Ishaqzaade

Sometimes I’m surprised by my own testes. I’m not a Friday first day first show person about Hindi movies anymore. I was at one point of time. Not now, when every other Hindi film looks and feels like the previous one. Hence, I was surprised when I thought I would like to see the new Karishma Kapoor comeback vehicle, ‘Dangerous Ishq’ in theatre when it releases, not necessarily in 3D though. Recently, I had a few days to watch TV and I found the promos very exciting, especially Karishma in traditional Rajasthani attire. She looks like a million bucks and reminded me of her ‘Zubeidaa’ days. (Observe the way she runs up and flings herself on her lover. Who’s that guy anyway?) The promos reminded me of her ‘No 1’ days when she starred in all those comedy films with Govinda and Salman Khan. They were such nonsense fun. (Remember the song ‘Mein toh raste se ja raha tha...’)

I did not know I was a closet Karishma Kapoor fan! I hope it’s not a very bad thing.

However, the one Hindi film I am eagerly waiting for is ‘Ishaqzaade’. The promos look promising and you expect this Yash Raj production to strike gold. Is this going to be the blockbuster debut movie of the year, in the tradition of ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye, ‘Quayamat Se Quayamat Tak’ and the recent, ‘Kaho Na... Pyar Hai’, or ‘Na Tum Jano…’?

Perhaps. The film looks like an epic love story, with newcomer actors, in a tradition perhaps popularised by Raj Kapoor’s ‘Bobby’, where star-crossed lovers meet amidst blistering violence, a Romeo and Juliet version (or to give an Indian example, Heer-Ranjha). The film has, in so far I have seen, in Arjun Kapoor’s breaded half-mad persona and Parineeti Chopra’s spunky middle class girl cockiness, that feel of a classic love story, where the lovers meet, fight and then become inseparable, till death do them apart, one of those rare gems the entire nation fall in love with. The last such film, according to my opinion, was ‘Kaho Na Pyar Hai’, Hrithik Roshan’s record-breaking debut.

These days films make more money, gets talked about, but rarely do we have a film that fires the public imagination as if it was the last thing in the world. I remember when ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ was released. For the next six months, there was nothing except this film. You would heard the soundtrack everywhere you go. Boys would sport the ‘Friend’ cap and the leather jacket, the girls would pester their tailors for that dress Bhagyashree wore in the ‘kabootar ja’ song. (I remember the first time I saw ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, I saw it for the entire day. We had rented a video player. Once the film was over, we’d rewind the cassette and watch the film all over again. There was never a dull moment. No wonder, it is still my favourite film). And, do I need to mention ‘DDLJ’?

Those days of innocence are long gone. Even the highest grossing Hindi film, ‘3 Idiots’ which made all the right noises, could not achieve such mass popularity all over the nation. Six months later, it was already forgotten.

Will ‘Ishaqzaade’ be able to recreate the magic? I don’t know. I don’t much care about the Kapoor boy, Sridevi’s stepson, among his other antecedents. He reminds me of young Abhishek Bachchan. Is it a good thing? I don’t know. But this Chopra girl is something else. She received the best debut award for her role in last year’s ‘Ladies vs Ricky Behl’; she has a spark and self confident that reminds me of young Juhi Chawla. It’s a good thing.

But, there’s one thing I can predict. The film will start a fashion trend — uniform clothes for lovers. Look at the costumes the lovers don. They are cut from the same cloth, the boy’s shirt and the girl’s kurta, they have the same stripes. You can imagine the depth of their love when they decided to wear the same sleeves instead of wearing their love on their sleeves. Whoever came up with the idea was a stroke of brilliance.