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.

"dil sa koi kamiinaa nahii"

"dil to bachcha hai jii" is the next song from Ishqiya to be seen and heard, from this "Making of..." video on YouTube:



Once again, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan seems to be used wonderfully and the lines & threadlets are quite Gulzar-esque.

(Via Ajay on the Gulzar fans group)

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)

A Bangla mafioso is called "Dada"?

A nice new angle to "Kaminey" is revealed in this article:

Supratik Sen, one of the writers of the film and also Bhardwaj’s associate director, says, :At the outset, there wasn’t any specific reason for using Bengali characters in the film. We just wanted colourful characters, not your trademark Maharashtrian dons who were the staple of standard Hindi fare. Debu Mukerji, Rajatava Dutta and Chandan Sanyal play three Bengali book-keepers, involved in shady businesses with a screwball streak to them."

Given that this is supposed to partly be a 'caper' film, one wonders if this is similar to the Hasidic Jew angle in Snatch.

August 14 is less than two months away.

Dreams, wishes, and meanings.

With the multiplex owners flexing their muscles and nixing new releases, our film fixes have become few and far between. There is a clear knock on effect on movie news; with no reel news, same old crap gets regurgitated in newspapers and film portals over and over again.

Only half decent piece of info is that Kaminey seems to have an official Facebook page (I might be slow in catching this one as I still dont have a Facebook page. Yes, and I still live in a cave.)

But that's not why I wanted to write this post. It mentions an Urdu verse Vishal has used (composed?)

“Raat din giley (Day and night I have complaints)
Meri aarzoo kamini (My wish is a worthless)
Mere khwab bhi kaminey (My dreams are a cheat)
dosti dil se thi (My friendship was from the heart)
Yeh hazoor bhi kaminey (But that you too were a rascal)"

I cant access the page, so don't know if the translation is embedded on the page or is thanks to Bollyspice, but I read it thus -
(Agree to the first 3 lines - I have complaints because my wishes and dreams are traitors)
dosti dil se thi (My friendship was with the heart)
Yeh hazoor bhi kaminey (But the heart too was a rascal)" .

What say?

Lambi race ka ghoda?

Amongst other things, HT has a significant scoop on Kaminey - the story kernel

In the film Kaminay Shahid plays a double role — Charlie and Guddu. The role of their childhood sweetheart is enacted by Priyanka Chopra. Three of them grow up in Dharavi, with dreams of making it big in life. Guddu aims to make it big in the right way, while Charlie is hooked [on to do all bad boys’ things] to betting horse race. But both shall pass a crossroad to reach their destination.

It says the movie was shot in real life locations like VT Railway station, Dharavi and Gateway of India.

and I guess, Mahalaxmi Race Course as well, considering the horse racing bit.

One thing I won't be betting on - VB's films releasing here in the UK. Unless they have SRK. Won't bet on that either.

"Kaminey" release notes

(All the upcoming info in one post as we lead up to the release of the music and later the film itself)

* (24 Mar) Kaminey is scheduled to release on 5th June says this news item.

*(23 Mar) Vishal says Kaminey is a caper film and confirms that he has sung 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.

"Kaminey" peeks out

Screenings of Delhi 6 have been accompanied by a 'first look' at Vishal's upcoming release Kaminey (thanks to reader 'VanDee2008' for pointing out the news).

According to PhoenixNu, a PFC author:

KAMINEY (promo)…..looks KILLER!!!!! The Master is back and its dhan tarang dhan tarang…..coming FOON….how FOON ??? the wait begins!!

The "coming FOON" is because the characters played by Shahid Kapur have speech defects.

Vishal's next film soundtrack: "U, Me Aur Hum"

Vishal Bhardwaj's next film soundtrack will be for the film (with the English grammar-teacher unfriendly title of) U, Me Aur Hum, scheduled to release early next year. This should mark his return to mainstream commercial filmdom (discounting his own directorial works) since perhaps Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega, which was 7 years ago.

The film also marks Ajay Devgan's directorial debut, which explains the choice of Vishal, after the success and friendship of Omkara.