If you’ve seen Godfather and Kalyug and read the Mahabharat or seen the original one as a serial, you have pretty much covered Rajneeti in sum total.
Interesting in parts, predictable in most, pacy in parts, tedious in most, with hackneyed dialogues and characterization.  The positive is clearly fine acting. Arjun Ramphal enact his parts well. The direction is crisp, the story per se is weak.
It confuses itself between attempting to say something fresh, then gets lost in the “woman waiting for her eternal love of the 60’s and 70’s.”
Having said that it does attempt to tell a story of the current state of politics in India, but given that there were not many budget constraints, the constant scenes of telling as opposed to showing or giving layers to the character as opposed to making a smart and shrewd cookie, like Manoj Bajpai’s character, suddenly behave in a very irrational and almost stupid manner, example, hitting the bottle at every instance or going unarmed and Devgan’s character also showing up unarmed to protect him and then just surrendering arm in the end, make for a convenient story telling as opposed to an intelligent one.
Clearly the scriptwriter here, needs a lot of work, cause otherwise the characterization had a lot of scope and potential for some very interesting storytelling.
From the audience perspective the sub titling leaves a lot to be desired. Case in point is the number “thees saal, or thirty years” appears on the subtitle screen as 27.
Also all the women getting universally pregnant, the unnecessary scripting of the minorities holding on to their value system when voting, as opposed to everyone else selling out, again takes a very mundane turn to a very interesting start.
The positive in this is that it is not attempting to run away from some of the truths in the political system of a party being it’s own worst enemy, and that of a political family being a divided family.
Nana Patekar also is surprisingly underplayed and not the ususal Nana. The music and visuals suit the film. See this if you have 2 hours and 58 minutes to kill, else await the DVD and fastforward in parts. Till it comes on DVD watch Godfather, Kalyug and Mahabharat. That way you would have not seen the film, yet seen it.

The hype of Kites, gets to it. What we are promised, by the Bollywood machinery, we don’t get. This one plays out like a Mahesh Bhatt film, set on the scale of a Rakesh Roshan production.  There seems to be some confusion as Bollywood tries hard, a bit too much, to reach out to Hollywood, and gets somewhat jarred in between.
Firstly the strengths and there are many. The direction is of top notch order. The initial character build up and story, that of the chance taking immigrant with not much to loose, set in the backdrop of Sin City, Las Vegas, promises a lot of excitement. The pace is crisp and fine outdoor locations make it visually appealing.
What bothers the viewer is half baked characters, story that almost becomes reminiscent of the Bollywood of the 80’s as opposed to the current trends, a constant flashback reference when a straight flow of events would have been just fine and finally an unreasonable intention to keep the film to within two hours, when honestly, the traditional three would have done just fine. It appears rushed to meet the deadline, that of co mingling with Hollywood.
Some actors are wasted and some very unaccomplished actors are given huge screen time. One gets the impression that Kangana must have done this film either to earn a trip to Las Vegas or get a 10 year multiple entry visa to the US. A fine actress has been wasted. Her brother, played by unnamed antagonist is given a powerful part, which he enacts extremely weakly. Hrithik and Barbara are competent, but a vulnerable Hrithik would have been great, a total lover boy Hrithik, somewhat not totally there.
The usual Mahesh Bhatt influences of the Hero’s friend, the doomed hero, etc are there in abundance.
Is it entertaining, is it worth a watch, most definitely, but do so without hoping to see an all time classic enacting itself in front of you and you will not be disappointed. Hoping to see a life changing Bollywood film, will leave you unfulfilled.
The background score is solid as is the authenticity of the Mexican accent. Giving sudden words like “Yeda” to Hrithik, or mentioning that there is a “Beach front party,” in what the whole world knows as being a desert (Las Vegas), give away that confusion that exists in the developers of the film and that comes across to the audience of the film too.
The biggest positive from this film is the fact that with it, director Anurag Basu, manages to overcome all genres thrown at him with aplomb, whether it is a remake of a West film (Murder), or an intense drama (Gangster) or an Urban (Metro) classic and now a Masala Bollywood fare.

How likely is it that a family moves from Pune, India to Southern United States, probably has very little to do with the entertainment world, and yet their offspring chooses a career in acting and starts off by being in an Oscar winning short film, the West Bank Story? Very likely, if you are Noureen Dewulf and like to challenge yourself every so often. Noureen has since gone on to play varied characters in films and television. Sharing space with actors such as Matthew McConaughey in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Jeremy Piven in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.

We catch up with Noureen on her upcoming challenges:

What made you take up the acting profession?
Acting has always been my passion.

What was it like being a part of an Oscar winning short?
It was an incredible experience. Especially since “West Bank Story” was my first film…my first starring role, for it to go on and win an Oscar was just completely unexpected.

Being South Asian American, what challenges and opportunities does Hollywood present to you?
This is a very complicated question that I cannot answer simply. It is a challenging journey for an ethnic actress in Hollywood as stereotypes are very hard to escape and an ethnic actor/actress has to know how to find a balance between playing characters as they are written and just enjoying the simplicity of that choice versus examining the material to see what the fallout reaction to your character will be (if any) in society…

Would Bollywood be a world, that might interest you and would language be an issue?
I would certainly entertain the idea of doing a Bollywood film if the right script and role were presented to me. I would love to work in Hindi/Urdu, as I did speak it growing up, I would love to perform in a film with Hindi or Urdu. There is something very beautiful about our South Asian languages and I would be thrilled to use it in a film.

Talk a little about your upcoming projects, in both films and television?
A) “The Back Up Plan” stars Jennifer Lopez and is a romantic comedy, in the film I play Daphne, her friend who works in her pet store. “The Taqwacores” based on the novel of the same name is about Yusef, an undergrad who moves into a house of Muslim Punk Rockers. In the film I play Rabeya a punk rock riot girl who wears a Burkha as her punk rock statement. I’m also recurring on a new MTV comedy called Hard Times of RJ Berger as Claire. And I’m also recurring on TNT’s “Hawthorne” starring Jada Pinkett Smith.

From a medium perspective, television or feature films, which is your preferred choice and why?
A) As far as TV I love it. I love how fast people can see your work. The final product is based directly on the script. As far as films, well films are forever and that is special. Both have their own unique advantages, I really don’t have a preference, I just love to play interesting characters.

A couple of months back, Siddharth Kumar’s Semshook, played to critical acclaim at the San Jose Film Festival, Cinequest. Siddharth had earlier made the very likeable and different, Let’s Enjoy. Here we catch up with Siddharth, his wife, actress Roshni Chopra and the writer of the film, Sudip Sharma.

What was the motivation for making this film, an Indian living in Bollywood, making a film which is neither totally Indian in subject matter, nor Bollywood?
The primary motivation is, we are always talking about the Tiger going extinct, and here there is a culture (Tibet) that is going extinct. India is uniquely placed in that we have given shelter to this culture. At the same time, we are also contributing to the process of eroding it, cause when Tibetans come and live in India and see the opportunities that we as Indians have, the economic boom that we are in the midst of, they want to participate in it. When they do so they lose a part of their culture. So Tibet is really trapped between the cultures of India and China. Given that, it is not very long before, as a culture, they go extinct, hence the desire to tell their story. I also work as a D o P in documentaries and I was in Dharamsala to shoot a Tibetan boy, for a documentary, which never got completed. That was about 6 years ago and the story has since remained with me. So that’s how we came upon this idea.

You do realize that a film such as Semshook, is not your typical Bollywood film and there are going to be challenges and despite that, you probably knowingly took this path…why?
See I do have a Bollywood career already, I’ve signed a couple of Hindi films, I’ve made one, which was slightly off Bollywood, I do a lot of Television and am working with Yash Raj right now in Television, that being said, I studied film, to tell stories that have resonance, not just to Indians but around the world. And I think this is a story like that. It’s a universal theme. It’s really a spiritual film which mirrors the life of the Buddha, of going for the search of himself and divesting himself of all the possessions in the process. In the film too, the protagonist, to discover who he is and his Tibet, has to leave everything behind and he ends up with not even a piece of cloth on his body.

The Bay Area has a huge Tibet support group. So what motivated you to select the Cinequest, San Jose festival, as the one you wanted to showcase your film?
We are completely maverick filmmakers in that sense the producer pretty much used his own money, we don’t have any Sales Agent or any Hollywood backing so we would probably have got lost in the bigger festivals. And for a film such as this, we needed to build better traction, amongst friendlier festivals and given that Cinequest in one of the top ten festivals in the US, and it’s also known as being a really friendly festival. The founders and organizers are here all the time, and that’s the kind of handholding that we need at this stage, with a film that is so sensitive and so small.

Since Let’s Enjoy, where have you disappeared?
Let’s Enjoy was also made with a maverick manner. The movie was made on a very limited budget with basically all my friends. Since I was living in Delhi at that time, I didn’t understand anything about Bollywood, back then. Two years after that I moved to Mumbai and have been working on cracking the system, knowing that it’s a very tough system to crack. There are certain zamindars whose families are in charge and to crack that system it takes a long time. So I’ve had a couple of abortive attempts at film and now I’m working with the biggest production house in the country, so I will be making something sooner or later, but have done a lot of Television in the interim.

Let’s Enjoy had a freshness of characters not seen in Bollywood, as you become a part of Bollywood how are you going to retain your freshness?
My primary purpose is to be an artist, to express myself through what I’m given. Bollywood very often, you don’t have complete control over your script. If you get a call from the top guy and are told to direct a script of their choosing, you can turn it down, but it would be stupid to do so. After that your job is to sit with the writer and fuel your artistic personality into the script. So if you do see my work as a Bollywood feature, you will probably see something original. How original not sure, there will be so many cooks in that broth, it’s going to get a little like a khichdee.

Roshni, what was the struggle as someone involved from outside, in the making of the film?
The struggle begins now, to get it out there, to get people to support it. While making the film, we all totally believed in it.

Roshni Chopra is your typical mainstream television, good, bad or ugly, Semshook is not, so how come the decision to come out and support it, glad that you are putting your two cents there, but is it going to cause any confusion to the audience, thinking this is a mainstream Bollywood film?
I think whatever fills the seats. It’s all for a good cause and as long as the intent is good, that’s what matters.

Questions with Sudip Sharma, the writer of the film.

From Superstar to Abbas Mastan, to Semshook?
Always wanted to do different kind of stuff. I am a MBA by education and was working in Sales and Marketing, somewhere down the line realized this is not for me and I switched to cinema, which in Mumbai means Bollywood. Like to believe that I am a world cinema buff so would like to operate in that field and not restrict myself to Bollywood. I do enjoy Bollywood cinema and am working on the remake of the Italian Job for Abbas Mastan. Will also be working on Siddharth’s next film. So looking for a balance in the kind of scripts that I write and do.

As a writer for Semshook, how much of it was picked up from the real world and how much is make believe?
A lot of it was real because the genesis of the story is from an activist and poet in Dharamsala called Tenzing. So we had the sniff of his story from him and his book of poetry. So the idea was to take it to another level and make it cinematic, so not stopping at where his story stops. A lot of it is real and a lot of it is also from the experiences we had in Dharamsala. The window that opened up to me, when I was in Dharamsala, have been incorporated into the film.

Prince represents a cut and paste of most of the action packed films of Tom Cruise and Mat Damon. The makers seem to run it like a video game. Plenty of action, some fine sequences which are lifted straight from Hollywood and no story or at the very least, a lame one of the hero trying to find who he really is and the audience trying to find, what the film is really all about.

It is best seen and enjoyed, and yes it does have it’s entertaining moments, if one goes into the theater with a mentality of entering a video game parlor. It keeps you distracted from the mundane tasks, but the absurdity of the action sequences and the lack of story, make it a quasi game experience, as opposed to a real movie, one.

The action sequences, especially from, Aruna Shields, are classy. When women actors do action sequences well, it is like watching a gymnast and let’s face it, women gymnast appear more graceful, as opposed to the men counterpart and one often wonders, why Bollywood does not make women oriented action films.

The music and background score are engaging. From an acting perspective, Vivek is competent, Nandana and Neetu are not and Sanjay Kapoor attempts to get into Anil Kapoor of RACE’s, character. However, what is really weak is the story telling and the direction. While not a BLUE or a TASHAN, this is another attempt at Bollywood using the money at it’s disposal to blindly ape Hollywood in all special effect sequences, but forgetting about telling a real story in the process. It makes it also painful since the thrill and suspense element is missing from the soul, but is visible to the eye.

While escapism and fantasy is the very core of the film entertainment business, have some basic intelligence and flow to the make believe, as opposed to putting in twists, then explaining to the audience, time and again, makes the narrative extremely jarred.

Overall an average watch, if the stress of living is getting to you and your family.

In any human endeavor, it is rarely about the individual, but more the contribution of a team, that is the defining factor between what is achieved and what could have been. Continuing with our count towards the conceptualization, execution and the march towards the release of SOCH LO, we profile the first team member who came on board, the Director of Photography (DOP), Sandeep Patil.
The people who have had the opportunity to see the trail shows of SOCH LO, have commented most positively on the visual look of the film, which was achieved at a shoestring budget. While there is a lot more to a film than just the camerawork, there is no denying that film is essentially a visual medium and the artist who can get the look of a million dollars, on a thousand dollar budget, is both a supreme technician and a practical genius.
Over to the FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) graduate, who will certainly be talked about once SOCH LO, has hit the screens.

How did SOCH LO happen?
I met Sartaj in Oct. 07 for this project. After passing out from FTII, I was looking for work as an independent DOP. Sartaj gave me this project, which I thought was a perfect chance to show my skill. So I was the first technical crew member to join “Soch Lo”.

Is this your first feature film?
Yes, “Soch Lo” is my first feature film. I liked the script very much.

What were the challenges that you faced while working for this film?
The main obstacle was the budget of the film as Sartaj himself was producing it, without any back up from the industry. So we decided that we will give our best results in the available budget . We worked extensively for almost 3 months before starting the shoot in Jan 08.
As the budget was very tight, I couldn’t get many advanced equipments. What we could manage is a track trolley, a car rig & a 22 feet crane. Even the lights were normal HMI’s instead of Arri PARs. All these factors were there but we decided that we won’t allow these factors to hamper our film.

SOCH LO has a very distinct look and feel.  Was it designed that way or the locations inspired you?
Before post graduating from FTII, I did my graduation from Sir JJ School of art which helped me a lot to design the look of the film. Even Sartaj was ready to try something new visually. So we both worked hard on designing the look. Also we decided to mix the formats super 16 & super 35 for different portions of the film, which also gives distinctive look to the film.

Now that the film is ready for release, when you look back how has the journey been?
When I look back now, I feel you give your best in limitations, I am very happy about the look of the film & the visual design. Till date I am connected to this film& as I told u earlier I was the first technical crew member to join in Oct 07. So it was a big struggle for all of us to complete this film. This film is very close to all of us.

What are the other projects that you working on?
After finishing “Soch Lo” I shot four more features. My second film is with Mr. Saeed Mirza, who made a film after almost 12 years, titled “Ektho Chance”. Then I shot a Marathi feature “Target” with two new directors Vivek Gore & Rajesh Kolan. Then a French production “Virgin Goat” Directed by Murali Nair. My recent film is a Marathi film “Arre Baap re.” with Sanjay Narvekar. All of them are planned to release in next few months. It would be great if my first film “Soch Lo” releases first, as it’s very close to me & we have worked hard to complete it. I hope the Indian audience will enjoy our genuine efforts without any big star cast.

FADE IN:

EXT & INT: The Man Who Dreamt And The Man Who Dared!

Bollywood has some of the most difficult barriers, mostly built by it’s self enacted gatekeepers, in any industry in any part of the globe. Filmi families, old school thinking, star fascination despite incurring a loss of Rs 3500 crore in 2009, casting couch, irrational thought processes, etc, etc.

The higher the barriers, the greater the thrill in overcoming them. The few who dare, don’t think about consequences, they just dare and do. Sometime back we had done a write up on one such individual, Sartaj Singh Pannu and his whole struggle to take a bunch of freshers, an experienced actress who is known to be selective in what she does, some great music and aspire to do a film, which was small, but not specifically Arthouse or festival obsessed, but one that aspired to reach the audience. A commercial film, whose strength was good scripting and good music. That was Sartaj Singh Pannu gate crashing Bollywood, http://www.indianentertainment.info/2009/08/16/sartaj-singh%e2%80%a6-gate-crashing-bollywood.html

Now he sits on the entrance!

There is a very good chance that the film is going to hit the theaters very shortly. Now, in what is probably a first in reporting, we follow his and his team’s thought process as they look back and look forward.

A reflection of an arduous journey, or anticipation of upcoming excitement, or both.

A real and hard look at what it takes to get that commercial film made in Bollywood.

Let’s start with the captain of the ship, the MAN WHO DREAMT AND WHO DARED- SARTAJ SINGH PANNU

What is it about film making that makes you put everything on line?

I want to express myself, filmmaking is a channel to my voice, be it personal voice, artistic or social

Then what made you choose entirely fresh people, under a new banner, a new director ..where the trade pundits would say its a “suicidal project ?”

Be it big corporate, small producer, or wannabe film financer all of them give you the same “ gyan “. Then they react “ all fresh students ? new banner? new director? It has never happened in our industry, “you atleast need to have Star Son” audience love  watching a  new comer only if he/she  is from  star stable . or  you should at least have  a big banner or big director attached to new comers,  don’t waste other people’s money you wont even be able to complete the film , “if you  mange to  complete the film than  no is going release it, and if u mange to release than  no one is going  watch it !”

Well!

So I made fresh  team and decided to  make a very engaging, New  Age, a beautifully shot film that will hold them for two hours,  a kind of  film our generation next  is waiting for

I found my own space, made  my own path   so that   others can also traverse into it when they find out that one man had already passed through it… it is possible…

When is your film SOCH LO scheduled for release?

We are looking at April release, probably towards the end of April, .will take a call on exact date with my distributor by end of March

Now that you look back how was the journey?

Risky, at every point I was tested, had to be innovative, be it in fund raising, direction, production, or marketing. I was challenged at every step.  I realized that I have gained strength out of these challenges and risks .It really gives me a high now.

Watching Teen Patti is like going to the restaurant with the best reputation and being served food with the finest ingredients, that has been very badly cooked, because the cook does not know what to do with the raw materials and the resources at her disposal.

Take Ben Kingsley, Amitabh, along with fine individual performances by Madhavan, Shraddha Kapoor, Dhruv Ganesh and Siddharth Kher and you have potential, to make the potential even more promising is a fine underlying concept, now throw in a director and a storyteller, who have taken it upon themselves to bore the audience with going deep into unnecesary details, suddenly realizing that they are getting monotonous, fast forwarding to an action sequence, which seems forced, having characters go through inconsistencies in who they are, and if that is not confusing enough, take the traditional Bollywood like Ajay Devgan, Jackie Shroff and Mahesh Manjrekar. To complete the “excess casting” also throw in Saira Mohan and Shakti Kapoor and waste a talent like Barry John and you have Teen Patti.

Haven’t seen such a desperation to win the audience and lack of clarity in a movie in some time. Ironically none of that was required.  Ben and Amitabh have actually performed very well, but given that the whole story around which they have to act, is all over the place, there isn’t much they can do.

The item number is unnecessary as are half the characters in the film and you wonder what they are doing in it, in the first place. It is like building an argument when the conclusion is a given, but you cannot reconstruct what got you there in the first place. What is described as Mathematics appears to be all about intuition and the logic is never clearly defined, other than “it is somewhere in the cloud.”  Clearly this film is not for lesser mortals like the audience, but seems more to be a mind play of some of the lowest IQ pretending to be, super intelligent. The whole experience is like going to a Page 3 party and seeing right through everyone.

If there is a positive, it is that something different is being attempted, although that too is a pav bhaji of a couple of Hollywood films, being dished in and dished out and then some Bollywood coming into play, then London.

Watch this taking your Ipod, cellphone, videogame, food, etc along, you’ll need that.

Sabrina Dhawan was a college student in Columbia University, when she presented the script of Monsoon Wedding to Mira Nair. From there on this film won the fancy of the entire nation and became one of the highest grossing movie of it’s times. Not one to repeat things, Sabrina, went on to write the critically acclaimed, Cosmopolitan and then late last year and early in 2010, two wonderful Bollywood gems, Kaminey and Ishqiya, both of which have revolutionized the concept of traditional Bollywood and yet both have gone on to become commercial success. If that is not all, Sabrina, is on the full time faculty of screenwriting at NYU. So how does this talented writer come out with such diverse and interesting writing? Read on:

You seem to get into the psyche of the cities really well. Delhi in Monsoon Wedding, Mumbai in Kaminey and Gorakhpur in Ishqiya, how does someone sitting in New York accomplish that?
Well I grew up in Delhi , before it became the Delhi of today. Culturally, Delhi now is very removed from where rural India is, but growing up in that city  it was very much a part of my life. My mother came from Lucknow, so that was part of me. In Ishqiya the details of Gorakhpur were really not mine, that was more Abhishek and Vishal, I probably would not be able to write a modern small town now, as I could in a way, perhaps ten to fifteen years ago. So I do write what I really know. Delhi I know very well, New York I somewhat know. I’m sure it’s a matter of upbringing.

Vishal Bhardwaj and Mira Nair, two ends of a creative spectrum, how was it collaborating with these two, as a writer?
Other than the fact that they were both wonderful experiences, in practical person every person is different and has a distinct style. Also the nature of what I was doing was different. With Monsoon Wedding I had already written the script, as a first draft, before I showed it to Mira. She then became involved as directors generally are, and the script is developed. But she got involved at that post first draft point. With Vishal he already had a script, which sort of needed working and I came in at a point where there already was a first draft. All directors think and approach material differently. Mira thinks much more in visual director sense, what the setting will be, will this look good, how would you see it. Vishal started off actually telling stories, so he looks at it much more like, does the story make sense. For both music is very important, both are incredibly astute about casting, so some differences and some similarities in working with both.

You teach screenwriting at NYU, how does that help and harm your real world screenwriting ?
The way it helps is, as a writer a lot of your lives are very solitary, you sort of work on your own, unlike directors or producers wherein you just have to be in the midst of other people. Screenwriting you pretty much do on your own and then later on people get involved. When I teach it breaks the solitariness. It is also a little bit of part of being Desi. The loneliness gets to me a little bit, so although I teach two days a week, when I happen to go out on those two days, being around young writers who are not cynical. I mean you go into film, initially for no other reason other than you feel passionate about it. Cause it’s not the most stable or steady of life. After a while the routine sets in and you become cynical about this entire process. On the other hand, being with young writers who are so energetic, who are so committed to telling their story, there is a lot of purity in that which is very energizing and very inspiring. That I love about teaching.  It sort of feeds into my own sense of energy. For the most part it is more helpful than not, the way it is not helpful is managing my time. I almost have no time for anything.  So between writing deadlines, teaching, plus the administration and deadlines tend to happen at the same time and week, then of course I go insane J

Is there a director in you?
You know what, YES ! When I first decided that I wanted to be in the movie business , given that I did not come from that world, I always thought that’s what I would do…direct. I came to film school in Columbia to do precisely that. It just sort of happened that it became quite apparent that I had the ability to write. I hadn’t seen a screenplay before I came to film school. But I did well in my writing classes and then I wrote Monsoon Wedding and Mira saw it and from then that, sort of naturally became my career  and the work I got was in writing. My next step in my fantasy world is to go back and direct. I’ve worked on a lot of scripts that haven’t become movies, cause as a writer you often get paid to write a movie, but it doesn’t necessarily become a movie, due to other factors that are out of your control. Directors have told me that I write like a director, in that I write things as I see them happening and what I see people doing. So yes, absolutely, that’s why I started doing this. I mean I like writing a lot, but yes, I would also like to direct. I did do a short film when I was in film school, called Sanjh, that was also how I met Mira, it was a 20 minute short  and it won a whole lot of awards, like film festivals and got nominated for the student Academy awards.  Then Monsoon Wedding happened and that launched me more on the writing career.

Till now you have done an Indian story, an Indian American (Cosmopolitan ) story, now any desire to do a full on mainstream American story, given that you have spent considerable part of your life in the USA?
A few years ago, that would have been easy for me to answer and I would have said, “of course,” “absolutely.” “I’ve lived in America for 12 years and I don’t want to get pigeonholed as just an Indian writer, I want to do other things .” But what I’ve found as I have gotten older and now that I have been writing for almost a decade, is that, the truth of it is that no matter how much I would want to resist it, the stories that I am really excited about writing, deal with Indians whether that be the Diaspora, whether in an Inter cultural way, come from India. Those are the stories I want to write about. They are the people I instinctively understand. The advantage of writing for the mainstream America is definitely the financial gain aspect. I mean Indian American films like Cosmopolitan and Bolllywood Hero, are very small films, with lower budget and have smaller audiences. So it would be good if I did that and I would be writing much more for a North American audience, but it just seems to interest me less.

Kaminey, Ishqiya, both these are “new Bollywood.” Does new Bollywood offer your more opportunities than the traditional setting ?
Of course, absolutely, because you know when there are different kinds of films being made, you can write stories, the Mumbai term for that is “hat ke.” But I ‘m also very interested in mainstream Bollywood films, cause that’s what I grew up with. Manmohan Desai and Yash Chopra, that whole culture of cinema and it’s not like it’s easy to tell those stories or write in that form. It’s a combination of factors, one is that, there are these new kind of films being made, that makes it possible, then the Censor board has evolved in India, so you can write material without worrying about that part of conflict. The rise of the multiplex and the metro makes it financially possible to make those kind of films. You couldn’t really do that earlier. The parallel cinema movement of the 70’s was small, it made no money which is why it went away. Also because of the multiplex more movies are being made, which correlates to more opportunities. And then you also meet people with a similar sensibility.

Any interest in writing for Television in India?
No, I cannot stand Indian Television. American Television I’d be very interested in, it has become so interesting and they do such amazingly good work in it, but I can’t even bear to watch most Indian TV. Interestingly in India, the movies have gone more interesting and Television has really deteriorated. One time we had some interesting stuff like Hum Log and Buniyaad and Khandaan, there was really good Television and now it’s just crap serials.  In the US it’s gone the other way around and Television has become really smart and interesting.

Upcoming projects that you can talk about?
The big one is an adaptation of Monsoon Wedding, for Broadway. These producers are big producers in Mumbai , bought the rights for the movie, so that is what I am currently writing. It is hard cause I’ve never written for the stage before. Broadway musicals are also a more specific form of writing plays.  So that’s the big thing I’m working on right now. It is scheduled to potentially play in Broadway in 2012. Of course keep in mind it is hard to say for sure, since there are a number of writes and rehearsals and then get the space to put it on, cause things are booked for years in advance so 2012 is tentative at best.

Lets work in the reverse gear here. Now there is the film, MY NAME IS KHAN, there are the actors, the director, the song, etc. But before all this, it must have been the writer, who looked around and decided, away from all the fame and noise, perhaps in solitude or perhaps amongst people, that this story and these characters, had to be created and brought to the large screen. Here we probe that mind, which earlier gave us FANAA, KANK, etc and talk with the writer of MY NAME IS KHAN (MNIK), Shibani Bhatija. Having interacted, quizzed and probed her earlier, in SF and LA and NY, the one thing she doesn’t lack, is absolute conviction in her work. She is ready to face all questions, the true hallmark of a believer in their craft. Over to Shibani:

To you as a Writer, what is My Name Is Khan all about?
My Name is Khan is all about belief. Beginning with Karan’s belief in me where he, for the first time in his career, is directing a film someone else has written. Then, Karan and my belief in a love story, that encompasses not just romantic love, or filial love, but the greater love of humanity. The belief, of the entire cast and crew, in what was always going to be an out-of-comfort zone, and an immensely challenging film. And, last but not the least, the belief of the character Rizvan Khan that there are good people who do good to others and there are bad people who do bad and that is the only difference between human beings.

What made you take up this story, as the one that had to be told?
Every aspect of this story encompasses my own framework of beliefs. I believe that human beings can rise above the ordinary. I believe that love that has the power to literally move mountains and I believe that discrimination, for caste, creed, color, gender, religion or disability, is a scourge that we must actively work towards removing.

Your earlier collaboration with Karan, was not exactly a mushy story KANK but certainly a space that Dharma had been in, however, this time both of you collaborated on something “out of their box,” what was that experience like?
As clichéd as it might sound, the God’s honest truth is that the experience of working with Karan has always been wonderful. He has great respect for writing, is open, decisive, generous, demanding and approaches everything he does with passion and wit. But above all he never rests on his laurels and constantly strives to stretch himself. This is what has prompted him to take on something as demanding as My Name is Khan and I am so glad he chose me create the stage on which he can showcase his immense growth as a filmmaker. Not just that, he gave me complete freedom to tell Rizvan’s story from my heart and provided every support possible, including his own invaluable inputs, to make sure it was the best it could be.

Multiple geographies have been used in this story, some where you have spent a lot of time yourself, was that a conscious decision, to use locations in the Bay Area, etc,or was that more a product of the story flowing and deciding for itself, what location comes next?
Once the setting of the United States was settled upon. I was very keen to use San Francisco as a starting point. Yes, it is my favorite city and I have studied and lived there, but more so it was perfect for the quirky Rizvan and his quirky love story with Mandira. In San Francisco the love story of a man with Asperger’s and a single mom seems entirely natural. After that choice we moved into spaces the story demanded.

A lot of the “wronged Muslim and the good Muslim vs the bad Muslim,” films have come out in the recent past, how is this one going to differentiate itself?
Firstly, religion is not at the core of this film, humanity is and secondly, I would ask how many World War 2 films have come out in the recent past? How do they differentiate themselves? Different stories. Just because a character is of a religion or of a nationality it does not make his story the story of other characters and films before him.

What does the future hold in terms of project post MNIK?
I have worked on a couple of scripts for Viacom (Studio 18) that like Rizvan, are on a journey. The search for a director Both are very different from My Name is Khan.

Anything else about the whole MNIK experience that you would like to talk about?
I would request people that before heading to the theater please leave at home your notions about a Karan Johar film, about Shah Rukh Khan, about the Shah Rukh-Kajol pair and about supposedly similar themes in other films. Meet Rizvan and Mandira on screen with an open heart and allow Rizvan Khan to take you on the journey that is his life.