Shahid's Next Five Movies!!!! - Kaminey 2 is ON!! - Page 6

Shahid Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj team up for Kaminey 2

Direct to the point
Ishqiya rocked; Dedh Ishqiya was not far behind. Young director of the two movies, Abhishek Chaubey, sure has talent. In Chandigarh, he is eagerly looking forward to his upcoming movie, Udhta Punjab...
Somya Abrol

The quirk of his characters isn't an ostentatious reflection of his demeanour, maybe that's why two-movie-old director Abhishek Chaubey intrigues more than he lets on. An earnest, rooted film-maker, the kind who travels with a bag full of fruits, is as much an illusion as Mr Chaubey a reality.

Glad to be revisiting his second film, Dedh Ishqiya, at the recently concluded Chandigarh Literature Festival, UP-born and brought up Abhishek is not one to let the razzle dazzle of the industry get the better of him. Accepting humbly that it's always great for a director's work to be reviewed at such festivals, Abhishek starts the interaction with his upcoming film, Udhta Punjab, largely based on drug abuse in the state. "It's all at a very nascent stage. I'm still working on the script and developing the story," rapt comes the disclaimer.

Giving us a general feel about the film, like only Abhishek can, he says, "It's a drama-thriller; for me, it's a big departure from the Ishqiya space. It's not a romance. Drug abuse is one of the parts of the film. Like Rajasthan and even parts of Jammu, Punjab also happens to be a gateway for drugs coming from the other side. So, it is something around that. But, overall, it's about the life of four people."

Rustic flavour

Having worked closely with director Vishal Bharadwaj for years " right from Makdee to Omkara to Kaminey " Abhishek's indulgent love affair with UP in Ishqiya and Dedh Ishqiya has one peg him as 'rustic', as they fashionably like to be referred to of late. It makes one wonder though, what made him look the Punjab way? "It was about time I moved away from UP. I wanted to discover other parts of the country. Also, I had a basic line of a story in mind. I discussed it with my co-writer, Sudeep Sharma, and we reached the conclusion that this would be the best setting for it, because the story blends itself perfectly well here. Though we're yet to do a thorough recce of the state, I've been to Amritsar for it once and the rest is yet to be decided."

Answering speculations about casting Emraan Hashmi and Shahid Kapoor in lead roles for the film, he adds, "Shahid is definitely in. Emraan we're still in talks with; nothing has been finalised yet. And we don't know about the female lead yet." In July 2014, rumours of supposed ex-lovers Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor being cast opposite each other for the film were rife. They were obviously shelved by the director soon enough.

Poetic note

And with the mention of women, comes poetry, plenty of which was gliding elegantly in his previous film. Mentioning that his favourite shayar remains Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Abhishek says using Gulzar's lyrics and Bashir Badr's poetry simultaneously in the film was a conscious decision that fell into place effortlessly. "Gulzar sahib wrote the songs of the film. Bhashir Badr sahib is one of the best poets of the 20th century. Vishal (Bhardwaj) introduced me to his work many, many years ago; I also had the pleasure of meeting him a few times. As time passed, his poetry became very close to us. We used to often discuss using his work for our films. So, this was an opportunity just waiting for us to finally give homage to him. In fact, Gulzar sahib is also a great admirer of his work and was quite happy about it being included in the film."

Woman power

A sequel, however, was not a part of the original plan for him. "Ishqiya happened because I had the character of Krishna (Vidya Balan) etched in my mind for years, long before direction came about. Krishna was a very interesting character " the widow of a criminal living in an old house in some recluse UP village. She was really on the fringes of society. She was powerless. Yet, she was one of the most powerful women one would come across. So, she was the inspiration behind the story. Then we came about two 'macho men' characters Babban and Khalu Jaan, and built the whole story around her." More power to women, then? "From the kind of city that I come, I've seen men pretending to be the boss of the house and women going about their business under veils. But, when the heads hit the pillows, it's the women who hold the structure of a family together; not the illusion patriarchs are led to believe otherwise."