Showing posts with label Kamal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kamal. Show all posts
Kamala Das biopic director BREAKS SILENCE on Vidya Balan opting out of the film
2:35 PM
Subhash K Jha (DNA; January 14, 2017)
Malayali filmmaker Kamaluddin Mohammed (better known as Kamal) is not only being attacked by right-wing religious organisations, who have branded him as “anti-national” for his stand against demonetisation, his leading lady Vidya Balan has abruptly opted out of Aami, his proposed biopic on the life and times of poet-author-iconoclast Kamala Das.
Kamal’s hospitalised
All the stress has taken its toll on the director. This week, Kamal was hospitalised with stress-related ailments. A close friend and associate of Kamal says it is unfortunate that the filmmaker has to go through this trauma for no reason at all. “Kamal is the gentlest, kindest soul who wouldn’t hurt a fly. His cinema and his life reflect an absolute devotion to non-partisan politics. To label him anti-national and then, to add insult to injury, was too much for him to take. Kamal is going through very stressful times and yes, he was hospitalised.” said the friend.
Why wait?
“The story of Kamala Das is much larger than any of us, who were the core team of the project. The film will be made without Ms Balan. We’ll announce a new lead in a few weeks. We don’t know why Vidya chickened out at the last minute. We don’t think it was right-wing pressure. We think Kamala Das finally proved too controversial for Vidya to play. We’ve no problem with her opting out. But why did she wait till we were ready to shoot? Why didn’t she inform us of her decision before? She did not even communicate her decision directly to the director. Kamal was in the dark about her decision to quit until he got a cursory call from one of Ms Balan’s team members. Until then, she simply cancelled two schedules without indicating her unwillingness to do the film. Is this the way to announce your exit from a film for which you were preparing eagerly for the last one year?”
Wrong signals?
The source says that the director had even hired a Malayali coach to work on Vidya’s Malayalam lines. “She was keen on playing Kamala until a month ago. She was working on her Malayali accent and on Kamala’s personality traits. We don’t know what happened. Perhaps after six to seven successive failures in Hindi, going into a regional film would’ve sent the wrong signal to her Bollywood producers.”
When this writer finally got through to Kamal, he reacted softly but sharply. “What Vidya Balan did was highly unethical and inappropriate. She has left us in the lurch when we were ready to shoot. But we will make the film. This is my dream project,” he said.
Gulzar pens two Urdu song for Vidya Balan-starrer Kamala Das biopic
8:24 AM
The veteran poet-lyricist has penned two Urdu songs for Malayalam filmmaker Kamal's biopic on Kamala Das which will roll next month
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 26, 2016)
Mirror (February 11) was the
first to report that after wrapping up Srijit Mukherji's Begum Jaan and
Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani sequel Vidya Balan will start filming for the
Kamala Das biopic to be directed by Malayalam filmmaker Kamal. She has
begun her prep, which includes reading the writer's autobiography and
training under Malayalam actress, SreeDhanya to get the diction
right. The film will highlight the phase in the controversial
poet-litterateur's conversion to Islam at the age of 65 and subsequent
change of name to Kamala Surayya to oblige her lover. Kamal reveals that
he has fictionalised the character of the lover with Malayali actor
Anoop Menon playing Sadiq Ali who will be seen singing two Urdu songs
for Kamala Das in the film, penned by veteran lyricist and screenwriter
Gulzar.“Sadiq in the film is an Islamic Urdu scholar and a professor at Delhi's Jamia Millia University. He's into Urdu ghazals and there are two songs about life and romance, penned by Gulzar saab, which he will be singing to Vidya,“ informs Kamal.
When Mirror caught up with Gulzar at the director's master-class on Saturday, a monthly initiative held by Indian Film and Television Directors' Association (IFTDA), the 82-year-old poet-lyricist-writer confirmed the news saying that tabla maestro Zakir Hussain's bother and percussionist Taufiq Qureshi would compose the tracks.
“This Urdu-speaking character who is a ghazal singer and sings Sufiyana impresses Kamala Das and she gets into a relationship with him. Going by the script and the character, I have worked on two compositions,“ says Gulzar, who returns to screenplay writing after 17 years with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Mirzya which marks the acting debuts of Harshvardhan Kapoor and Saiyami Kher.
Prod him on whether he now wants to write more films and he retorts that if someone were to ask him, he might. But he is quick to add that he doesn't want to write anything unless there is something new to talk about and it's a subject worth probing.
Meanwhile, Kamal was to start shooting the biopic from October 5 but the shoot has been pushed forward to October-end to give Vidya time to recover from dengue. “We will start shooting in Kerala first, followed by Mumbai and Kolkata. Kamalaji's children will be on the set for the first few days,“ he concludes.
Vidya Balan portrayed female sexuality unapologetically-Kamal
8:14 AM
After picking up the Hyderabadi and Punjabi accents for previous films, the actress is now learning Malayalam
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 25, 2016)
Mirror (February 11) was the first to report that after wrapping up Srijit Mukherji's Begum Jaan and Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani 2, Vidya Balan will start filming for the Kamala Das biopic, to be directed by Malayalam filmmaker Kamal. Now, we hear that the 38-year-old actress has hired a tutor to learn Malayalam for the role. "Vidya's family hails from Kerala but she was born and brought up in Mumbai so she only speaks a smattering of it. She is training every day for a few hours under SreeDhanya, a Malayalam actress," informs a source close to the development.
Kamala Das, also known by her one-time pen name, Madhavikutty, was a poet, columnist and a leading Malayalam author who converted to Islam at the age of 67 and subsequently changed her name to Kamala Surayya.
Vidya starts shooting for the film by September-end in Kerala. "Vidya is one of the first actresses who portrayed female sexuality unapologetically in films like Ishqiya and The Dirty Picture. She was the perfect choice for the role since the beginning," Kamal had earlier told Mirror.
While Vidya is fluent in Bengali, she had earlier picked up the Hyderabadi accent for Samar Shaikh's Bobby Jasoos and Punjabi for Raj Kumar Gupta's Ghanchakkar. "Vidya is excited about recreating Kamala Das' intriguing per sonality on screen," says the source adding that the film will be shot in Germany, Spain and France, as Kamala travelled extensively in her quest for new-age poetry.
The three-part film traces Kamala's life story, starting with her marriage to a banker, Madhav, at the age of 15.He encouraged her to write, and her open and honest treatment of female sexuality made her an iconic author of her generation.The second part revolves around her autobiography, Ente Katha, which has been translated in English as My Story. The third phase begins with her conversion to Islam at 67 and ends with her death at 75.
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