Akash Bhatnagar (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 11, 2020)

Ganesh Chaturthi is just 11 days away, but the ongoing pandemic has put a damper on the 10-day revelry this year. With the government banning all public gatherings, the festival will be limited to a family affair. However, TV is doing its bit to give Bappa a rapturous welcome, virtually. Star Plus kickstarted celebrations over the weekend at Film City Studios. Star Parivaar Ganeshotsav 2020 will be aired during the festival week.

Sonu Sood, who has become a real hero during the Coronavirus-triggered lockdown, by helping thousands of migrants from across the country and even abroad get back to their homes, is going to host the show. The actor, who shares a special bond with Ganesh, will welcome him with a puja. “There won’t be many Ganpati pandals this year. So, this is the best way to welcome the Lord,” says Sonu, who celebrated the festival for the first time when he had just moved to Mumbai and didn’t know how to serve Ganesha. “I learnt and now we have developed such a bond that he comes to my home every year. He has answered all my prayers and shown me a new path to follow every year.”

Sonu plans his shoots around the 10-day celebrations in a way that he can spend maximum time with Bappa. “My in-laws come to my place during the festival and these 10 days of family time is something we look forward to every year,” he says, insisting that it was Ganesh who gave him the power to help so many people during this crisis. “I have done many movies, but this is the best role I got to play. I want Bappa to help all the people who have suffered during the pandemic and I am sure he will listen to my prayers and make everything right.”

TV actors Surbhi Jyoti and Siddharth Nigam will perform on “Sukhkarta Dukhharta” on the show while Divyanka Tripathi, who bid goodbye to the channel in December last year when her long-running show Yeh Hai Mohabbatein went off the air, returns with a Lavani performance. Shivangi Joshi from Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, Rupali Ganguly from Anupamaa and Aditi Sharma from Yehh Jadu Hai Jinn Ka! will send video messages seeking Bappa’s blessings.

Shilpa Shetty will pay tribute to the frontline workers, with a medley of songs, from Lagaan’s “Chale Chalo” and Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl’s “Jazba” to “Shambhu Sutaya” from ABCD - Any Body Can Dance and “Nainowale Ne” from Padmaavat. Harshad Chopda, who featured with Sushant Singh Rajput in the 2008 show, Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil, will remember the late actor by shaking a leg to his popular songs.

Concluding her year-long tribute to father Kaifi Azmi with the screening of brother Baba's film, Shabana remembers the legendary poet
Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; January 12, 2020)

On January 14, 2019, which marked the birth centenary of Kaifi Azmi, commenced a year-long tribute to the legendary poet and lyricist. After an array of mushairas, plays and seminars, the tribute will come to a close on January 14 this year with the screening of Kaifi's son, Baba Azmi's first directorial effort, the Hindi feature film, Mee Raqsam (I Dance).

The film that explores the relationship shared by a father and his daughter also features Naseeruddin Shah in a special role. It was shot in Kaifi's hometown Mijwan, near Azamgarh. Baba tells mid-day, "My father had asked me if it would be possible to shoot a film in Mijwan. Those words stayed with me. It's emotional for me as this is my tribute to him."

Lyricist Javed Akhtar, husband of Kaifi's actor-daughter Shabana Azmi, was the brain behind the celebration. Akhtar says. "So many people came together to participate and contribute [to this tribute]. Shabana and I recited his poetries, while Shankar Mahadevan sang them and Ustad Zakir Hussain interpreted them on the tabla. A documentary [Kafinama] was made by Sumantra Ghoshal. So, it has been an interesting year."

Shabana, who has been overseeing the developments, says, "With satisfaction and gratitude, what started off as a family tribute, was soon embraced by poetry lovers. We had over 48 celebrations during the year, including lit-festivals in UK, USA, Europe, and India. Mee Raqsam is about a Muslim tailor in Mijwan, and his daughter, who wants to learn Bharatnatyam. This is the ultimate tribute to Kaifi, who loved his village. The role of the teenager will be played by Aditi Sharma. She is a resident of the village and the daughter of a former attendant of abba [Kaifi Azmi]. I get gooseflesh when I think how pleased abba would be."

Twenty-year-old Aasmaan’s third short film is an adaptation of the writer’s short story, The Thief
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 16, 2016)


Eleven years after Vishal Bhardwaj’s Blue Umbrella, based on Ruskin Bond’s 1980 novel of the same name came out, the writer-filmmaker-composer’s son Aasmaan’s third short film, an adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s story, The Thief, is ready to take wings.

The 20-year-old filmmaker started work on the script in early February last year and even though the shooting schedule looked much longer on paper, Aasmaan wrapped up the film with a seven-day shoot that was followed by four-five days of patchwork. “The schedule was spread over a month between July-end and the beginning of August since it was raining a lot,” he recalls, adding that his short, also titled The Thief, is now one of the 38 official selections for the category of “Viewing Room” at the 10th edition of NFDC’s Film Bazaar in Goa this year.

A record 202 films, including 131 fiction features and 33 documentaries, were submitted to the Viewing Room which serves as a mentoring platform for films-in-progress to find sales agents, film festivals, buyers, distributors and financing.

Aasmaan, currently a screenwriting student at the School of Visual Arts in New York, has already completed two short films – The Identities, featuring Kalki Koechlin, Vivaan Shah and Harish Khanna which released in 2013, and Murder On The Deccan Express, featuring Vivaan Shah and Aneesha Joshi, which released in 2015.

The Thief features Chandan Roy Sanyal, Rahul Kumar and Aditi Sharma in a special appearance and is the story of a boy who goes through a change of heart. Prod Aasmaan on how similar he is to his protagonist and he guffaws, “Like him, I have learnt many things by making mistakes but I wouldn’t say that I have gone so far as to steal from another person.”

Aasmaan believes that his prolific father who has co-produced the film along with singer-wife Rekha and co-written it with him and Aditya Nimbalkar has been a crucial part of his cinematic journey. “It is because of him that I am so passionate about filmmaking. I want to be more like him. I wanted to join the army before but my father’s decision to make Makdee exposed me to this world,” the youngster signs off.