GALLERY
Kareena’s shot at singing

Kareena makes a debut as a singer in Govind Nihalani’s Dev

KAREENA Kapoor is following in the footsteps of all those actresses who wanted to double up as playback singers. In Govind Nihalani’s Dev, she has recorded a song Tum nahin paas they jab for music composer Aadesh Srivastava.

"It’s a scene where she is remembering Fardeen," explains the director, who has cast Amitabh Bachchan, Om Puri, Kareena and Fardeen Khan in lead roles. "He has given her a book of poems and she is mentally humming this song. So I wanted the rawness of her voice, rather than have somebody sounding like a professional singer."

Kareena, however, has her reservations. "I sound so croaky," she insists, half in jest. "It is such a lovely song and I think I have ruined it. Lip sync is so much better.I certainly don’t want to make a career out out playback singing.

It all started a year ago when Nihalani was filming the scene with a scratch recorded in Aadesh’s voice. "I heard Kareena humming the tune all by herself and then I told her that she must sing the song.Of course, her initial reaction was one of disbelief."

"I was willing to give it a shot," Kareena interjects. "I like experimenting and trying out different things. So, though I am too boisterous to actually be able to carry off a sober song, I agreed to do it. I took it as a gamble and I am still not sure if I have pulled it off."

Nihalani diplomatically says that would be entirely up to the audience to conclude whether there’s any merit in the song, but so far as he is concerned, she has served the purpose of the scene. "Singing may not be her scene, but she is a fighter," he adds, tongue-in-cheek.

"Come on, I am not looking for a career in singing, unless somebody wants to give me a few music videos," Kareena jokes. "I came straight from a shooting in Pune and went into the recording studio. There were no rehearsals, no practice sessions. I sang in my natural way."

Vishal Bharadwaj is going places. He started out as a music director, composed the tunes for films like Maachis and Hu Tu Tu and then switched to filmmaking. Both his directorial ventures, Makdee and Maqbool have brought him box-office success and critical acclaim.

Now he is going international with Soulmate, the book about Molly, Maya and Raj Babban, which new age guru Deepak Chopra has written. According to media reports, South African producer Annant Singh (who is bankrolling Shekhar Kapur’s film on Nelson Mandela) has acquired its filming rights. "Annant told me that he was fascinated with the way I made the modern-day Macbeth," says Bharadwaj. "He is very keen that I directed Soulmate, purely for an international audience. I credit my success entirely to the cast of Maqbool. Without them, none of this would have been possible."

According to Bharadwaj, Soulmate is a tale told through three characters, who try to dramatise the way every soul must live through countless lifetimes, repeating particular experiences and lessons, until it lets love, truth and bliss flow freely.

"The drama in the book has to be packed together in the time frame of an English movie," explains the director. "To this, must be added Chopra’s humour, his brilliant dialogues and the power and richness of Raj’s (the main protagonist) battle against materialist psychiatry." — MF