s-

Ali's Notes

Ek ajeeb si ladki, Vani
I promised you I would tell you more about a wonder girl called Vani Tripathi, one of those girls who has genuinely brought joy into my life, whose voice once heard in the morning helps me to take on all the struggles and upheavals of the day in my stride. I was surprised at my own feeble self one morning when I literally pushed out three strong and burly men who were molesting a young woman who was carrying a child in her arms and trying to grapple to find a place for herself, for her child. Believe me, I never had so much strength in all the years that I have been travelling in hell’s vehicles on wheels of death. Believe me, I would never have interfered in such every day matters which could take you home with a broken nose, a fractured rib or a most painful and bruised ego which could give me sleepless nights, force me to wonder if I was man enough and born strong enough to fight all those everyday hurdles. I am sure I became what I was at that moment because of the wonder girl and her injecting some strong and strange essence of life in me.

Now, before I go on and on and embarrass Vani (but you really don’t know what you have done to me, Vani) I must tell you about what Vani has done at just twenty-four (she told me her age without my asking and without batting an eyelid). Things me and many of my generations and many other generations would not be able to do in several lives.

My wonder girl has achieved what other great men and women only dream about and still fail and leave without telling us where they’re off to, heaven, hell, purgatory, limbo, where? I am forced to tell you about her achievements before you say this man has gone haywire, gone mad, fallen in love. Yes, I have fallen in love with goodness, with sincerity, with dedication, with absolute talent that comes once in a way. And where does one find so much and much more in just one born special wonder girl, Vani? Tell me, then I’ll tell you.

This may sound like Vani’s resume but I must tell you about some of the things Vani has done. Vani, astonishingly started acting at the age of three. She is a graduate in political science (she can tell you what’s happening to this country and where it is heading). She could have been an IAS officer. She was so bright, she could be a challenger, an achiever, a woman to lead in any field but she wanted to be an actress.

So, here I go with her wonders. Vani has been an actor and a teacher of acting in the National School of Drama’s Theatre in Education Company for more than three years (you taught when you were a child Vani?). She has an acting diploma from Living Theatre Academy of Drama under the unquestioned king of Indian theatre Ebrahim Alkazi, her guru. She acted in some of the most complex, difficult and delicate plays with Alkazi -- plays like Virasat 1 & 2 (Mahesh Eklunchwar), Three Sisters (Anton Chekhov), Royal Mount Of The Sun (Peter Shaffer), Etcetra (A great tragedy by Euripedes), Death Of A Salesman (Arthur Miller), Desire Under The Elms and Street Car Named Desire (Tennesse Williams). This list itself sends my head reeling but Vani doesn’t stop here. She goes on to do other plays like Water In A Bucket (Gripps Theatre, Berlin, directed by Wolfgonjer), Igloo Igloo, directed by Maya Rao, Kaun Hits (directed by BV Karanth, Devyani Ke Kehani Hai directed by Amal Allana and Laach Maathi, directed by Tripurari Sharma. Her list of teleplays gives me a stroke of vertigo which had left me twenty-five years ago (what are you doing to me, Vani?). Among the teleserials Raja Ka Baja (directed by Saeed Mirza), Sailaab (Ravi Rai), Mast Mast Hai Zindagi (Ashok Pandit), Gaatha (Raamesh Sippy), Deewar (Raman Kumar), Kabhie Kabhie (Mahesh Bhatt), Virudh (Ramesh Sippy), Geet Gaatha Chaal (Niranjan Thali) and Tere Mere Sapne (Ashok Pandit). Among her under production challenges are Aur Phir Ek Din (Vinta Nanda), Gridhari (Pankaj Parashar), Sparsh (Indranil Goswami), The New Times (Ashok Pandit) and Aitbaar (Indranil Goswami).

Vani is gradually getting into films too (with her talent, she can get into anything, anywhere, anytime). She did Tanuja Chandra’s Dushman. She was a marked woman and Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani produced by Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla and directed by Aziz Mirza whom she treats like a "father figure".

I have been looking at her resume, time and again, and I have been talking to her, sharing views with her and I still cannot understand her. She’s growing into a greater wonder girl. She gives you so many reasons to live, to laugh, to love, to make the best of life. And then you think of the quality and quantity of work she has put it. She is not an ordinary girl. Ordinary girls don’t affect you like this, so strongly. She’s the kind of woman who wants you to have many many young women like her. She has lived so many life times in such a short time. She has done work worth many lives and still gives you the feeling that she has just begun. Lucky am I, lucky are her parents, her teachers, her advisers, her teachers, her friends to know someone as precious as Vani. I feel privileged to know Vani, I swear I’m still not known the real Vani but I’m not going to try, I am willing to spend the rest of my tottering life to find out the real Vani.

I wanted to know many more things before I was announced next by the great beyond. Now I have only one priority I want to know Vani. No, I don’t. Not knowing Vani I feel is much more interesting than knowing Vani. Am I mad about Vani? If going mad about a sweet girl’s sheer talent and affection is madness then I plead guilty. I am mad and I’m proud of it.

JP crosses new borders
It's very difficult to sit in Mumbai and imagine what JP Dutta must be doing for months in the deserts of Bhuj (why does he have this strong fascination for deserts?) but whatever he is doing is very important for all those who are involved in what he is doing. He is shooting for his film, Refugee, a film to follow Border, a film that literally woke up the country to its own importance and the importance of the soldiers of the country who are ever willing to lay down their lives for their country, their motherland. Filmmakers of the likes of JP refuse to talk about their films while they are working on them but the expectations keep mounting because people know that a JP cannot go out of his way and make an insignificant or indifferent film. Refugee (I don’t know if the people in places like Bhuj and other interiors of the country know what the title means) is a major film because it is being made by a major director like JP, a young man who hates to take no for an answer.

JP knows no fear
And if all goes according to Dutta’s plans (and Dutta is a very ambitious man) his Refugee will be the first or atleast one of the first big films of the millennium in India, one of those films which will make a solid impact on the industry and more than the industry which is hungry for hits all the time, on some individual careers, the stars of the film. JP’s film will, perhaps, be the first release of Abhishek Bachchan, the only son of AB. JP says he has got the best out of Abhishek and calls him "one of the most promising stars of the next millennium, a young actor who has made a great start with a lot of hard work and sincerity, so much like his famous father. I never got an opportunity to work with Abhishek’s father but I have with AB Jr and I am making all out efforts to get nothing but the best from him. They’ll call me a fool if I don’t. When does one get an opportunity to direct a legendary father’s son who raises so many expectations? And Abhishek has certainly raised a sandstorm of expectations? Together we have worked to the best of our abilities knowing fully well what the world will say if we don’t come up with something worthwhile, even great". JP’s film is also significant for Jackie Shroff, Sunil Shetty, Tabu and every one down to the junior technicians. For when JP makes a film he makes more than a film, he launches a movement, he tries to make history, sometimes at risks even some of the greatest filmmakers can never dare take.

Let the sun shine
Then there is this other film which is not just a film but an event, a major happening, anxiously awaited by one and all, Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath Saath Hai. This is Sooraj’s third attempt after making two record-breaking hits, Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Koun. He has taken his own time in making his film like he did with his earlier films. He has not let anyone know what Hum Saath Saath Hain is all about. Even his artistes are generally in the dark about the "entire" film. All I know right now (and all those who care for Hindi cinema know) is that Sooraj’s film means the world to an industry which is generally staggering in the dark, staggering because of the mistakes made by some great men who raised great hopes and led the industry to D-day, something the industry just can’t afford at this crucial time.

And more than Sooraj who is being looked forward to as the young man who will bring in the light to dispel all darkness the film means so much, so much almost a jeene marne ka sawaal for all the artistes involved in the making of the film. The industry waits with bated breath to see the fate of stars like Salman Khan (who was given a new life by Sooraj in both Maine Pyar Kiya and HAHK), Tabu, Karisma Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Sonali Bendre and Mohnish Bahl above all. They’re all depending for dear life on this one film. They know (and they know very well) that it is now or never for them with this film. They have to succeed in Sooraj’s film. They just have to. There is no other way. They can’t afford to fail, they confess. Sooraj will have to become a part of their lives or they’ll have to learn to revel in darkness.

Cheetah, Chi Chi again
The icy hands of destiny can really play cruel games with us puny little human beings at times. Look how they have humbled and crumbled my strong as ever friend Cheetah Yajnesh Shetty, for example. Cheetah’s story from the time he started off as a waiter in Valley View Hotel in Mangalore and how he came to Mumbai and became a Cheetah, a martial arts instructor to some of the best of the stars, how he became a production controller with Time and how he rose to become a big producer himself with Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain is history now. It is what happened after he made the film within seven months with artistes like Govinda, Urmila Matondkar, Dimple Kapadia, Paresh Rawal, Himani Shivpuri and Johnny Lever and made on a very ambitious scale and released it and those icy dicey hands touched him, threatened him and almost throttled him. That hurts. The film was Govinda’s favourite film which is why he gave Cheetah all those bulk dates. It was an attempt to change the image of Chi Chi, make him acceptable to the entire family. There were no acrobatics in the name of dances, there were no fancy clothes that we normal human beings dare wear. There were no double meaning songs and dialogues. There was nothing of the normal "Govinda masala". It was supposed to follow the pattern Sooraj Barjatya’s films followed (Nabh Kumar Raju, the director of the film was Sooraj’s chief assistant once). And there were all the other big names to stand in support Cheetah and Chi Chi and the entire team was happy with the way the film had shaped up. Cheetah showed the film to other friends and admirers and all of them (even a man and a maker like Govind Nihalani) said it was a "nice film". The "nice film" should have, however, brought the crowd in. It didn’t. Surprisingly the people just didn’t enter the theatres. They rejected the film outright for reasons which are far too mysterious for us or even some of the best masters to fathom. Cheetah, Chi Chi and Chetan (the financier) have still to recover from the sheer shock. They will have to if they’ve to survive. Cheetah’s muscles of steel to face all kinds of hurdles and Govinda’s will to fight back and find his place and make it better will take them far. They’ll try again. Tough men never stop trying. They’ll keep trying till success smacks them on their lips with its best smile, its sweetest kiss. It may take time but these lovers of films are too tough to throw in the towel, to surrender. They’re already getting ready to face the next crucial round. The red light is about to be switched on.