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Are Anil Kapoor fans a tad disappointed with his inconsequential part in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol? Well, they shouldn’t be, shrugs this Kapoor family.
Anil flew to Los Angeles mid-week to be a part of the release frenzy there and to finalise his other deals as well. And he’s pretty clear that playing sleazeball Brij Nath was a stepping stone to seeking a wider audience.
His brother, Sanjay Kapoor, asks pertinently, “If an acclaimed actor like Tom Wilkinson (cast as the IMF secretary in the film — IMF is incidentally Impossible Missions Force and not the International Monetary Fund) who is an Academy Award nominee, can do just one scene where he gets shot at the end of it, surely Anil was much better off? To anyone who criticises the length of Anil’s role in Ghost Protocol, I quote the case of Tom Wilkinson and rest my case. Only Indians are bothered about the length of a role instead of its impact.”
Sanju himself was mighty thrilled that he got to rub shoulders with Tom Cruise in Mumbai at the exclusive party thrown by brother Anil. “I told Tom that when I saw Top Gun in 1986, I never dreamt that one day I’d be standing next to him and talking to him at the Taj in Mumbai!” laughed Sanjay Kapoor.
Out of the three Kapoor brothers, Boney, Anil and Sanjay, it’s the youngest who is still to land on his feet in the film industry. But he is without a doubt the most popular of them all in the industry simply because he is essentially a nice guy, a bundle of humour with courageous positivity. It requires courage to be part of a film family where there are successful names all around you and your own dreams of making it big keep getting postponed. I say postponed because let’s say it, nice guys do ultimately make it.
Right now, it’s postponement time again because Sanjay Kapoor’s first film as producer of It’s My Life, with Harman Baweja and Genelia D’Souza in the lead and directed by Anees Bazmee, has been put off again. What once seemed like an attractive commercial proposition lost its lustre along the way with Harman’s and Bazmee’s dwindling appeal. But based on the Telugu hit Bommarillu, perhaps the current favourable air for south Indian remakes may just work for the film. However, its release will have to wait as the entire campaign of It’s My Life (earlier slated for release on January 13) came to an abrupt halt when Boney and Sanju got the news of their father, Surinder Kapoor’s sudden death and rushed out of the office. If one believes that everything happens for the good, then perhaps the postponed release of his first production will turn out to be right for Sanjay Kapoor’s debut as producer.
Talking of remakes, Shekhar Suman has become a director to re-launch his son Adhyayan as an actor with an Indianised version of the medical thriller Awake. At Shekhar’s birthday party on December 7, father and son looked natty in formals and there was a host of brilliant singers to keep the evening going almost until dawn.
Mercifully, with no cameras and snoops around, politician Chhagan Bhujbal let his hair down by singing old Hindi film songs. Yes, the heavyweight minister from Maharashtra is a film music buff and sings amateurishly well. What’s more, even his bodyguard is a good singer and Bhujbal proudly introduced him as someone who knows “800 songs by heart”. With singer Abhijeet also around, there was musical brilliance all around and nostalgia too, as all of them sang Dev Anand’s hit numbers one by one.
Once Sonu Niigaam (who has sung for Shekhar’s film titled Heartless) strolled in with wife Madhurima, a mike was produced and the singer, along with Roop Kumar Rathod and Adhyayan himself, burst into song. Unbelievably, Shekhar’s son is a gifted singer and could hold his own with such accomplished singers by his side. “He’s inherited it from his mother Alka,” said Shekhar graciously. “She is incredibly shy but she’s a fabulous singer.” Whatever the origin, Shekhar Suman’s son is one more latent talent that will surface in the new year.
Shekhar’s impromptu musical evening was such a huge hit that Sonu Niigaam partied all night, leaving after the clock struck 4.
Well, Shekhar can at last say that he has a true 4am friend!
Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor,The Film Street Journal
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