Salman Khan Fan Club

If Farhad Samji is able to mix Telugu and Hindi in the new song ‘Yentamma’, and work easily with Telugu star Venkatesh, he has much to thank his stint in Bangaluru, where he studied at Christ College and then ran a restaurant called The Party, learning south Indian languages. The writer and director of comedies such as Housefull 4, has written and directed his forthcoming Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. The film, Salman Khan’s first theatrical release after Antim, in which he had an extended cameo, is intended to be an all-out entertainer. Salman was Samji’s first stop when he first came to Mumbai in 1999. He came to meet him at Filmistan Studios where Salman was shooting Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega and gave him precisely five minutes to showcase his talent at writing lyrics. He did, Salman signed him on to write lyrics for a song, and Samji became a card-carrying member of the Salman Khan fan club. But it was Ram Gopal Varma who spotted the writer in Samji and persuaded him to write dialogues for Shiva (2006). From then on, Samji has written dialogues, lyrics and screenplays and even done cameos in movies such as Judwaa 2. “The struggle,” he says, “is never-ending. First for some success and then, to sustain that success.” That certainly holds true for Salman, who has, like Shah Rukh Khan, returned to what he knows best in search for sustenance. After a four-year drought preceded by films that were less than successful, Shah Rukh went back to Yash Raj Films, which first made him a star with Darr in 1993 and then gave him a romantic image with Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in 1995. Salman is seeking similar solace with the brand of David Dhawan-esque comedy that gave him a series of hits in the ’90s. It may not mean elevating audience tastes or changing the direction of Hindi cinema, but it certainly gives their fans more reasons to be fanatical. And if in the bargain, Salman Khan has to recite Sanskrit shlokas and utter ‘Vande Mataram’, it is a minor nod to the prevailing political atmosphere, something Pathaan did in spades with its wholehearted endorsement of the abrogation of Article 370 and frequent references to Bharat Mata.

Background Star

If Sacred Games and Jubilee had memorable background scores, there is one woman to thank for that. Alokananda Dasgupta is a genius at setting the mood of a show or movie and she fell in love with Jubilee’s story, which is set in 1940s’ and 1950s’ Mumbai. Daughter of the late filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Alokananda, says the series came to her at a particularly difficult time when she was dealing with her father’s illness. “It seems a cliché, but I put all my sadness into my music, and it just flowed,” she says. She was lucky she was able to share the first tapestry of instrumentation with her father who had introduced her to Western classical music. Alokananda uses visual cues for her work and finds the worlds of painting, music, literature and cinema to be related. The reference she used for a critical character Javed Khan, for instance, is Banquo’s Ghost, which helped her conjure the background music for his character, using woodwinds. She works in solitude sometimes wondering if she is the only one looking up film scores at 4AM (she isn’t). “Hindi cinema has used the song as a crutch for far too long. It needs to break out of that mould,” she says, grateful that in the giant city of Mumbai she can create her own world in her own head. And leave some beauty behind. Alokananda has won a BAFTA Breakthrough Talent 2022 as well as the Berlinale Talents Project in 2016. She first gained fame with the background music for Marathi films Shala (2011) and Fandry (2013). In a world of mass production, she likes to work quietly, passionately, individually, and much of that purity runs through her music, which is sometimes so spare that it is almost missable. In a world where we have started listening to movies rather than watching them, as the great Adoor Gopalakrishnan says, it is refreshing to find someone who doesn’t intend to leave her audience hearing impaired.

Scene and Heard

We first heard of her when she won two Oscars for her documentary films, Saving Face0 (2012) and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015), but Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy has come a long way. The Pakistani director helmed Ms Marvel, with its ode to everything subcontinental, and now she gets to direct one of the three new Star Wars movies for a new generation of fans.

Alokananda DasguptaBollywoodcinemaFarhad SamjiSharmeen Obaid Chinoy