Article : Care to Compare? Wel, TZP, Saaw

Care to Compare?

— SUBHASH K JHA

I don't want to make Saawariya. I want to make Welcome," director Anees Bazmee called to inform me.And I wondered why he needed to volunteer this vital information? Who said Anees Bazmee could make Saawariya? And where's any common ground for comparison between the two? Anees bhai was miffed because of my critical review of Welcome and a glowing review of Saawariya."Do you want us to make films like Saawariya? Then what will happen to the industry? How many homes and kitchens run when one Welcome does well?" Anees then rattled off some very impressive statistics supporting his thesis that if lewd laughter sells, then who are a handful of naysayers to stop the revelry? Welcome is indeed one of the biggest successes of 2007. No one can dispute its commercial viability. But if throughout 2007 audiences preferred brain-dead comedies, are we supposed to deliver more of the same?
Then where would the truly adventurous films like Saawariya and Taare Zameen Par (TZP) be? The double success on the penultimate Friday of 2007 has filled the industry with immense hope.And what a double whammy! At one end, there's Anees bringing us laughter as the best medicine. On the other, we have the formidable Mr Khan making his unexpected directorial debut.
Why unexpected? You may well ask. That's because a certain Amole Gupte was supposed to direct the film until producer Aamir felt Amole was messing up the theme. This isn't the first time that a producer has taken over the reins of a supposedly waylaid film.Years ago, when Sibte Hassan Rizvi's Joshila with Anil Kapoor, Sunny Deol, Sridevi and Meenakshi Sheshadri was abandoned by director Shekhar Kapur, producer Sibte somehow completed it.
And how about Dilip Kumar directing the desi 'Wuthering Heights' Dil Diya Dard Liya while the de jure director Kardar sat outside the sets, twiddling his thumbs. I don't know what kind of a film Amole would have made. But we all can see what Aamir has done. The overwhelming emotional transparency of the film gets you by the solar plexus.
And really, let's grow up and stop comparing films unnecessarily for headlines' sake. A few months ago, Saawariya was pitched against Om Shanti Om.It was like comparing oranges with apples. Now, TZP was unnecessarily compared with Sanjay's Black just because they both dealt with the lives of a troubled child and a saviour–teacher.
But the two films were antithetical in sur, mood, rhythm and performance quality. Enough has been said about the others. But I'd like to say that the troubled child's mother in both the films was played by neglected but truly brilliant actresses—Shernaz Patel in Black and Tisca Chopra in TZP. And the star of the week is clearly Tisca. But I am still confused about why Anees Bazmi brought up Saawariya in the same breath as Welcome. Was he trying to tell me something? Damn. I need to watch his film again.