Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2001 5:53 pm
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DWIVEDI CAGES AMRITA PRITAM'S BOOK IN A FILM
By Suhel Johar
Tete-a-Tete
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Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, the man behind the successful teleserial, 'Chanakya,' has made a period film called 'Pinjar,' based on the Partition of India. The film stars Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Bajpai, besides Sanjay Suri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Seema Biswas, Sunil singh, Alok Nath, Kiran Kumar, Farida Jalal, Lillete Dubey and 'Tum Bin's Sandali Sinha and Priyanshu.
This is the first time Urmila and Manoj Bajpai have teamed up since 'Satya,' and if that's not interesting enough, here's more. Gulzar has done the lyrics, Uttam Singh the music, Santosh Thundiyil (of 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' fame) is the cinematographer and Narendra Singh (of 'Gadar' and 'The Hero') is the sound recordist. 'Pinjar' is based on a novel of the same name, written by renowned poetess Amrita Pritam and translated into English by Khushwant Singh. Lucky Star has produced the film.
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'Pinjar' is not Dwivedi's first brush with films. In 1981, he directed a Marathi film titled 'Patlin'. Then during the late 90s he did a film on the cultural legacy of Khajuraho, that took many turns before its cast was finalized with Anupam Kher, Divya Dutta, Mukesh Tiwari, Sudhanshu Pandey and Shama Sikander acting in the film. In the pipeline is a bilingual film on the life of Lord Krishna.
Coming back to 'Pinjar', it is the third Amrita Pritam novel to be filmed after 'Dharti Sagar Te Sippiyan' (1965) and 'Unah Di Kahani' (1976), which have been made into films entitled 'Kadambari' and 'Daaku' for which she composed the songs.
"Although I have based the film on the book, I have also done a bit of independent research by reading various books, including one called 'Countdown to Partition'," says Dwivedi.
"The sets of the city of Amritsar are simple, but accurate and contain detail in every shot. Designed by Munish Sappal, the sets were constructed by a team of 400 people. I bought trucks from the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. I got them painted to look like the trucks of those days. Everything is written in Urdu. I even have a mithaiwala's shop which was famous in those days. Do you know that 81 per cent of people in Amritsar were Muslims, and still the city remained with India," says Dwivedi taking pride in his research.
The story of the film has partition as its backdrop; the film is about a Muslim man and a Hindu woman who meet under very strange circumstances and are forced to live together.
In Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi's 'Pinjar', meaning a cage in Punjabi, Urmila Matondkar will be seen in a completely different role. She plays Puro, a victim of circumstances arising out of the Partition of India.
What made you think of adapting Amrita Pritam's famous novel?
"I was doing another project on Partition. During the course of my research, I came across Amrita Pritam's 'Pinjar'. It moved me so much, that even though it has been translated into eight languages, I thought it would be the perfect theme for my film. The book 'Pinjar' is very popular in Punjab, and the film is bound to create ripples too."
Dwivedi says that though there have been many Partition-based films, most of them use Partition only in the backdrop. "Besides being based on a known literary work, what's special about my film is that it looks at the socio-political angle very closely."
Dwivedi had announced a lavish project of Rs 100 crore a year-and-a-half ago - a film on Lord 'Krishna'. "That will happen, but after I finish one more film after 'Pinjar'. The problem is that I need the dates of 22 stars for the film. If I could have done it with a few stars and a few newcomers, I can complete it faster. Obtaining dates is a big issue. But 'Krishna' will happen soon," concludes Dwivedi
 :love 
Edited By arsh on 1057273652
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