REEMA
Honey With Money!
WELL, THE NAME of her next film is Kitni Haseen Hai Zindagi. It could also, of course, be Kitni Hi-Octane Hai Zindagi! But, it’s the news that comes with it that is keeping the biz inkers on their eroded toes. Reema says she is set to marry a banker the moment she is out of the blocks with her next venture!
I don’t know if Reema is telling the off-screen truth, or is it the on-screen stuff. But, in the past, whatever she has said, she has done, which makes one believe her. The only question is that these times are so fickle. Nobody can do anything about this. Remember Resham was set to tie the knot with designer, Bhatti. Eventually, it turned out to be just a false meow on the catwalk! Similarly, Nirma popularized her ‘French’ lover, and told us she could not live without him. But, very soon, she was off Chomp-chomp Elysees, and back at Lohari Gate, doing Sangeeta’s raunchy budget. Guess Shaheen didn’t like the Parisians too much. If not for the Rambo-Saheba, Arbaz-Khushbu, and Saud-Javeria marriages in the Nineties, nobody would have taken any such shadi claims seriously. Even Noor’s marriage to an Indian businessman, Vikram, did not last long enough to be quoted. So, you can’t blame the people if they look askance on such claims. At best, they regard such news as rumours, or waqti affairs.
Of course, bank executives have little time between transactions, to utter words like ‘Koi Tujh sa Kahan!’ Reema says if the current-accounter insists, she would leave showbiz, and do her own production in the kitchen. I am sure she’d cook tasty dishes, even if they are chilly-dominated!
But, Reema truly needs a banker. The recent Lollywood statistics testify to that. After the onset of 2000, not many have survived their second film. Samina Peerzada had the misfortune of losing out on her second film, Shararat, although her first one, Inteha did very well in the late Nineties. But, since it was in the Nineties, she is not included in this recent analysis. Javed Sheikh started out in 2000, with Yeh Dil Aap Ka Hua, which was a massive hit, but his second movie, Khulay Aasman Ke Neeche is floundering. Ajab Gul did brilliantly with his debut, Khoey Ho Tum Kahan, but botched it up with his number two, Kyun Tum Se Itna Pyar Hai. Reema had a good first film, Koi Tum Sa Kahan, but she has taken lots of time starting on her next one. Shoaib Mansoor, it is said, is about to start on his next venture very soon, this time with India. Let’s see how their second ventures do in 2009.
JAVED SHEIKH
What is Bugging Him?
IT’S USELESS talking about the cast including Saleem Sheikh and Sana being too wide for even the big screen, or the music having less jaan this time, from Amjad Bobby. All these things do not define the fault. In the case of Saleem, he has always been in Javed Sheikh’s films, and they have always done well. Just five years ago, cinegoers were singing along with Saleem and Momy in a male duet, in Yeh Dil Aap Ka Hua, while he was accepted very well in earlier films of Javed, including Chief Saab, and Kaheen Pyar Na Ho Jaey. As for Sana, she is a good enough artiste, and can hold her own in the starry firmament. She is supposed to be the only actress in the local cinema to have posed any bit of competition to Saima, which is in itself, a matter of credit. And for the musical score, Amjad Bobby posthumously proves that he was as great a music director as any one of them since the Seventies, just slightly behind Kamal Ahmed, but at par with Nazir Ali, Zulfiqar Ali, Wajid Ali Nashad and others. He has more hits in Javed Sheikh’s Khuley Aasman Ke Neeche than he had in Reema’s hit film, Koi Tujh Sa Kahan. So, all these issues are just not vital issues.
The vital issue is the treatment. If I am judging Javed rightly, then he seems to have lost that freshness that he used to have in his films, which made him such a novel entry into Lollywood as a director. Concepts like Mushkil, Chief Saab, Yes Boss, Kaheen Pyar Na Ho Jaey, and Yeh Dil Aap Ka Hua are no more with Javed. After joining Bollywood, he should have become sharper in his vision, but somehow, a negative impact seems to have hit him very hard. He has had a new life as a performer in Bollywood, because he had almost stopped acting in films early in 1998, and only played roles in his own productions. So his new beginning wasn’t bad at all, and he had good roles in Indian cinema. Yet he seems to have raised no new issue in his current film.
What could be bugging Javed? Is he unable to find a good scriptwriter? Or is he feeling jaded? Javed is one of the finest individuals in our industry, and I still remember his introduction in films, back in 1973, with Dhamaka. He was a very jolly person then. In fact, his second entry, this time with Shabab Kiranvi, in Kabhi Alwida Na Kehna, showed that he was as fun-loving as ever. His funny antics in films like Shadi Mere Shauhar Kee, Tere Ghar ke Saamne, etc. proved to be crowd-pullers. Today, in this decade, surely he knows that no pencil-drag script will suffice. You have to be focused on some issues. He did it so promisingly in his first movie, Mushkil, raising the issue of trafficked children. Yet now, he is only filling the corporate coffer with his shooting in many foreign countries, without any understanding of the conditions in the world.
WHERE’S GRAPEVINE?
The Word Has It That……..!
PRE-OCCUPIED MEN and women are just going through the motions, it seems. True emotions seem to have gone down the barrel of guns! Even then, the grapevine does exist, in one form or the other!
I mean, can you ignore the fact that Shahid Kapoor has turned his goggles away from Vidya Balan? And that, too, after feeling she is an eyeful in Kismat Konnection! But, that’s because he has grown a tennis elbow. Yes, it’s Sania Mirza, who is his latest girlfriend, and she insists that he averts his gaze from the VVVip Vidya. Warna… she says, it would be none-love on the grass court! Now, Kapoor boy, can you run away from the Kismat? E-go for it, buddy!
Film star Noor making fun of Meera’s yinglish on her talk show? That’s rather crude, specially because all of them suffer from Inglish-phobia. Why not talk in Minglish? That’s not only secure, but also convenient. If everybody is talking about Meera as a test-case in the Lollywood accent, then what about Nirma, who plunges deep in it like her neckline in her last few films? But why should one make it so obvious? After all, if one can communicate well in Urdu or Punjabi, then the channels do not switch off without the usage of English. Aside from the fact that Meera or Nirma or Veena go into raptures with such kind of mixed language, as, “I don’t know tusee mere darzi Gukki noon jande o ya naheen!” or “President Bush says onu sadi zaroorat ae,” I am sure nobody would mind their mixed language on the channels.
And then, where would Rani Mukherjee be without our own Mush. I mean, jab wardi thee, that was something else, but without the fancy dress, it would be Halloween, won’t it? She still has the car keys to prove how she admires him. I can think of ten movies she has done in recent times where she looks good, but as for acting, Bunty Aur Bubbly was the one where she really looked the part. I think Rani desperately needs a good movie after Mo’akhiza here, near Shahrah-e-Dastoor, to survive the onrush of the new girls in Bollywood. Otherwise, she could be in some sort of Enlightened Botheration! But, no worries, Rani. After all, even the term ‘impeachment’ has a peach in the middle!
