Sunday, January 6, 2002		Movie Magic

VIVA Vasundhara! With her light hair and light eyes, Vasundhara Das takes herself quite lightly, too. There’s this bindaaspan about her that endears her to even a new acquaintance at the very first encounter itself.

Do you remember her in Hey Ram? Negative? Well, you possibly couldn’t forget her in Monsoon Wedding, filmmaker Mira Nair’s award-winning movie that’s literally taken the cine world by storm! Vasundhara plays the role of the bride to perfection. Yet, despite all the rave reviews, she simply shrugs off her achievement with a (dazzling) smile. Or a song.

"More than an actress, a leading lady or an emoter, I prefer to be called an entertainer. That’s because an actress can only act on screen but an entertainer is capable of doing so much more. Like, I’m basically a singer and I also love to do stage plays. Films and acting are relatively new horizons for me, ones that I still have to conquer completely. That’s why I’m frankly bowled over by the cinegoers’ resounding response to my screen appearances. But extremely happy, nevertheless," she points out.

Bollywood has taken to Vasundhara in a big way. She is deluged with offers that seem terrific both in content ‘n’ cash, but our girl isn’t rushing into anything for now. She wants to strike a balance between her singing and acting, and then decide which is closer to her heart. Oh, well, some people have all the choices. And luck. She is certainly one of them!

Obviously, precaution is always taken while shooting action scenes, even where the artistes participating are seasoned guys. Even so, once in a while, things do tend to go haywire and the unfortunate result is an accident on the sets! As happened on the location shoot of Jaal in Manali rather recently. Hero Sunny Deol and villain Amrish Puri were required to engage in a hot-blooded chase on speeding bikes for a climactic scene. The rehearsals went off without a hitch and then it was time for the actual ‘take’. Somehow, in the ‘heat’ of the moment, Amrish revved up (far) too much and that sent him crashing into Sunny on the other mobike!

Needless to say, filming for the day was cancelled and both actors rushed to the nearest hospital. While Deol was lucky to get away with a bandaged hand (which had been badly bruised), Puri had to take three stitches on his scalp. Back in Mumbai he made it a point to lift his hat and show everybody the injury, grinning: "For a moment, when I skidded, I thought I was a goner. But it just proves that Mogambo is a damn tough ‘nut’ to crack!"

For producer-director Ramgopal Varma’s sake, I do genuinely wish that his obsession for "virtual reality" in his films’ stories and characters, doesn’t land him into virtually risky situation. I mean, go ahead and make fiction films; why bring in stuff that could attract negative attention, especially from the notorious underworld, huh?

So okay, Varma made Satya. And it was a huge box office grosser. But to dish out something like The Company is definitely looking for trouble, methinks. Based entirely on underworld dons ‘n’ guns, the movie practically names international assassins such as Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan.

Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, Manisha Koirala and Antaraa Mali share the (morbid) marquee while Southern superstar, Mohanlal, plays the role of the chief cop, a character inspired by the renowned hit man, D Sivanandan! The Company is presented by Boney Kapoor (despite Sridevi’s protests, I’m told.).

I tell you, Manisha Koirala appears to have made it her business to invite trouble time after time after time. The latest is that she may be "banned" from acting in movies on account of "non-cooperation and gross misconduct"! The entire (unpleasant) controversy has come about due to the actress’ clash with the producer of Raghuvanshi, which stars her. Shyam Chandok has charged her with acting in a professionally irresponsible way. In her defence, Manisha claims that her payments have been held back, her original role shredded to bits and she, herself, humiliated by the producer "in full and blatant view of the whole crew, visitors and the Press."

By opening her mouth, has Koirala only succeeded in jumping from the frying pan into the fire?