Naseeruddin Shah: Could not comprehend Gaja Gamini

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Naseeruddin Shah, who was part of late legendary artist M F Husain's film Gaja Gamini, says he could not comprehend the film and felt bewildered while doing it.

"I wouldn't recommend it (to watch it). Husain sir came to my house to ask if I would do it. How could I say no? I thought whatever he makes, it will be something worth participating in. But I was wrong. It was no fun,' Naseeruddin said recently.

Gaja Gamini (2000) was Husain's ode to womanhood and to his muse of the time Madhuri Dixit, who played the lead. Also starring Shah Rukh Khan, Shah and Shabana Azmi, the film was a box office disaster.

"I could not comprehend or frame that film. The only conclusion came to me was he (M F Husain) has such a fertile mind... There were zillions of images he wanted to create. The frames are likes paintings. I don't think cinema is all about painting, it is not all about composition," the actor said.

Naseeruddin said when he asked Madhuri, who inspired Husain to come out with the film, to explain Gaja Gamini to him, she just giggled.

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Director Ashim Ahluwalia, whose film Miss Lovely has been granted 'A' certificate by the Censor Board, insists it is not a C-grade film.

The film follows two brothers Vicky and Sonu Duggal, played by Anil George and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, struggling to produce illegal sex-horror films in the mid-1980s. It explores the intense and mutually destructive relationship between the Duggal brothers and a struggling actress Pinky, played by Niharika Singh, a former Miss India contestant.

"It took me one year or so to get this passed without more cuts. We went through lot of review (meetings). It started with 157 cuts. I said we can't show the film, it kills it. I argued again, then foul language was a problem. So with every review, the cuts kept reducing. Finally, we were down with three-four major cuts.

"It is not a family entertainer film, it is a film about gritty Bombay... gritty Bollywood," Ashim said.

"This is not the kind of space that we usually depict in our films but I am happy that they passed it. I am happy that the censor board didn't ban it and, instead, eventually opted to grant it very few cuts," he said.

Miss Lovely won the Best Film Award at the 14th Mumbai International Film Festival, Best Feature Film Award at the 11th Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was the official selection of Un Certain Regard in Cannes Film Festival.

"When I approached people (actors) with this script they felt it was a C-grade film. I had approached a lot of actresses for this film. I needed actors who understood this kind of film, script and space. It was not a C-grade film and not a traditional Bollywood film but something different. When I approached Niharika and she said yes, I kept asking her are you okay with the subject matter, do your parents know about it," Ashim said.

Nawazuddin, who has given acclaimed performances in films like Kahaani, Talaash and Gangs of Wasseypur, is excited about the film. "It is a good film and there are quite a few people who have liked the film and appreciated it," he said.

Filmmaker Bedabrata Pain, a former award-winning NASA scientist, whose first film Chittagong won the National Award as a debutant director, believes Hindi films are suffering from a dearth of talent and new ideas.

He said that the standard of Hindi films is poor as compared to US or Iranian movies and felt that "a simple film with a good script can earn us international accolades".

He pointed out that filmmaking required dedication and honesty and it should come from the heart.

One of the inventors of CMOS digital image censor technology which brought about the digital camera revolution, Pain said the public relation people in the Hindi film industry were responsible for not correctly selling films based on simple and good ideas to the audience.

Ranveer Singh is likely to do a film for Oh My God fame director Umesh Shukla.

"There are few ideas that I have which I have discussed with Ranveer. He suits the subject I have perfectly, hence I want him. He has liked the script too," Umesh said.

Umesh was unwilling to share any other details about the project.

"If all goes well, the film will happen by next year," he said.

The director has two other projects in hand at the moment.

In his film 102 Not Out, Amitabh Bachchan plays a 102-year-old man and Paresh Rawal plays his 75-year-old son.

102 Not Out is based on a Gujarati play by the same name which has completed 300 shows and is still running.

His another film is All The Best, which he is currently shooting, is a comedy starring Rishi Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan.