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KAROBAAR
Money can’t buy you love

The long in the making project, with Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla in a triangular romantic tangle, is finally ready for release...

IF there’s one man who must be having sleepless nights lately, it must be Rakesh Roshan. Rakesh came up with the most unexpected, the most impossible hit with Kaho Na... Pyar Hai, the surprise packet of 2000. What’s more, his son Hrithik Roshan has grown into a phenomenon, a young legend, with his very first film, something that has seldom ever happened in the past.

Rakesh has been a popular, highly rated and successful filmmaker after pursuing a career as an actor for years. Failing to hit the big time as an actor, he took to filmmaking as a challenge.

Today, Rakesh is in a strage dilemma. His last film with Hrithik turned out to be one of the greatest hits of our time. It naturally means he has soared sky high and expectations from him in his next film will take some living up to.

His next film as director is however not his own production. He is only the director of Karobaar, the film which has been in the making for years for various reasons, financial more than others.

Director Rakesh Roshan: Rakesh is in a strage dilemma. His last film with Hrithik turned out to be one of the greatest hits of our time. It naturally means he has soared sky high and expectations from him in his next film will take some living up to

The film was launched by producer Gava (brother-in-law of Yash Chopra), amidst great pomp and splendour, but a lot has happened between then and now. Unfortunately for a film so big, with so many big names involved, could not live up to the promise, thereafter, and had been stalled ever since. But the team did not want all the effort and money to go waste. So they did what was best for it, joining hands, forgetting the heartaches of the past, and completing Karobaar after the long drawn out period of tension and turmoil. BS Dogra, a Kenya-based NRI kept the team going after its resurrection, and now, Karobaar which was almost given up as a lost cause, is ready for release.

With Rakesh Roshan at the helm of affairs, there is hope that the film will generate good business at the b-o. The film is a triangular love story with a twist that’s pertinent to the times we live in. The lead trio, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla have come up with great performances. "We have added some new twists to the story, with one of the heros playing a lover with a mercenary bent of mind. He believes

Producer Gava: The film was launched by producer Gava (brother-in-law of Yash Chopra), amidst great pomp and splendour, but a lot has happened between then and now

money can buy him everything, even some thing as precious as love," says director Rakesh Roshan, still glowing with the success of Kaho Na... Pyar Hai.

The story is like any other love story, says Rakesh. "How many different kinds of love stories can you have? The change comes in one character (Anil Kapoor) who believes in treating love as business. He believes he can buy Juhi Chawla a dress and get her to love him in return. He is shocked when he realises his belief is unfounded. Juhi turns down both his dress and his proffered love.

Anil repents. The jilted lover tries every tool in the trade to win her love but Juhi stays loyal to Rishi Kapoor, whom she loves till the end.
The film has some exciting songs written by Javed Akhtar and tunes by Rajesh Roshan (Rakesh the director it seems, cannot work without Rajesh’s music). Karobaar has been shot on exotic locations in South Africa, Sun City, Kenya and India.

Those in love will do well to pay heed to the moral in the story: all the Karobaar (wealth) in the world amounts to nothing without pyar. Love is a gift from God, which can neither be bought nor sold.

JORU KA GHULAM
Crorepati banega koun?
Shakeel Noorani’s Joru Ka Ghulam is the story of a business tycoon, Dhyaneshwar Pitamber (Kadar Khan) and his four daughters. He is desperate to get them married but they have their own conditions. The girls always play tricks on the proposals coming their way. The leader of the quartet, is obviously the youngest, Durga (Twinkle Khanna). Desperation running high, Pitamber even offers a dowry of Rs five crore to anyone who offers to marry each of his daughters.

Raja (Govinda) and Kanhaiya (Johnny Lever) are smalltime conmen operating at the airport. Mama (Ashok Saraf) is their godfather who gives them lessons in the art of stealing. Raju Patel (Ali Asgar), an NRI from America comes to India to get married to one of Dhyaneshwar’s daughters. Raja and Kanhaiya decamp with his belongings.

Dhyaneshwar mistakes Raja for Raju Patel and takes him home. Raja is appraised of Dhyaneshwar’s problems and he makes plans to marry Durga. Mama puts forward the proposal on Raja’s behalf, but Dhyaneshwar puts forward a new condition. According to the family astrologer, all daughters have to be married on the same day, or else they will never be happy. In order to siphon off Rs five crore, Raja and his associates hatch a gameplan. How Raja solves Dhaneshwar’s problem forms the crux of the story.

Ashish Vidyarthi plays a key role in the film, a don obsessed with the idea of becoming a villian in films. The film also has Razzak Khan, Sonu Sagar, Raman Preet, Rajashree, Rakhi Sawant, Bobby Vats, Moses and Ghanshyam. Joru Ka Ghulam is produced and directed by Shakeel Noorani and has story-screenplay by Ikram Akhtar, dialogue by Tanveer Khan, music by Aadesh Shrivastava, lyrics by Sameer, cinematography by Dinesh Telkar, editing by Sudhir Verma and action by Ravi Dewan.

Ali Peter John