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Om Puri, Naseer, Tabu to act together
Vishal Bhardwaj has big plans for Maqbool, his adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth
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Subhash K Jha
Vishal Bhardwaj is happy about his first feature film Makdee.
Says Vishal, "For a children's film Makdee has surpassed all my expectations. The distributor in Mumbai recovered his investments on the first three days and the film will recover its cost in the first week. I think the film got so much attention because we didn't build up Makdee as a children’s film.
"This is the first children's film to be enjoyed both by grownups and kids. I think audiences liked the story and narration. Most important they have liked the girl Shweta Prasad who plays the protagonist. I discovered her when I was auditioning for another film Barf, which I wanted to make with Manoj Bajpai and Sushmita Sen. I had Shweta in mind for the protagonist's role in Makdee right from the start. I have had so many people asking me whether the twin sisters were played by two different actresses."
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Vishal is now all set to launch his second film as director. "It is called Maqbool, which I finished writing even before I completed Makdee. It is my take on William Shakespeare's Macbeth. I read the Shakespearen play when I was returning from Dehra Doon to Mumbai with my foster son Alaap Mazgaonkar (the boy who plays the endearing character Mughal-e-Azam in Makdee) . That is when I decided that Macbeth can be adapted to an Indian milieu. My mentor Gulzar had also adapted his comedy Angoor very successfully from Shakespeare’s A Comedy Of Errors.
"Maqbool will be a very humane story."
The most interesting feature of Bhardwaj's Shakespearean adaptation is the casting. He brings together two of India's most formidable actors, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, yet again. The two were seen together in Govind Nihlani's Ardh Satya, Shyam Benegal’s Mandi and more recently in Rajkumar Santoshi China Gate.
"But wait till you hear what they play. I have cast Naseer (whom I play cricket with in real life) and Om as male witches. Though if you know the play, you would know the witches here aren't evil presences." laughs Vishal. "First Makdee and now Maqbool, it seems witches are destined to be part of my life."
Bhardwaj has cast Kay Kay (seen in Hansal Mehta's Chhal and Anurag Kashyap's Paanch) as Macbeth and Tabu in the pivotal role of Lady Macbeth. "Maqbool will be a much bigger film than Makdee. And I am going to produce it on my own," reveals Vishal. "After Makdee, I have the confidence to do so."
From February 10, Naseeruddin Shah, who is currently in London, will hold an acting workshop for the entire cast of Maqbool. "I hope to start the film, to be shot in Mumbai and the coastal town of Diu in February and complete it by May."