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B H U B A N E SWA R THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Filmi Funda
FORTUNE SMILES ON ARINDAM
Fortune seems to be favouring me these days, says Arindam. And why not? He has a lot to recommend himself. He earned plaudits for both Hero and Criminal. Two box office hits in one year! Great going, Arindam! After a series of love and action flicks, Arindam is finally getting ready to stun his fans with something unpredictable. Attention female fans: Your heartthrob is going to play the perfect dad! This is a challenging role. I had my eye on it and finally got it, says Arindam who, supposedly, is leaving no stone unturned to be the best daddy in the business in the upcoming flick Daddy. Lets hope fortune has something rich in store for him.

ITEM NUMBERS NOT ON KANGANAS PRIORITY LIST

hweta Tiwaris item number in Miley Na Miley Hum has become a rage, but the films lead actress Kangana Ranaut has no regrets about not being a part of it. I have been offered several item numbers... I will get tired making people count the offers! But I have always said item numbers are not on my priority list, said Kangana. I have no wish of doing item numbers so far. But never say never. Maybe I do them someday, who knows?, she added. The 24-year-old national award-winning actress says she is glad Shwetas number Katto gilheri chammak challo has received a positive response. Its great that the song is being liked. After all, it is from our film. Shweta has done a great job and I dont think anyone could have done it better than her, she said. The movie, which marks the debut of Chirag Paswan, politician Ram Vilas Paswans son, is releasing Friday. It also features Sagarika Ghatge and Neeru Bajwa.

Synopsis: Shyam Benegals Junoon is rarely spoken with the recall or critical acclaim due to it, unlike many of the auteur directors other landmark early films that had pioneered the parallel or art house Indian cinema movement in popular Hindi cinema in the 1970s. But that doesnt make Junoon any less significant or iconic a work than the most referred to Benegal classics from the era like Ankur, Nishant, Bhumika or even Kalyug. Junoon can easily lead his list of few and far between ambitious projects (before Zubeidaa and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero), in terms of its scale and span, apart from its unfolding on a vibrant and very active terrain with a gripping love story set against the backdrop of one of the most disturbing periods of modern Indian history. The year is 1857. Sepoy Mangal Pandey has just been hanged by the British post his failed mutiny. The Indian sepoys or foot soldiers of the East Indian Company have begun venting their long repressed ire against their British masters through sudden revolts often culminating in violent repercussions. The idea of overthrowing the mismanaged rule of the East India Company through a series of individual, local struggles (also known as the Mutiny of 1857 or Indias First War of Independence) has been spreading through the north of India in a word of mouth fashion with the sole driver being the capture of Delhi and the reinstatement of the ailing Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. Its increasingly churning context, thus set, the film narrows down to a fictitious British cantonment somewhere off Kanpur seemingly at peace and unaffected by the larger tumult outside. We enter the uneasy calm and concerned atmosphere in the house of a British family, the Labadoors. Their Shyam Benegal beautiful young daughter, Ruth (Nafisa Ali) has been the object of affection or rather silent obsession of a Pathan nobleman, Javed to dignified aplomb. (Shashi Kapoor) for some days now. The latters been silently, Javeds Pathan stealing glances of her, every now and then, to the point of machismo doesnt almost stalking her dreams. Dad Labadoor tries his best to allow him to forcibly humour the fears of the ladies in his family in an atmosphere acquire the object JUNOON (Hindi, 1979) hung with terrifying rumours. Soon mutiny erupts in their of his junoon (obsession). Rating: ***1/2 untouched neighbourhood too, baring its gruesome face at He wants to marry Ruth. Director: Shyam Benegal one of the most unlikely places for bloodshed. A gory The idea scandalises his Cast: Shashi Kapoor, butchering of British men and women in a church by a Muslim wife, Firdaus Jennifer Kendal, motley gang of rebels and members of the local elite led by (Shabana Azmi), who opJaveds seemingly insanely fanatical elder brother Sarfaraz Khan poses it with the help of the Naseeruddin Shah, (Naseeruddin Shah) follows. Ruth, her mother Miriam familys other womenfolk, Shabana Azmi, Nafisa Ali, (Jennifer Kendal) and her grandmother escape the carnage especially Javeds worldly Sushma Seth under the protected hospitality of a Hindu merchant and an wise chachi (Sushma Seth). old family friend Lala Ramji Lal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), Ruth also hasnt yet warmed up to Javeds attentions either. though not for long. Miriam uses this dithering between relations to buy time and Javed tracks down hope for rescue, until in a master stroke provided as much his obsession, almost by luck, as some verbal word play from Javeds aunt she with the keen, dogged gets the latter to strike a peculiar, symbolic deal where precision of a hunter she promises him that he will have Ruth, only if the Indians on prowl and brings can win Delhi! Ego, coupled with the added burden of hothe ladies of the nouring ones word almost clip all possibilities of Javed reLabadoor family to the alising his obsession in spite of Ruth being in his absolute safety of his house. possession. And begin some interHe pines, lingers around Ruths room, demeans himself esting engagements and in the eyes of his wife as he nearly begs Miriam for Ruths verbal duels in this tale hand Shashi Kapoors Javed is a study in subtlety of a of passion, obsession and patriotism, played man possessed, hurtling away to sure doom, blinded as he is out beautifully by some strong willed, to the other opportunities and equations in life. There is a scene memorable lady characters, led by Miriam towards the films end where the British have defeated their

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Indian resistors and are on their way to capturing Javeds town. A mass migration is on way like most south Asian displacement tragedies, but for a battle-ravaged Javed, finding his welcoming wife in the multitude is hardly a cause of joy. He has no time to appreciate her assuring visage. Instead, he looks sternly at her and demands: Where are the British? (read the Labadoor women knowing fully that the consequence of the war has further closed his any remaining opportunity to win Ruth) Firdaus is taken aback. The husband doesnt notice her tears of joy on seeing him return safely from the battlefield. He doesnt care. He barks out the question again, as she stammers an answer through her sobs. He heads to the now abandoned church where the Labadoors have taken shelter and knocks on its doors, begging Miriam for one last glance of Ruth. An emboldened Miriam disregards his desperate pleas urging himself to instead fly to his safety. Just when Javed is about to leave in hopeless anguish, Ruth calls his name from behind, establishing a direct contact for the first time between the two in the film a hint of some yearning and an idea of love. Acknowledged, and his obsession finally vindicated, Javed leaves as Ruth looks on in admiration

THE ICONIC

and concern, or is it love returned, finally? Review: Adapted from Ruskin Bonds novella Flight of the Pigeons, the significance of Junoon lies in the fact that it isnt any one side favouring version of the many brutalities that bloodied the social fabric in the India of 1857. The writer is an Anglo Indian, his story is based on memoirs of a British lady who had survived the mutiny and the director is a contemporary Indian filmmaker. Given the amount of violence that laces the tales every turn, the film could have easily succumbed to a convenient Indian audience pleasing narrative of obvious villains (the British) and heroes (their Indian resistors). Benegal keeps his characters grey, and in a directorial masterstroke invests in a wandering mendicant or pir (Rajesh Vivek) with no social bonds or concerns the role of the films sutradhar or meaning provider. As a result one tends to identify with the concerns of every character (even the fanatic Sarfaraz), just as the characters get to identify and empathise with each others individual junoons. Credit goes to the films writing team for not passing of any of its driver characters as mere bystanders to momentous events. Between the Muslim nobility and the British imperialists is the status quo keeping Hindu merchant class, as represented by Lala Ramji Lal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), who tries his best at maintaining a please all balanced survival path, without antagonising either of the opposing political masters. Shabana Azmi as the neglected wife, Naseeruddin Shah as the revenge seeking fanatic or Sushma Seth as the practical chachi work as engaging, multi-dimensional distractions to Javeds uni-dimensional obsession. But its Jennifer Kendal, who leaves a lasting impression in a constantly challenging part. From breaking down to tears in the trust of empathetic women folk to guarding her daughter like a tigress in the face of the Javed Khan threat she essays a gamut of emotions courageously. Note the subtle change in her body language through her dealings with Javed as news of the English reclaiming their lost grounds start seeping into the Pathan household. Like most of Benegals incisive works, this simmering historical film too examines its sweeping political subject through an intimate study of the interactions of a few people. Benegal deliberately juggles realism with the theatrical, giving the audience constant high drama. At his disposal is an engaging cross cultural love story and the director pulls every narrative device, especially the fantastic minstrel soothsayer, to echo epic Shakespearian tragedies, while keeping the film superbly grounded in its authentic researched settings, dialogues and acts. Trivia seekers should not miss writer-poet Ismat Chugtai in one of her rare on screen appearances, in an elongated cameo as Ruths grandmother. In a national cinema that abounds with many historical and costume drama offerings, it is surprising that so few films exist with the 1857 mutiny as backdrop. The good ones can actually be counted on fingers be it Sohrab Modis ambitious period drama Jhansi Ki Rani (1953) or the more recent commercial Ketan Mehta biopic, The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005). Junoon in spite of its fictional concerns provides a far more authentic account of the tumultuous era and hence is a more valuable visual resource that simultaneously fulfils the cinematic needs of telling a compelling story with some forever haunting performances. Highlights/Honour Roll: Junoon bagged the Indian National Film Award for Best Hindi Film (1979) and the awards for Best Cinematography (Govind Nihalani) and Audiogrphy (Hitendra Ghosh). It nearly swept the 27th Filmfare Awards (1980) with eight nominations and six wins including Best Film (for producer Shashi Kapoor), Direction (Shyam Benegal), Editing (Bhanudas Divakar), Dialogues (Pandit Satyadev Dubey), Sound & Cinematography.

SHRUTI HAASAN
A PROUD NOMAD
here isnt one, but three places that Shruti Haasan calls home! And thanks to the amount of travelling for her work, she feels like a proud nomad. The 25-year-old actress says she feels at home in Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad. In Hyderabad talking seventh sense with my lovely co-star Surya. Good to be back home. Let me clarify (sigh) I call many places home: Chennai where I was born, Mumbai where Ive lived and now Hyderabad; Im a proud nomad, Shruthi posted on Twitter. The daughter of superstar Kamal Haasan added, Im lucky enough to have friends and family in all three places! Now back to work.

HUGH A DELIGHTED DAD

ugh Grant is the delighted father of a daughter, the actors representative revealed without identifying the babys mother! I can confirm that Hugh Grant is the delighted father of a baby girl. He and the mother had a fleeting affair and while this was not planned, Hugh could not be happier or more supportive. He and the mother have discussed everything and are on very friendly terms, usmagazine.com quoted his representative as saying.