Flashy sets, colorful props, a few hot-shot directors sitting on the delicately decorated couch. yes, it is the season finale of COFFEE WITH KARAN. a few excerpts from the show.....**KARAN JOHAR : good evening, ladies and gents. here we are, for the season finale of COFFEE WITH KARAN and the subject for the evening is "does the pattern of hindi cinema need any changes ?"the guests for tonite are my favourite director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the adorable Farah Khan, the RDB MAGIC-man Rakeysh Mehra, and my fiercest critic but a respectable film maker.
Ram Gopal Varma.starting with you Sanjay, do you think the standards of our films need any modification ?Bhansali : you see, you have to challenge yourself with every film. I started off with a daring subject as KHAMOSHI, but then all of my films have been drastically diverse from each other. so, creativity has to be there.Johar : coming to you rakeysh, how do you explain the mammoth success of RDB ?MEHRA : well, I knew it would be successful but the kind of response it has actually received has blown me away.i think thats because RDB managed to maintain a fine balance between reality and entertainment.FARAH : yes, rakeysh. RDB was so damn entertaining.
It deserved all the praise it got. after all, hindi films are meant to entertain, aren’t they ?BHANSALI : of coarse they are. but don’t you think cinema should also convey messages than to merely entertain ?VARMA [ disrupting deliberately ] : absolutely. and by the way, rakeysh, don’t you think that the climax of RDB was quite illogical ?[ a killing silence ensues. only to be broken by KARAN ]Johar : coming back to the topic, is it really possible to treat cinema just as an art ? can we over look the commercial aspect of hindi cinema while making films ?VARMA : no, we don’t need to. If one has got the skills, he can blend commerce and art adeptly.
I don’t think SATYA, COMPANY, BHOOT, or SARKAR missed logic anywhere. but they still raked in moolahs.FARAH [ chipping in good-humouredly ] : and what do you have to say about NAACH, SHIVA and NISHABD ?VARMA [ with his typical dead-pan expression ] : they were just a few mistakes, but I won’t call them as failures.and I will maintain that NISHABD is a great piece of cinema.BHANSALI : hey, I like NAACH.MEHRA : me too.VARMA [ looking at FARAH ] : thanx for the appraisal, co-leagues. JOHAR : and what about our know-all critics, who write off most of our films, just because they take a few cinematic liberties ?VARMA : you are talking about your films, aren’t you ?MEHRA : I would like to agree with Ramu here. see MANI sir.
His DIL SE and YUVA didn’t work. but every actor longs to work with him. thats because his films are sensible yet entertaining as any other mainstream film. and with GURU, he has passed the box-office test to. Same is the case with SHEKHAR KAPUR.BHANSALI : similarly, GURU DUTT was a highly successful commercial film producer. And yet when it came to making artistic films, he was next to none.FARAH [ getting angry now ]: so, you guys think MANMOHAN DESAI and NASIR HUSSAIN were at the wrong side of filmmaking ?BHANSALI : sorry but yes, to an extent.FARAH : and what will you say about my MAIN HOON NAA.
And you want me to shelve OM SHANTI OM ?BHANSALI : no, farah ! you have admitted that you wanted to make a time-pass entertainer, nothing else. and MAIN HOON NAA really entertained many.....FARAH : but not you...BHANSALI : well....VARMA : see, there you go.JOHAR [ playing a peace-maker again ]: coming to you Rakeysh, do you relate to the Shyam benegal or the Aparna sen school of films ?MEHRA : see, the off-beat film makers love cinema so they stand by their principles at any cost. On the other side, we want our films to be popular too. so we adopt a comparatively safer formula.JOHAR : still, if you are asked to choose any one from Critical acclaim or Commercial success ?MEHRA : can’t say, really Flashy sets, colorful props, a few hot-shot directors sitting on the delicately decorated couch.
Yes, it is the season finale of COFFEE WITH KARAN. a few excerpts from the show.....**KARAN JOHAR : good evening, ladies and gents. here we are, for the season finale of COFFEE WITH KARAN and the subject for the evening is "does the pattern of hindi cinema need any changes ?"the guests for tonite are my favourite director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the adorable Farah Khan, the RDB MAGIC-man Rakeysh Mehra, and my fiercest critic but a respectable film maker, Ram Gopal Varma.starting with you Sanjay, do you think the standards of our films need any modification ?Bhansali : you see, you have to challenge yourself with every film. I started off with a daring subject as KHAMOSHI.
But then all of my films have been drastically diverse from each other. so, creativity has to be there.Johar : coming to you rakeysh, how do you explain the mammoth success of RDB ?MEHRA : well, I knew it would be successful but the kind of response it has actually received has blown me away.i think thats because RDB managed to maintain a fine balance between reality and entertainment.FARAH : yes, rakeysh. RDB was so damn entertaining.
It deserved all the praise it got. after all, hindi films are meant to entertain, aren’t they ?BHANSALI : of coarse they are. but don’t you think cinema should also convey messages than to merely entertain ?VARMA [ disrupting deliberately ] : absolutely. and by the way, rakeysh, don’t you think that the climax of RDB was quite illogical ?[ a killing silence ensues. only to be broken by KARAN ]Johar : coming back to the topic, is it really possible to treat cinema just as an art ? can we over look the commercial aspect of hindi cinema while making films ?VARMA : no, we don’t need to. if one has got the skills, he can blend commerce and art adeptly. I don’t think SATYA, COMPANY, BHOOT, or SARKAR missed logic anywhere.
But they still raked in moolahs.FARAH [ chipping in good-humouredly ] : and what do you have to say about NAACH, SHIVA and NISHABD ?VARMA [ with his typical dead-pan expression ] : they were just a few mistakes, but I won’t call them as failures.and I will maintain that NISHABD is a great piece of cinema.BHANSALI : hey, I like NAACH.MEHRA : me too.VARMA [ looking at FARAH ] : thanx for the appraisal, co-leagues. JOHAR : and what about our know-all critics, who write off most of our films, just because they take a few cinematic liberties ?VARMA : you are talking about your films, aren’t you ?MEHRA : I would like to agree with Ramu here. see MANI sir.
His DIL SE and YUVA didn’t work. but every actor longs to work with him. thats because his films are sensible yet entertaining as any otehr mainstream film. and with GURU, he has passed the box-office test too.same is the case with SHEKHAR KAPUR.BHANSALI : similarly, GURU DUTT was a highly successful commercial film producer.and yet when it came to making artistic films, he was next to none.FARAH [ getting angry now ]: so, you guys think MANMOHAN DESAI and NASIR HUSSAIN were at the wrong side of filmmaking ?BHANSALI : sorry but yes, to an extent.FARAH : and what will you say about my MAIN HOON NAA. and you want me to shelve OM SHANTI OM ?BHANSALI : no, farah ! you have admitted that you wanted to make a time-pass entertainer, nothing else. and MAIN HOON NAA really entertained many.
FARAH : but not you...BHANSALI : well....VARMA : see, there you go.JOHAR [ playing a peace-maker again ]: coming to you Rakeysh, do you relate to the Shyam benegal or the Aparna sen school of films ?MEHRA : see, the off-beat film makers love cinema so they stand by their principles at any cost.on the other side, we want our films to be popular too. so we adopt a comparatively safer formula.JOHAR : still, if you are asked to choose any one from Critical acclaim or Commercial success ?MEHRA : can’t say, really.VARMA : critical acclaimBHANSALI : commercial success FARAH : commercial success.
JOHAR : so, there you go. hindi films may improve a bit at their scripts and execution, but they shouldn’t shed their entertainment qoutient, because thats what sets them apart from the rest.if we need a BLACK, we need a BLACK FRIDAY. if we need a SATYA, we need a RANG DEY BASANTI. and yes, how can we forget DDLJ, HUM AAPKE HAIN KAUN and SHOLAY, which set new standards for pure family entertainment ? as far as I am concerned, KABHI ALVIDA NA KEHNA may not have gone well with the indian audience, but I still maintain that I have doe my best. I will keep working on my next script to contend all sorts of audience.till then, keep watching hindi cinema. bye bye.
VARMA : critical acclaim BHANSALI : commercial success FARAH : commercial success.JOHAR : so, there you go. hindi films may improve a bit at their scripts and execution, but they shouldn’t shed their entertainment quotient, because thats what sets them apart from the rest.if we need a BLACK, we need a BLACK FRIDAY. if we need a SATYA, we need a RANG DEY BASANTI. and yes, how can we forget DDLJ, HUM AAPKE HAIN KAUN and SHOLAY, which set new standards for pure family entertainment ? as far as I am concerned, KABHI ALVIDA NA KEHNA may not have gone well with the indian audience, but I still maintain that I have doe my best. I will keep working on my next script to contend all sorts of audience.till then, keep watching hindi cinema. bye bye.