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The love fest

V S Srinivasan

Karisma Kapoor and Bobby Deol in Hum To Mohabbat Karega. Click for bigger pic!

Love is in the air. It bubbles up through every nook and cranny of the Bollywood set, wafts in under doors, pervades the area, till you feel the sweetish fragrance hanging in the air cling on to your clothes... Nauseating? Depends on you, of course.

Well, here we are at Convent Villa where Kundan Shah is directing his third love story Hum To Mohabbat Karega -- that's what's the soft focus cameras there are supposed to take in.

Two of his films released earlier, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, were well received by the critics, though they made no impact on the box office. But then Kundan is all prepared to meet commercial demands now. Even if it means he has to work in this love-suffused locale.

Look at him more carefully and you notice the characteristic attention to detail hasn't been compromised. As Bobby and Karsima, who play the love birds, have discovered.

"Boss, bay hatana. Saab ko poocho chai piyenga ya thanda," the PRO tells one of the unit hand while we fall into our chairs.

One take. A second. A third. Bobby Deol must be exasperated, we think. But Kundan's demands are inexorable. Hereabouts, take till you drop appears to be the motto. So a unit hand knocks at a door which Bobby opens.

Click for bigger pic!

"Raju Bhatnagar," his visitor inquires. Whereupon Bobby hits himself on the head with a vase and faints. If that makes you wonder a bit, things begin to make sense presently.

The unit hand is replaced by Karisma, and Bobby again clubs himself on cue.

Kundan Shah explains the shot: "Karisma is a television journalist and Bobby falls in love with her after seeing her on television. So when he opens the door one day and finds Karisma out there, he is unable to believe it and faints."

Bobby plays an educated man who works as a waiter at a hotel owned by Johnny Lever. He also lives in his boss's house. "I've just started shooting for it, so I can't say much," says Bobby warily.

He and Karisma have been rehearsing the entire first half of the day for the scenes ahead, producer K P Singh tells you.

Rather unusual, all these rehearsals, we ask, considering people even find no time to shoot.

But with Shah at the helm at the helm you expect quality, even in this kind of thing. Meanwhile, you notice some babies being shifted in for a shot. No rehearsals for them, it seems. A few takes, the shot is finally canned. By now, Bobby's an absolute natural. Darned good, we thought, for a man who just has had just three releases to date.

Kundan Shah. Click for bigger pic!

And Karisma, decorously covered, but still looking ravishing in white, hurries away to gossip on her mobile. Once the batteries run out, we close in and ask her how she's finding working in such unusual circumstances.

"It's a great role. I'm enjoying doing it. It's fun to work with Kundan Shahji. He's a damn good director. He is very cued in to his work and doesn't tolerate any nonsense on his sets. People who know him will definitely put in a lot more effort than they generally do. Frankly, we have never had rehearsals the day before the shoot.

This is the first time in my entire career that I rehearsed for a role the previous day. I simply love the way he operates. I am also doing Loveria opposite Saif Ali Khan with him. That film's produced by ABCL and should hit the screen sometime soon." Shah is also working on Kya Yehi Pyar Hai.

The director explains the storyline -- after the shot where Bobby finds Karisma at his doorstep, he tells her he was an eyewitness to a murder that occurred in the locality. The idea being to arouse her curiosity and ensure she hangs around long enough for him to make a play for her. He even tells the gullible reporter what the murderer looks like, an accurate enough description of his boss.

Karisma, Bobby and Kundan on the sets of Hum To Mohabbat Karega. Click for bigger pic!

"The story has a strong undercurrent of comedy," says Shah, adding that the real killers go after Bobby who has testified having seen the killer on television," says Singh.

We spot Johnny Lever leaping in from over the event horizon. The funster is having a great time entertaining people around him on the sets.

We speak to him, laughing along as he cracks joke after joke.

"It is again a fun role for me. This was a role written specially for me. These days my roles are getting better and better as the value of good comedy goes up. The trouble is even heroes are into comedy. We are in danger of being eliminated. But then, I don't think it will happen as long as I'm around," he laughs.

K P Singh had made a few films earlier, the Mithun-starrer Warrant being the most famous one of them. He is quite happy with the kind of work he's handling.

"I am shooting mostly in Bombay and hope to finish my film soon. It has romance, comedy and suspense and all the ingredients of commercial cinema. It is not a typical Kundan Shah film."

That, we could have told him, is one nasty crack. Especially since he didn't mean it to be one.

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