless Pankaj Kapur (with whom Vishal seems to have a special 'setting' - such is the charm of his cameo), the film has some excellent story-writing.

Without ever tresspassing on 'preach'-ery, the film works both as a piece of socially relevant material as well as pure story-telling. If all this wasn't enough, perhaps you may be interested in the facts that the film was shot by Guillermo Navarro (Pan's Labyrinth among others) and is based (partly) on a story idea by screenwriter Matthew Robbins.

The film can be viewed online. While you are at it, have a look at the others in this pack of four (Mira Nair, Farhan Akhtar and Santosh Sivan completing the quadruple).

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.

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.

Casting the net for Vishal's next and "Ishqiya"

Film websites are almost certain that Vishal Bhardwaj's next directorial venture will feature the likes of Shahid Kapur and Priyanka Chopra. This may raise a few eyebrows among Vishal's fans (), but one will give him the benefit of the doubt, considering the same happened with "Omkara" when the unlikely casting of Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, and Ajay Devgan was announced.
Source article: Bollyspice.com

Ishqiya
More certain is that Vishal, in addition to Shantaram, also has another music score being written. This time, it's for long-time associate Abhishek Chaubey, who has been with Vishal since "Makdee" and also co-wrote "Omkara". Billed as a crime-thriller, Vishal is also co-producing the film, while Gulzar will pen the lyrics.
Source article: Mid-Day.

'Does Vishal know about this?' department

Well, if news reports are to be believed, Vishal Bhardwaj is making a lot of movies this year. This time, a vague news report about a likely casting of Kareena Kapoor and Aamir Khan, which probably is just recycled news from the days of the shelved 'Mr. Mehta and Mrs. Singh'. It was Shahid Kapur a few days ago, but as Vishal says in this interview: "The markets make my films way before I do".

We wish we had the services of a wee birdie who could tell us what those two scripts he alludes to are about. Anything to keep the speculators away. It doesn't help that Vishal's been part of quite a few shelved projects.