shahid kapoor, priyanka chopra in "Kamine"

Is it Kamine or is it Kaminay? Shahid Kapur has reportedly been signed on by Vishal B for this film to play a double role. Priyanka Chopra's been roped in for this "romantic musical," that she describes as "being more of a romantic-comedy [that] also has lots of action." Shooting begins in August 2008. As the days go by, one awaits more tidbits on what might well be Vishal's first film that has nothing to do either with children or the Bard.

Arshad Warsi and Vishal Bhardwaj

An April 16, 2008 interview with Arshad Warsi beats about the Krazzy 4 bush for the most part and ends with an interesting note: Up next are Golmaal Returns, Shortcut, Munnabhai Chale Amreeca and a film with Vishal Bhardwaj. An April 20, 2008 TOI scrap has another tidbit: The Vishal Bhardwaj film that I'm a part of is a bit strange in terms of language and behaviour.. The only film that seems to match right now is Ishqiya and that has VB as a producer with his long-time associate Abhishek Chaubey making his directorial début.

Haal-e-dil

This may well turn out to be the year with the most Vishal music releases. After "U, Me, Aur Hum", up for the shelves is "Haal-e-Dil". It's not a surprise that behind the (as yet) low-profile film is Kumar Mangat, with the film primarily designed as a launch pad for his daughter Amita's acting career. IIRC, a year or so ago, Mangat and the star he's closely associated with, Ajay Devgan (Mangat is or used to be Devgan's secretary) were involved in a contest to select the male lead for this film .

The film has the lyrics of Munna Dhiman. Now interestingly, the film was initially slated to have music by Anand Raj Anand and Raghav Sachar, so it's not clear how much of the soundtrack is by Vishal. Anyway, the brief trailers on air feature a Vishal song. The film is not expected to be any great shakes, so write this off for friendship.

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.

'Shantaram' - music watch

There's been a dearth of reliable information about what Vishal really is upto next, but if this Rediff article is anything to go by, at least Mira Nair's Shantaram has finally been spotted on the radar.

If you leave aside the typically silly Rediff headline-grabbing speculation, this line from Vishal is promising:

"We will have two Sufi songs and one item number in Shantaram."

Vishal has had success with both these styles in Hindi films (remember "tu mere ruubaruu" (Maqbool) and the chart-ripping "biiDii jalaile" (Omkara) of course). One doesn't really care if Johnny Depp is doing a number or not!

'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.

Personal thoughts on the music of "U, Me, aur Hum"

I'll admit that I would not have ordinarily looked forward to the music of a film with an orthographically-challenged title such as "U, Me, aur Hum". But with Vishal helming the baton, here is what I thought.

This film is the most 'urban' of Vishal's output. Though not spectacular in any way, it presents enough points of interest to merit a couple of repeats through the playlist. The lyricist isn't a certain stiff-kurta'd maestro here, but Munna Dhiman steps in to produce a couple of interesting poetic fragments. His highest point is the clever "Saiyaan", where Vishal graciously steps into the background to let the lyrics shine. With "nai dilli me.n bareilly jaisaa saiyaa.n" and "saara din afvaaho.n saa phirtaa udtaa-phirtaa hai galii-galii", this is a great track. Vishal adds the right amount of musical embellishments and gets Sunidhi Chauhan to do the same. Though I didn't like this the first time I heard it, it "chipkoo"-ed on from the next one.

Adnan Sami features on 3 tracks as the male voice. Shreya Ghosal and he combine for "Jii Le", a peppy Spanish number with the usual kind of arrangements (Spanish guitars et al.) that make it so. It's a very nice melody, especially the opening piece. I also liked the guitar riffs and the use of the accordions here. Decent track.

There are two version of the title song. Shreya Ghosal does the female solo, while Vishal himself steps up to the mikes for the male version. The tune has all the trappings of a soothing romantic tune and the English pop-lyrics don't distract as in some other songs. With all due respect to the composer, I really think Vishal ought not to sing. His version, in some places, sounds like a scratch track. Music directors are given the benefit of doubt as long as they have something distinctive to offer. However, as yet, Vishal's voice does not have the earnestness of A.R.Rahman, the zaniness of R D Burman, or the folkishness of S D Burman or Ilaiyaraja. He sounds very flat as well as heavy, especially with a female version to compare against. Nice lyrics again.

I didn't like the heavy Punjjaabbee numbers, especially the very noisy (to me) "Phatte". "Dil Dhakda" is slightly better, again with Dhiman's somewhat offbeat takes. However, on the whole, I haven't bothered to come back to these two.

At the end, I'm still playing four of these tracks, especially "Saiyaan", so that's not too bad for a digression on to the mainstream for someone who hasn't always been given his due in that part of public consciousness.

Update: Lyrics can be found at the Gulzarfans egroup.

Also posted on my personal blog.