Sunday, November 12, 2000		Bollywood Bhelpuri

TWO determined, motivated men. One, the destroyer, the other, the saviour. And an innocent, young child who doesn’t want to go out with his family or friends, preferring instead to play alone at home. Little does he realise that he’s going to be left alone — forever!

A suspense thriller in the offing? Yeah, why not? After all, when you have a demonic, demented killer on the prowl, nobody is safe. Not even kids.

This, in short is the gist of the gripping story of Champion a Vinod Chawla presentation, produced by Sujit Kumar and directed by Padam Kumar. Add to that the fact that the characters mentioned are played by Rahul Dev, Sunny Deol and Master Abhishek (of Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai fame) and the movie takes on a searing, sinister look. Supporting the man cast are Deepak Parasher, Padmini Kapila, Tom Alter, Vikram Gokhle, Dina Pathak and (the voluptuous) Kashmira Shah, amongst other cine celebs. Interesting? You bet !

Perhaps, calling Sunny "the ultimate action macho" of Bollywood may more judiciously be taken with a fistful of salt... but there can be no doubt that this Deol does manage to throw in a few punches in almost all his pictures. Er... even though he is given to torturing his larynx in scenes where underplaying would give his dialogues more weight and carriage! Since his leading lady happens to be Manisha Koirala (who’s pretty shrill when she screams!), Sunny’s trump card is so very obviously to keep a (close ‘n’ careful) check on his verbal histrionics.

Ever since Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla became business partners by setting up their own film production and distribution company — Dreamz Unlimited — Bollywood’s rumour mill has gone into overdrive! At least every (other) week, one gets to hear a brand new, juicy tidbit about them... and not too far-fetched, to be brutally, blatantly honest, believe me.

The latest is that the (devious?) duo has decided to turn Dreamz into a live stage show and event management outfit... and to hell with making movies! Apparently, Juhi and the Shah have come to realise that they can make more money by doing all those (repetitive) stage shows instead of doing all those (repetitive) films!

His films have flopped in a regular row... but Abhishek Bachchan continues to get handsome new offers, all the same. Call it luck or the filmmakers’ faith in the hope that "this lad will make it, yet..." or whatever, but fact remains that Abhi is far from being wiped off the celluloid slate. No sir, no way!

At the same time, after speaking with many industry folks, they tend to give me the very feeling that I’ve been getting myself: That Bachchan Jr is a misfit in the romantic, lover boy image. He is eminently unconvincing and stiff as a totem pole when it comes to doing lovey-dovey scenes with his leading ladies! So, before Kuchh Naa Kaho (with Aishwarya Rai, again) hits the cinema halls, Abhi would do well to practise flirting ‘n’ romancing in real life, I daresay! Might just help.........

This picture, incidentally, is being made by Ramesh Sippy’s son, Rahul Sippy, and happens to be the youngman’s directorial debut!

He’s a good-looking son of famed comedian Johnny Walker, but he has a totally different style of walking. I’d probably go nuts trying to jot down his (innumerable) modelling printouts, his product ads, his chat shows on TV, his teleserials, his music videos etc. And now, Nasir is into movies in a ‘big’ way! Can’t the guy be a little less enterprising, I ask you?

"Give me any shade of character to play... as long as it’s a good role, an actor’ role," Nasir says, "because that’s why I’m here — to be an actor cinegoers would like, enjoy and appreciate." In that case, his wishes are soon going to be fulfilled since Rajkumar Santoshi has signed Nasir for Lajja, N. Chandra for Ishtyle, Umesh Mehra for Mohabbat Hai, Inder Kumar for Aashiq and Satish Kaushik for Badhaii Ho Badhaii!

Way to go, Nasir Khan! You’re doing your dad real proud, for sure.