Filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra dies of cardiac arrest

Mumbai, Sep 4 Hollywood-based Indian filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra, who made films like 'Bawandar' and 'Provoked', died of cardiac arrest Sunday, a doctor said. He was 62.

His last rites were performed at the Shivaji Park crematorium here Sunday evening.

Apart from family and friends, Bollywood actresses Deepa Sahi, Deepti Naval and Udita Goswami were present at the rituals.

Mundhra is survived by his wife and a daughter, who lives in Los Angeles.

'He was admitted Friday night for internal bleeding. Then he had a cardiac arrest and he was kept on ventilation, but he couldn't survive. He expired at 12.57 p.m. today (Sunday),' a doctor at the Bombay Hospital in Marine Lines told IANS.

Actress Neetu Chandra, who was seen in his 2010 thriller 'Apartment: Rent at Your Own Risk', said that body was to be taken back to his residence (in Shivaji Park, Dadar West) at 3 p.m. for some time and then to the cremation ground.

Seem Biswas, who was about to start shooting for Mundhra's 'Kissa Kuttey Ka', told IANS: 'I Just got the news of his demise and I am in a state of shock. I spoke to him day before yesterday and he seemed perfectly fine. I could not tell from his voice that there was anything wrong with him. In fact, he was so excited about the film as we were about to start shooting at the end of September.

'It's is very shocking and I'm very upset. I just know that there was some internal bleeding because of which he was hospitalised.'

Veteran actress and activist Shabana Azmi tweeted: 'Sad news. Filmaker Jagmohan Mundhra passed away this morning. Heartfelt condolences to his family. Jagmohan Mundhara - he was one the most subjective director. His 'Shoot On Sight' is a film which is identical to 'A Wednesday'.'

Others also posted condolence messages on Twitter.

Pooja Bedi: 'Deeply saddened to hear Jagmohan Mundhra passed away! A WONDERFUL man, my first director & the one responsible for me being in show business,' she posted on her Twitter page.

Vikram Bhatt: 'Just heard that filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra has passed away! A prayer for the departed and strength to his family, Vikram Bhatt.'

Kabir Bedi: 'Jagmohan Mundra, friend from my Hollywood years, passes away and I'm deeply sad. Last met at Shammi Kapoor's funeral. RIP.'

Born in 1948 in a conservative Marwadi family, Mundhra studied engineering at IIT Mumbai and then moved to US to do his M.Sc. But his ultimate calling was moviemaking and in 1982 he ventured into filmmaking with Sanjeev Kumar and Shabana Azmi starrer 'Suraag' and this was followed by the women-centric film 'Kamla' with Shabana and Deepti Naval in lead roles.

Later he made films like 'Night Eyes', 'The Jigsaw Murders', 'Eyewitness to Murder', 'Open House' and 'Halloween Night'.

In 2000, Mundhra moved to issue-based movies and the first in the series was Nandita Das starrer and critically acclaimed 'Bawander', which was based on real story of rape victim Bhanwari Devi in Rajasthan.

In 2007, he teamed up with Aishwarya Rai to bring on screen the trials and tribulations of London-based Punjabi woman Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a victim of domestic violence in 'Provoked'.

In 2007, Mundhra took up yet another sensitive subject for his movie 'Shoot On Sight', which talked about the West's perception of Muslims following 9/11. The movie's take-off point is the order London police passed to shoot suspected terrorists after the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings.

However, Mundhra moved to a lighter subject with Govinda starrer 'Naughty @ 40'.

He was very keen to make a film on Congress president Sonia Gandhi.