The Hindu Business Line : The storyline less taken...

A day after his film Ai Mere Dil showed to a small but appreciative audience in New Delhi, Rajat Kapoor sounds dispirited. "Tell me," he says, as we sit outside the Siri Fort auditorium waiting for the crowds to melt into the muggy night, "who will watch this movie?" By that he means a paying audience, in a multiplex.

The film's first screening, at the Cinefan Osian film festival, was geared towards willing, enthusiastic viewers. Would the same numbers plonk their money at the ticket window to make the film a success?

Ai Mere Dil, or My Heart Goes Sha La La La (with English subtitles) is Saurabh Shukla's first feature, with Kapoor in the lead. It's about a 40-year-old fighting a losing battle with his hair, and his conscience. He will not lie, nor cheat, even if it means getting a fat salary at a corpulent TV producer's office, ripping off foreign serials. A chance encounter on the Net, with a pretty 20-year-old, sets him on a path of prevarication. She comes to think, with his active connivance, that he is her age, good-looking and rich. And then, reality bytes.

It's a lovely little story, done in a style that makes you want to believe there are filmmakers out there who can make movies, which can entertain and yet add something to your life. Kapoor's last film, Raghu Romeo, was one such movie that featured the wonderful actor Vijay Raaz as Raghu, proud resident of a Mumbai chawl who dares to dream — a new-age Walter Mitty type whose love and longing resonate strongly.

Raghu Romeo, says Kapoor, just buttresses his case. The film was made possible by a unique initiative. As producer, Kapoor placed a begging bowl on the Net, and money came in dribs and drabs, to supplement the cash raised from friends and other sources. A triumphant round of film festivals, and then started the whole painful process of getting the movie into theatres, with the end result that, yes, it did get released, but very few people ended up watching it. Reason: Several big distribution houses liked Raghu Romeo immensely, but when it was finally picked up by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, they released the film the same day as their own biggie, Lakshya.

"Who is going to choose a Vijay Raaz over Hrithik Roshan? Our industry has always been driven by the star system, and nothing has changed. In the last year-and-half, 50 new directors have made movies, what difference has been made," asks Kapoor. His comment says something about the state of the film industry as experienced by relative newcomers trying to break into the hegemony of the big production houses-big stars-big movies.

Despite the flow of funds, which are notionally available to the newbies, fund managers and angel investors are all oriented towards fattening their bottom lines. Shah Rukh Khan is gold, so they hanker after him, even if he doesn't have the dates till 2008 (that he only makes movies with Yash Chopra and Karan Johar is also well-known, but this makes no difference to the people who want him to sign on their dotted line).

But there are still people who want to make movies without him and the other saleable Khans and Bachchans, and who hope their movies will see the light of day, and come good at the box office. When I point out that perhaps his pessimism might come in the way of his getting into future projects, Kapoor says, with a smile, "Yeah sure, we can't abandon our babies, because we love them."

Clearly, the commitment that people like Kapoor and Shukla have towards telling stories with heft and heart, has to be the way to a future where films of all denominations, and persuasions will become the norm rather than the exception. Take Saher, for example, made by first-time director, Kabeer Kaushik. The son of a well-known journalist, Kaushik parlayed the stories he grew up with into a movie, set in the badlands of UP, featuring gangsters and cops. Saher is hard-hitting and real, makes very few concessions to popular taste, except for an over made-up leading lady. And it may not have made a lot of money, but has marked Kaushik as one of the growing band of directors who will continue to have the courage of conviction, to make the movie they want to, the way they want to.

Post the press screening, a day before Saher hit theatres, Kaushik sounds confident, even as he confesses that raising the money "was a nightmare". Finally, a client (like many of his brethren getting into movies these days, Kaushik has an advertising background) came to his rescue, and put up the money in partnership. "The next time around is always easier," he says. The same client is stumping up again, and Kaushik, who says he thinks in Hindi, which is why Saher has such a strong sense of place, and accents as opposed to the la-la land characters that run-of-the-mill Bollywood produces, is hard at work on his second movie. And this one, he says with pride, will have a couple of big stars. Again, a significant comment that points to changing times.

But thankfully, the time has come when superstars are being forced into switching gears and getting more real. Shah Rukh Khan has done Swades and Paheli, and Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherji have been major draws for Black and Paheli. Anil Kapoor, who has always done the odd offbeat role, will feature in Ram Gopal Varma's My Wife's Murder, and Saif Ali Khan is doing Being Cyrus.

This is the time to be optimistic, even if muted. Because change is in the air, driving discriminating viewers into the 'plexes, seeking alternatives, like never before.

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