ThE BuZZ

Snippets on Soha

Actress Soha Ali Khan has been in the buzz lately for a number of reasons, one being for her role in the soon to be released comic movie, War Chhod Na Yaar. Soha has acted in films like Rang De Basanti, Khoya Khoya Chand and Soundtrack, but this role is a special one for her as the genre is lighter and also great fun.

“I am doing comedy for the first time and it has been great fun,” Soha stated recently. “I have done films where to get into a role, you have to bring back all these depressing memories before a shot. Comedy is much lighter, you can improvise, you can have fun, and you can let yourself go”.

War Chhod Na Yaar is a war comedy, and director Farz Haider’s maiden venture. Soha plays a war reporter in the film. “I really liked the subject and that’s why I said yes to Faraz. It was one of the best scripts I have ever read. We all want wars to stop and the most influential medium in India is films. Movies inspire us”, she said.

“Faraz has written a script through which he aims to change our mindset and show us what we can do to stop wars,” she added.

The movie also features Sharman Joshi and Javed Jaffrey.

In another film Calling Mr Joe B Carvalho, Soha will be seen beating up 20 people in her introduction scene, a temptation that proved simply irresistible to the actress.

“I got convinced in the first five minutes of the narration because I loved my introduction scene in the film,” said the 34-year-old actress. “I have always wanted to do some action because I believe I am very fit and I enjoy gymming and playing badminton and fighting”.

Soha plays a police inspector named Shantipriya Phadnis in the film and also learnt to do a cartwheel for her role.

ALL’S NOT wELL wITh OM

Om Puri may be a versatile and talented actor, but his life off-screen isn’t all peaches and cream. His wife Nandita recently accused him of domestic violence, and he was finally granted bail to leave the country to shoot a film in the UK.

Naturally, Om heaved a sigh of relief, happy to get away for the professional assignment, the shooting of his new international film The Hundred-Foot Journey with the distinguished British actress Helen Mirren. Being granted bail brought an end to a week-long drama in Om Puri’s life when his aggrieved wife Nandita accused him of domestic violence. However, Nandita was insistent that Om not be allowed to leave the country for his shooting. “Luckily for me the legal system in our country is rational. Yes, I am able to leave for my shooting, albeit one day late,” said Om Puri, who has to provide a surety bond of Rs.15,000 before he leaves the country.

“I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to getting away from the nightmare of my life in India. I promise you I am going to do well in The Hundred-Foot Journey,” said the beleaguered actor. Naturally, that’s but to be expected from a professional like Om. But whether he’ll do well in his personal life may turn out to be yet another story!

“Shantipriya Phadnis is not a normal cop. She is very good at her job but there is a huge amount of humour and comic element to it. But yes, I did take four kickboxing classes and I learnt how to do a cartwheel which I had never done before in my life,” Soha said.

Directed by Samir Tewari, Calling Mr. Joe B Carvalho stars Arshad Warsi in the title role, with Javed Jaffrey, Vijay Raaz, Shakti Kapoor, Geeta Basra, Vrajesh Hirjee and Himani Shivpuri also in the cast.

But that’s not all from the Soha front. The actress has admitted to eyeing her mother, veteran film actress Sharmila Tagore’s ‘beautiful’ jewellery. Soha is waiting to get some bespoke pieces of jewellery saying, “Amma (my mother) has gifted me a lot of it, which hasn’t reached me yet. She says, ‘This one is yours and this one’, and I know that I will get it one day,” said Soha recently when attending a high-end jewellery exhibition. “But I borrow a lot of jewellery from her and she has some beautiful things. One special piece are the ruby earrings which are apparently mine and those are my favourite,” she added.

Soha, who belongs to a royal family, being the daughter of late Nawab of Pataudi Mansoor Ali Khan, says she never felt the need to buy jewellery pieces.

“I am lucky that I have got a lot, so I have never had the need to buy anything because I don’t know if I would be able to afford it myself. But Amma has a lot of jewellery, our grandmothers collected a lot of it through the ages and that too, very different,” Soha said. “From Bengal traditional gold jewellery, from Bhopal that kind of mughal, polki and jadau... all of those are very beautiful”.

Life’s certainly busy for Soha with comedy, drama and jewellery - what a life, it’s too tough!

Failures made Mahesh

Bhatt

Acclaimed filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who has seen several ups and downs in his professional and personal life, says he is what he is today due to his failures. In his association of over three decades with the Indian film industry, Mahesh has made several thought-provoking films like Arth, Naam and Zakhm, which have struck the right chord with the audience.

The 64-year-old began his career in 1974, and he has come a long way by experimenting and helming new kinds of cinema, whether as a director or through his production banner Vishesh Films.

“So far my journey has been fascinating,” Mahesh said at the first look launch of the film Dil Pardesi Ho Gaya and its Indo-Pak based anthem, Dil ki udaan “Yes, ups and downs are there in life, but those failures and downs polish you and make you. Whatever I am today, I am just because of my failures”.

“Failures give you strength to move forward. I would just say that when you

cAPTION cONTEST

are going through failures in your life, don’t worry as those are your good times. But when you are successful, then you need to worry,” he added.

The filmmaker tasted real success with his 1982 film Arth, which was inspired by his personal life. Now Arth is soon going to be staged as a play. And the director continues enjoying his success...

Parineeti overweight?

You’ve got to be kidding me! But Parineeti Chopra thinks she is overweight. Parineeti says she is too big to don a bikini, although Bollywood actresses are readily flaunting the twopiece garment on screen. Asked if she will be okay wearing a bikini for a film, Parineeti said, “If I have a hot body, then why not? But right now I don’t have the right body. I am still overweight, so there’s no way I can wear a bikini”.

As such, the vivacious actress doesn’t have any limitations or restrictions as an artist.

“I don’t know how long I will be in the business, or may be the audience will get bored of me and then I will not be around... so (as long as I am in showbiz), I don’t want to restrict myself,” she said.

Overweight, no; curvaceous, yes - but you can bet that Parineeti won’t be sporting a bikini in her upcoming film

Shuddh Desi Romance!

Money matters, says Manoj

Manoj Bajpayee, who has been acting for almost two decades, says that filmmakers should stop tempting him with good roles as now it’s money that matters to him the most.

“At this point of time, money is the most important factor for me. I am at a stage today where I can tell people, cast me in your film if you have the money.

whO wORE IT BETTER?

It’s high time filmmakers stop tempting me with good roles and don’t pay me,” Manoj said recently with admirable candidness.

“This change in priority is because I have completed two decades in this industry and I have done enough to prove myself. I have a family to support. When I came into the industry, money didn’t matter to me. I was passionate about being an actor,” admitted the actor.

But the versatile actor is well-known for playing strong roles in movies like Satya, Raajneeti and Gangs of Wasseypur and the film-going audience is certainly quite impressed with his performances in a variety of roles. Manoj is now planning to focus on another area of filmdom, trying his hand at producing films. But in this case, he will not focus on money.

“I am getting into it because I want to promote good cinema. Whenever there will be a good script looking out for a producer, I’ll go ahead and produce it. Starting a production house isn’t a money-making business for me. I will be working for low-profit. I’ve waited all my life to see this time and now I am sick and tired of waiting at home for things to happen,” he said.

As producer or actor, let’s hope Manoj succeeds in bringing in the moolah. He’s earned it, don’t you think?

Varun warns against smoking

He might be just one film old, but actor Varun Dhawan knows the impact a movie character can have on fans. The young actor has urged his fans not to copy him when he smokes on screen. “Hey guys, for the record I don’t smoke, but I might have to smoke for some upcoming role… everyone knows smoking is bad so don’t do it,” posted Varun on Twitter, as he was seen smoking in his debut film Student Of The Year

However, the actor feels it is not right to judge people because of their smoking habits, somewhat spoiling the effect of his tweet.

Freida Pinto or Lea Michelle in Valentino

Share your views with us on our Facebook page

Varun will soon be seen in father David Dhawan’s directorial project Main Tera Hero, the Hindi remake of Telugu movie Kandireega. So stay way from the smoking, everyone, like apna Varun!

What’s the chitchat here between Rekha and Rani? Send in your responses to win@indianlink.com.au and win a surprise prize

LAST ISSuE cAPTION cONTEST wINNING ENTRy

What’s the chitchat here between Naseeruddin Shah and Gulzar?

Naseer: I just want to go home and get out of these ridiculous shorts… Gulzar: I know what you mean!

Nisha Patni Artarmon NSW

Nisha wins a free ticket to the new Hindi film Satyagraha

MADRAS C AF é

STArrIng: John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri and Raashi Khanna

DIrECTor: Shoojit Sircar HHHHH

If only history could be changed by art. Cinema is a powerful medium for socio-political expression and revolution. Alas, in India, entertainment engages all other aspects of life on celluloid.

But seriously, it’s time now to get off the Chennai Express and get into Madras Cafe for a cup of the compelling. We need a reality check. And we need to regain a sense of history in Bollywood cinema which seems lost in the hoary art of streetside tamasha, glorified and aggrandised by cinematics that are perceived to be the elixir of pop culture. It is time for mainstream entertainment to grow up. Heightened realism is a means to achieve a synthesis of fantasy and history in this deftly scripted semi-fictional account of the processes leading to Rajiv Gandhi’s tragic assassination in 1991.

The trenchant script, co-written by Somnath Dey and Shubendu Bhattacharya, attempts and succeeds in building the same spiral of pseudohistory that Oliver Stone built in JFK. I feel Indian politics, because of the country’s multi-culturism, is far more complex than its American or European counterpart. Our cinema tends to dilute, simplify and trivialise history because we are much too wary of and lazy about getting involved.

Not Shoojit Sircar. Not Madras Cafe

Not John Abraham. What a courageous producer and actor John has proven himself to be! More of that later.

But first the plot.

Let me say right away, that to understand the enormity of the story told in Madras Cafe, the audience ought to be familiar with the violent history of the Sri Lankan civil war. But even if you don’t know that thousands of Tamilians died in the war of separatism, it is no sweat off the screenplay’s back.

Tucked away in the compelling creases of the plot is a terrific thriller about the assassination of a prime minister, who, let it be known, is not named in the film. Nor are the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), Prabakaran and the other key players. But then this is India. Here, secrecy and stealth are the founding fathers of any political expose.

But you can’t escape the clutches of history’s tyranny. Sircar’s skilful weaving of fact and fiction leaves little room for scepticism. We know as we watch with helpless astonishment, that the ‘Prime Minister’ will die, that the hero in this case won’t be able to save him.

Such are the heroes in real life. Unsung, sizes smaller than life. John Abraham skips into the part of the RAW agent Vikram Singh with an ease and comfort of a natural-born secret agent.

If James Bond or for that matter Kabir Khan’s Tiger were to have any truck with real-life politics, they would have been as believably brave and as credibly heroic as John in this film.

Every actor seems to take a cue from the vast resources of authenticity at their disposal. Specially riveting is Prakash Belawade as John’s associate, who seems to drink hard to escape from the enormity of his compromise. Even

Nargis Fakhri, so selfconsciously affected as Ranbir Kapoor’s doomed soul-mate in Rockstar, nails her war correspondent’s part with her radiant presence. But I have a quibble with her character Jaya. Why does Jaya speak in English while Vikram answers in Hindi?

The linguistic puzzle never quite obstructs the devastating drama of war violence conspiracy and betrayal. These are dramatic points of political reckoning. And yet Sircar keeps the proceedings subdued and lowkey. It’s a miracle how Sircar’s narrative voice never gets shrill even when the occasion is so ripe for over-statement.

Much of the credit for the tonal correctness of the narrative must go to Kamaljeet Negi’s brilliantly unadorned cinematography, which locks in on stunning visuals of violence and espionage-related action without falling into the mistake of making the frames look prettier than the grim situation that they are meant to capture.

Sircar’s editor Chandrashekhar Prajapati imbues a documentary style to the footage. But the sense of cinematic expansiveness is retained in the way the camera moves through the characters’ restless lives, searching for positions of comfort in a situation laden with desperate anxiety.

There’s a whole lot of stifled drama in Madras Café. When a key character dies in the second-half, the tragedy is handled without fuss. John’s tight-lipped performance gives the film a sense of tragic grandeur. We constantly feel we are in a territory where drama has no place. The soundtrack is exceptionally honest. Shantanu Moitra’s background music underscores every scene without hammering in the emotions.

Madras Cafe is a dark, deep and satisfying film about the politics of separatism. The film doesn’t take sides. If it is against anything, it is the culture of violence that nations often feed into neighbouring countries for their own gains. This film opens up the hitherto unexplored genre of political drama in Bollywood.

After Vicky Donor, we know Sircar is comfortable exploring innovative cinematic territory. Here, he tells an edgy disturbing provocative but rational and fair-minded story that takes mainstream Bolywood cinema kicking and screaming into a new horizon.

This is cinema signifying a comingof-age with unforgettable visuals and drama and a rousing mature careerdefining performance by its leading man.

Get off the train, baby. This is arguably the best political thriller that Bollywood has so far given us.

S UBHASH K. J HA