The Hindu Business Line : Film factory

Two movies, out of two factories, Darna Zaroori Hai — a Ram Gopal Varma production, and the Mukesh Bhatt-produced Gangster, show us the perils of assembly lines: even popular brands need new infusions to keep audience interest high.

Ramu's sequel to Darna Mana Hai follows the first movie's structure. Six segments, with separate stories, tied up together with a similar device. In the first, a bunch of city-slickers rap the night away swapping spooky stories in a jungle; Darna Zaroori Hai has kids in a haunted haveli, gathered around a scary old woman, waiting for the morning.

The sequel, though marginally better in the way it mixes humour and creepiness, suffers from unevenness. Despite the presence of some heavy-duty stars (Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Suniel Shetty), and a couple of sharp stories, the rest come off ho-hum.

Gangster, directed by Anurag Basu (he also did Murder for the Bhatts), ostensibly tells the story of Abu Salem and Monica Bedi, and stars Shiney Ahuja and debutant Kangana Raut, backed by Emraan Hashmi. This movie promises much, and delivers little. Ahuja is one of the more exciting actors currently in Bollywood, Kangana is very different from the perfectly coiffed baby dolls that are passed off as leading ladies, and the locations in South Korea, where the movie is largely shot, are fresh.

But there's not enough new in the film. Stories of ruthless killers with a soft corner for a woman... now where did we see that before? That one hit song (or songs) which adorns the movie (in Gangster, it is the plaintive Naa Jaane Koi): how many times will music alone sell your movie? The Bhatts, like Ramu, believe in making small-budget, no-big-star movies, but going by their past record, only movies with good screenplays have hit the jackpot. Holiday, Pooja Bhatt's rip-off of Dirty Dancing, which hit the theatres in February, was so lacklustre (even the dancing — the mainstay of the movie — was not great, despite Dino Morea's skills in that area) that audiences kept away from it from the first day itself.

Darna Zaroori Hai's opening has not been quite so disastrous, but it doesn't look as if it will be a hit. Indian viewers like their horror unadulterated (no humour or irony, please) and despite the presence of traditional chillers like the chudails, bhoots, eerie graveyards, and creaking doors, there is too much attempted black comedy in the movie. If Ramu is not careful, his brand may get diluted beyond redemption. People will still come for the movies he directs for his banner, and stay far from the films he farms out to his factory personnel. One of his recent productions, My Wife's Murder, directed by Jijy Phillips, had all the endemic weakness of a Factory quickie: it had the atmosphere and the actors, but the story did not hold. And James, starring a couple of newcomers, directed by Rohit Jugraj, was plain awful.

Ramu is now busy with remakes. He is re-doing James in the belief that he can right the wrongs of the first one. He is also, much to the vocal horror and dismay of many in the industry, remaking Sholay. Reams of newsprint have been expended on how he has fought the copyright clause, how calling it `his' Sholay is sheer arrogance, and much else. It's not the fictional Ramgarh of the 1970s, it's Mumbai in 2006, and Amitabh as Gabbar will be nothing like the whip-cracking dacoit immortalised by Amjad Khan, he says. But for generations of Sholay worshippers, just the thought of anyone meddling with their shrine, is plain sacrilege.

Ramu ploughs on, regardless. Despite his often-stated insouciance (some movies work, some don't), and his scorn for the soft-focus family romances from the Johar and Chopra camps, he needs a couple of hits desperately. Who knows, his Sholay may do the trick.

Filmi tid-bits

In the first four months of this year, 51 Hindi films were released, according to film weekly Screen. If you factor in the crossovers, and the dubbed ones (regional and Hollywood), the total goes up to 92. Of these, only two films have been outright hits — Rang De Basanti and Malaamal Weekly. Taxi No 9211, the Nana Patekar and John Abraham starrer, has also made money; Being Cyrus looks set to recover its Rs 3 crore investment; so does Aksar, with an even lower budget.

Here are a couple of interesting tid-bits. UTV, the producers of Rang De Basanti, which has made about Rs 40-50 crore, had to back off on its publicised claim of the movie having smashed all box-office records. Gadar, at Rs 65-70 crore, still reigns supreme, followed by Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, at Rs 60-65 crore.

And Aksar's performance is a great example, getting rarer by the day, of how music can boost a movie. The film, directed by Anant Mahadevan and starring Dino Morea, Emraan Hashmi and Udita Goswami, attracted those in their teen and 20s, essentially because of `serial kisser' Hashmi's raffish charm, and Udita's generous display of cleavage. The biggest attraction, though, was Himesh Reshammiya's score, which is still spilling out of auto-rickshaw squawk boxes, dives and discotheques.

A sequel is in the offing.