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On the eve of Ganpati visarjan or immersion, there was much festivity in Nitin Mukesh’s Napean Sea Road house. Son Neil, just back from a very hush-hush, first-cut screening of Madhur Bhandarkar’s Jail, had reason to look like the cat that had got the cream, albeit a very lean-mean cat. This is the first time that Madhur, who has a penchant for telling a story from a woman’s point of view (Tabu, Raveena, Bipasha, Priyanka have all benefited from it), has picked a male protagonist for his tours d’horizon of an Indian jail and its inmates.
Neil, still soaking in the praise he got for a successful New York, feels there’s a double scoop of joy in the offing with Jail slated for an early November release. Dad Nitin Mukesh, bursting with pride, recalled one of Madhur’s columns in a daily newspaper where the filmmaker said, if Neil got a National Award for his performance in Jail, everything else the film fetches will simply be a bonus. In other words, the filmmaker, known for the row of National Awards won for his hard-hitting cinema, sincerely believes that Parag Dixit (the character Neil portrays in the film) is a winner.
For Neil the biggest compliment came when Madhur told him that he’d had the story of Jail in his mind for years but he didn’t venture into it because he couldn’t think of any actor who’d fit the main protagonist’s role. “Until he saw Johnny Gaddar,” says Neil, “and he decided on the spot that he’d found the right person to play Parag Dixit.” Neil, who has refused more roles than he has signed, said ‘yes’ simply because an actor can trust Brand Bhandarkar without reservation and because he flipped for the title Jail. “It said it all for me, I didn’t even want to listen to the story after that!”
A subject like Jail could get heavy and morbid but Neil is confident (after seeing the first cut) that he doesn’t need to worry about that, Madhur has managed to simply tell an absorbing story. Oh yes, as for that much-talked-about nude shot that Neil has no regrets about doing, Madhur will be playing safe. The nudity will be blurred to avoid an ‘A’ certificate from the censors. So those who’d like to see that nude shot of Neil’s, be content with the many stills you've already seen of his butt in the print medium and the Internet!
Last year, this time, because of his long spell of shooting in the US for New York, Neil was not around during Ganpati, a 10-day celebration that his family has observed for years. It’s open house all 10 days and visitors are encouraged to stay for a pure vegetarian dinner that’s served right until midnight. This year, there was a big illuminated ‘Om’ on the first floor window, so you couldn’t miss the apartment. Besides, Neil’s spanking new Audi was parked under a canopy and after all those stories of how he couldn’t bring his new car home because of repairs in the society compound, the vehicle was a good guide to the Mukesh residence.
Indulgent dad Nitin Mukesh laughs that Neil is such a gadget freak that every time there’s something new in the market they head for the hills lest Neil should spot the ad and start yearning for it. “It may be his money but he still wants an ‘ok’ from me before he buys it,” says the good-natured singer. This time, after claiming his car was old (“A Honda Civic, bought just last year,” Nitin mock-grumbles) just to get his hands on the Audi, a day before the new car was brought into the society, Neil sprang a new one on his dad. “I want a canopy for it,” said the young, off-beat actor. Dad had to go around making arrangements while Neil beamed that he had spoken to the next door neighbour to make sure they had no objections to a canopy outside their window.
All’s well right now. The Audi is home under a canopy. New York has done well, Jail is around the corner. It’s been a swell 12 months between the last Ganpati and this one, for the Mukesh family that’s waited for decades to see this kind of success.
By the way, Rani Mukherji, now bearing more cleavage than she ever did in a bid to stay chest-to-chest with the competition, was at the Sun--Sand coffee shop. She’d just filmed an interview with Vinod Chopra’s wife Anupama Chopra of NDTV, to promote Yashraj’s Dil Bole Hadippa, her last-ditch effort to cling to stardom. Rani’s companions who lingered on with her hours after the interview was over, included the CEO of Yashraj. Looks like accompanying the future ‘maybe-malkin’ of Yashraj is part of the job profile for the company’s executives.
