Desi Train

You are interviewing candidates. Resumes flow in and out. Guys stumble in your office and a few minutes later are sent flying out. And then you see a resume wherein the candidate’s Bollywood movie achievements are mentioned as: Kachche Dhaage (1999), Chori Chori (2003) and Deewar (2004). What do you do?

Well…if you are Mr. Ramesh Sippy, you pour money into Luthria’s new movie project $-) Now why would “anyone” do that? Kachche Dhaage at best was a barely bearable movie, that is if you could escape the indigestion caused by the truckloads of chane-chole you had trying to stick it through the end. One may argue the movie had a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slight uniqueness interms of the story. Step brothers. Have to get together. Can’t stand each other, but stick together due to reasons conjured up by the script writer. The execution of the script was another story. Plain vanilla. Nothing new or a grab you by the collar style.

Chori Chori, as far as this movie goes, it’s created a record for me. I’ve watched Chori Chori about 5 dozen times. 5 - 10 minutes each time. Yes. That’s the most I can bear sitting through this one.

Deewar. I had two questions. One. What made the ever so selective Akshaye Khanna, select this movie. Two. What made Amitabh do this one? Again. One can visualize Luthria all excited reciting the plot line to Khanna and Bachchan, it was gonna be one of those “Escape to Victory” and many other Hollywood movies on Word War II prisoners escaping from the German net. Sounds exciting ofcourse. Now execute it into a movie. Luthria style. You get a Deewar. You end the movie, and start building a deewar between you and anything which resembles by the name of Milan Luthria.

On the other hand there is something in Luthria which establishes faith in his capabilities right from Amitabh Bachchan to Nana Patekar to Ramesh Sippy. What is it? I have no idea. Perhaps watching Taxi Number 9211 will help uncover the talent that Luthria posseses, a talent that the greats in Bollywood seem to see.

The point to stress is you can’t change the execution styles in a person. Well, “can’t” is a strong word. You can, but its rare. If Taxi 9211 succeeds, it will be cause Luthria went in for a completely different style for implementing the script - onscreen. The Kachche Dhaage to Deewar style of screenplay adaptation is not gonna work. The other reason why Taxi 9211 succeeds would be because of its screenplay. Written by Manoj Tyagi, whose work includes from fine to bearable Satta, Page 3, Apaharan. His worst of the lot include screenplays for Agnipankh, Aan, Ek Ajnabee.

Will Taxi 9211 finally do it for Luthria? Only Friday can tell. I read Luthria’s interview at Rediff this morning, must say that I was impressed by his forthrightness. He looks like a guy who’ll call a spade a spade.

On what Taxi 9211 is all about…

We were keen on doing a high concept film, as we were going in without a huge star cast. We wanted to start with something that would break the clutter. I was keen on doing a film against the clock, and on the streets. So I picked up a story spread across 24 hours in the lives of two strangers. We also wanted to work with contrasts, so we took two opposites in the film industry – John Abraham and Nana Patekar.

Alright before we jump to our Foren libraries to find what movie is Taxi copied from, lets give this guy a chance. Ofcourse Taxi may look like 2 - 3 odd Hollywood movies we may have watched in the recent and not so recent past.

And it is always a pleasure to read about “anyone’s” interaction with the great Nana Patekar. Luthria seems quite open (that’s one thing why I am beginning to like this guy) to tell us about his friction with Nana on the sets of Taxi 9211…

Initially, it was tough. I didn’t know what to expect. People had told me so many stories about him. We did have a little bit of friction in the beginning but, gradually, the ice broke. Once, we did disagree about a creative matter. We had a bit of a showdown, but work continued and we left for the day. When I got home about 12:30 pm, Nana called and said, “Come and have dinner with me!” That’s his style. I met him the next day and we had some nice moments together.

And wouldn’t any guy who still gets wood, love to be in John Abraham’s shoes? This is what Luthria has to say about John…

With John, the biggest problem is the women. There were some 5000 women following him during the shoot.

I liked his work right from his first film. I think he has a lot of depth as an actor – a great combination of a great body and a vulnerable face. Everything about him is endearing. You cannot not like him. He has a very attractive personality. He may not be the biggest star in the country today, but he is on his way there. I found him unconventional enough to stand out, his hairstyle or the clothes he wears, his bike or the kind of person he is. Without any backing in the film industry, this young model has come a long way and ensured that people here take models seriously. He is very patient, calm and jovial.

And then he lets you down.

My family and friends, who have been my harshest critics, are thrilled with the outcome. For me too, the final product was a surprise. I wasn’t expecting what I got. It opens up in a way, which is unexpected, and surprises you with its humour, its story, and music. It’s a fast paced two-hour film, with something happening every two minutes. It will be the surprise package of the year.

Imagine this: You are hungry…a bit. Lets make Masala Pappad. You go to the kitchen, pull out all the ingredients and start making your masala pappad. Now before you start eating, you find your Masala Pappad accidently ended up becoming a Paratha. Wow Great! I wanted a pappad and I have a paratha!…Luthria’s paratha comes out in the statment that he was “surprised” by the finished product. Rumors are that the Honorable Railway Minister of India, Shri Laloo Prasad Yadav has invited Luthria to take charge of building the fastest Plane. It’s a risk I say. A pappad becoming a paratha is one thing, but if you are expecting Luthria to work the magic in a project which is named “Building the Fastest Train” and expecting him to come out with the Fastest Plane…that in my humble opinion is stretching things a bit too far :>

But as the old ozzie saying goes - oz wants all movies to succeed - technically, artistically and above all financially. So here’s wishing Taxi Number 9211 all the best :)>-

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 16th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
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