Farah Khan's Choreography Chinese

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Posted: 19 years ago

'Perhaps Love': Farah Khan's Choreography the Star of Chinese Musical

By LISA TSERING
India-West Staff Reporter

SAN FRANCISCO - Two of the world's greatest film traditions collide with fabulously colorful results in an inventive and romantic new film, Perhaps Love, a Chinese production featuring the Bollywood choreography of Farah Khan.

This beautifully mounted Mandarin-language film, which mixes the glorious excesses of Moulin Rouge with the over-the-top sentimentality of Devdas or Veer-Zaara, has been chosen to open the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival April 20.

Director Peter Ho-Sun Chan knew he wanted a lavish musical feel to the film, Khan explained from Mumbai April 3. "He liked the energy of Bollywood," she told India-West.

After flying to Mumbai to meet several leading choreographers, Chan met Khan and watched her directorial debut, Main Hoon Na. "He liked the madness in the dances in that film," she recalled. "He met me and that was it!"

The film's story is a love triangle that takes place behind the scenes of a movie being shot in modern-day Shanghai. A beautiful young actress, Sun Na (Zhou Xun), and her toothsome costar Lin Jian Dong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) struggle to reconcile a decade-long romance while playing lovers onscreen, but director Nie Wen (Jackie Cheung), who made Sun a star, is in love with her as well.

An all-knowing muse, Montage, played by Korean heartthrob Ji Jin-Hee, rounds out the cast and speaks to the camera, guiding the audience and characters as a "beacon for lost souls, drowning in the bitter sea of love."

Composers Peter Kam and Leon Ko wrote 11 gorgeous songs for the film, which (unlike in the Indian system) are sung by the film's stars, all of whom are accomplished singers.

The film sports an all-star multiethnic Asian cast - Zhou, Cheung and Ji are major stars in mainland China, Hong Kong and Korea respectively, while Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers) is big in Japan and China.

Working on the location shoot for three weeks in Shanghai, Khan trained the Chinese dancers in Bollywood moves, and also brought along eight dancers from India - both to give the film a more international look, and to give her something to fall back on in case the Chinese dancers didn't work out. "We weren't sure if the Chinese dancers could do the kind of dance I wanted," she said. "They're not a musical film culture."

According to Chinese news reports, Perhaps Love is the first Chinese love film in 35 years to express its story through song and dance. It was Hong Kong's submission for this year's foreign language Oscar, but was not nominated.

The film weaves an intoxicating blend of beautiful bodies and exciting music, beautifully shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

Working on a Chinese film was a completely unique experience, said Khan, who was nominated for a Tony Award for her work on Broadway's "Bombay Dreams."

For starters, they work fast. "It took a lot of getting used to," she said. "We'd get one night, two nights, to finish a song. The prostitutes' song [pictured on page C-1] had to be shot in one night! In India, we usually get five or six days to shoot a song."

Another difference was in the music. "It's in another language, but also the music is different - they were using five-beat and seven-beat rhythms, not like we're used to."

But she relished the novelty, said Khan. "You know the culture of your own Indian films - we're so used to doing the same thing, with the same songs, same studios, same people. Here, I was a bit more conscious of doing everything right, and showing that we had discipline. I had a fab time."

Perhaps Love is a lavishly costumed, musical love triangle that is extraordinarily and extravagantly romantic - almost to excess, according to this writer. Khan laughed to hear that. "Coming from Bollywood, I thought it was subtle!" she told India-West.

Perhaps Love will screen April 20 at 7 p.m. the Castro Theatre at 429 Castro St. in San Francisco as the opening night film of the San Francisco International Film Festival. The screening will be followed by a gala reception at the Regency Center at 1290 Sutter St. For more information, visit www.sffs.org or call (925) 866-9559.

:by indiawest