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.

Now it is Saath Khoon Maaf: Husband 6 locked in

I wonder if the reporters make up their own titles as they go along, while reporting on movies in production. I have heard Seven, Seven Husbands, Ek Bataa Saath as potential titles. I am guessing they are talking about the same movie.

Neil Nitin Mukesh is playing one of the husbands, and seems to be the sixth one roped in to play the part of Priyanka Chopra's short-lived husbands. But I could identify only other two from the reports - Naseeruddin Shah and Mohanlal (Kamal Hassan would have been enough to play all!)

From the name and the number being touted, I am guessing PC leaves her husbands quick and dead.

I hope Mini Mukesh dies a gruesome death right into the 1st minute of the movie. He is acting के नाम पे धब्बा! Personal view, thats all.

Chandan Arora's "Striker" - music

"Striker", a film directed by Chandan Arora and starring Siddharth (probably the first Hindi film to feature carrom as its central theme?), recently released its music album. Among the many music directors to write songs for the album is Vishal.

The song is called Yun Hua, is penned by Gulzar, and is sung by Vishal himself.

(see the Wikipedia article on 'Striker' for more.)

Vishqiya

Rediff review is all praise for Ishqiya music.

Once again Gulzar [ Images ] and Vishal Bhardwaj [ Images ] have conspired to give us a soundtrack to marvel at, that one intoxicatingly warm song leading the way.

"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)