Friday Fever: First-time filmmakers battle it out this week

With Grand Masti continuing to lord it at the boxoffice it’s tough times ahead for the other releases that follow. Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Phata Poster Nikla Hero has already tasted the fruits of failure. Luckily the releases this week are not comedies. While Warning directed by debutant Gumeet Singh is an underwater thriller featuring an array of newcomers and semi-newcomers (Manjari Fadnis who is in the cast had a spell of smutty success two weeks earlier in Grand Masti) trying very hard to look frightened and out of breath, Maazii (which means the Past) is a thriller which seems to have a tight control over its genre’s requirements. In the words of the debutant producer-director Jaideep Chopra, “It is the story of a happily-married couple whose idyllic world is almost shattered. The crux of the story is the hero’s attempts to keep the family together.” Chopra’s film relies almost completely on the fresh lead pair Sumit Nijhwan and Mona Vasu (she’s done extensive television) and a very strong supporting cast. Like Ajay Behl’s B A Pass some weeks ago Maazii could be the dark horse at the boxoffice, sandwiched as it is between the two kitschy biggies Grand Masti and the forthcoming Besharam which takes over theatres from next Wednesday October 2. Speaking of dark horses it can’t get any darker than debutant director Ashish R Shukla’s Prague. The intriguing film is about a Bengali architect named Chandan in, you guessed it, Prague who has an affair with an exotic foreigner (played by Elena Kazan recently seen in the thriller John Day) . Prague has gone through its train of controversies. The film contains many bold audacious sequences of intense passion and unbearable self-annihilation that are normally not seen in Hindi cinema. And Chandan Roy Sanyal is always an actor offering interesting insights into the darker regions of the human heart. Finally there is another debutant director Navin Batra’s Supermodel with Pakistan’s Veena Malik trying to grab attention. Considering her abysmal track-record at the boxoffice so far Ms Malik’s latest tryst with the camera doesn’t look like the kind of vehicle that would negotiate the U-turn seriously. But one never knows. This, then, is a serious week at the movies. None of the three films this week’s takes life lightly. So for those looking for the Grand Masti and Besharam kind of kitschy entertainment this is not the week for you. However for audiences that like to see the dark side of life on screen there’s plenty to be curious about.