Why Madhur Bhandarkar is confident Director still suffering the Chandni Bar hangover!

Vickey Lalwani

His Chandni Bar released last year. Madhur Bhandarkar still continues to ride the crest of praise and accolade.

The erstwhile video library owner is now one among the new breed of sought-after directors. The man, for his part, still lives in his old, small, ground-floor flat at Khar [in the northwestern suburb of Mumbai].

Bhandarkar is not ashamed that his first directorial attempt Trishakti, starring Milind Gunaji, Arshad Warsi and Sharad Kapoor, was a disaster at the turnstiles. "You have to fumble and stumble before succeeding," he says. "I don't want to offer any excuses for the fact that the film disappeared without a trace."

And so this former assistant director of Ram Gopal Varma got it right with his second film, Chandni Bar, about film about a girl who comes to Mumbai from the riot-affected Uttar Pradesh with her uncle and finds employment in a beer bar, falls into the hands of a pimp, played by Rajpal Yadav [of Jungle], and marries a gangster played by National Award-winning actor Atul Kulkarni.

"After Trishakti, I lay low for about 18 months. I decided I would not make my second film just for the heck of it. Then, one day, my friend and I walked into a beer bar without realising that it was a ladies' bar. I was flabbergasted to see the girls dancing, the guests cheering, wooing and throwing money drunkenly. Bells started ringing in my head. And I had the subject for my second film."

Chandni Bar might not have been a hit like Gadar -- Ek Prem Katha and Lagaan, but it made waves with the starkness of its theme and its honest and realistic approach. Did he expect Chandni Bar to win so much acclaim, especially from the critics? "Difficult to answer that. Honestly, I made the film without an eye at the box-office. No publicity, no songs."

A fair amount of research went into the film, though. "I did do a lot of research. And that is because I believe we must stop taking cinematic liberties and be honest to ourselves. I spent five to six months just collecting information and observing deviant behaviour in bars. I went through many related stories and familiarised myself with some of the girls' incidents. I spoke to bar owners, customers, dancing girls, and God knows how many more people."

Bhandarkar is aware that his first film could get him typecast. He refuses to be straight-jacketed as a 'certain' kind of director, saying he wants to explore all kinds of genres. "At times, I toy with the idea of a David Dhawan-style comedy. At others, I toy with the idea of making films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, but so far I have not been sufficiently charged about that. The day that happens, you will say Madhur has changed tracks."

"Wouldn't you like to know why I did not sign Tabu for my next film Satta, which will be released this Diwali?" he asks, without batting an eyelid, and goes on to answer: "Simple. I want people to know that Tabu and I can work with effective results on scripts other than those which are raw and candid --- be it a murder mystery, soft romance or a candy floss. Tabu and I share a beautiful relationship, our combination will not fail.

"Tabu was not upset that I did not cast her in Satta. She is a mature person. But the script for our next film together is ready. We begin in December."

While Bhandarkar quells rumours that he is directing a film for Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited, starring Abhishek Bachchan, he says he definitely plans to direct Abhishek in the future. "Abhishek has enormous talent which has still not been tapped. I am willing to bet my last shirt that he will make history."

Madhur also directs Abhishek's father Amitabh in Feroz Nandiadwala's production. He says, "The film is all about the police system in our country. And Amitabh plays the main cop."

He goes on to explain, "I am not working on many projects at the same time. When you are successful, producers are keen to work with you. Right now, my focus is on Satta, which stars Raveena Tandon. It is about a woman who gets involved with and marries a politician's son [debutant Sameep Choudhary], but is forced to enter politics after her husband lands up in prison.

"I needed a woman who could deliver the dialogues in a very gutsy and forthright manner. Raveena fit my character to a T. Suchitra Pillai plays Raveena's friend."

Madhur is quick to add, "Both Satta and Aandhi [the acclaimed film starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen], star women. The similarity ends there. Satta will be bolder than Aandhi," he smiles.

Bhandarkar is confident, too. "Satta will win more rave reviews than Chandni Bar."

Madhur confesses he has put his "pet project" Jail, to be produced by Bhaskar Shetty, on hold. "I had done a lot of homework for the film. People have been speculating whether I visited prisons and met undertrials and cops. I haven't. But I had spent a lot of time reading about the law and police machinery."

The reason why it has been put on hold, admits Bhandarkar, is, "I had Sunil Shetty and Nandita Das in mind, and was thinking in terms of another lead pair. Then I learnt that many filmmakers were making films on the same subject. God, I don't want any of my films to suffer like the Bhagat Singh films have done recently!"