Fate Unknown – Anjaan
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It was a quiet day at work today. In the dark, cold confines of the edit suite my editor was assembling a scene from my new film ‘Woodstock Villa’. Its quite amazing. Its been ten years since I’ve been making movies. I still marvel at watching the dailies. The process of editing still scares me. All that you have shot takes on a completely new perspective in the quiet, air-conditioned and private edit-suite. You look at what you had conceived and executed in the noisy, chaotic shooting environment in a completely different light (pun intended!). To be honest, editing unnerves me. I decided to let my editor do his job. He did not show any signs of nerves and seemed to be enjoying the rushes.
Solace at such times comes from music. I switched on my laptop, plugged in the earphones and began browsing the playlists. My attention was drawn to an obscure playlist which said – FATE UNKNOWN. I must have created this when I was drunk.
The playlist had two songs from a film I had recently completed called ‘Anjaan’. As I listened to the songs a certain amount of sadness took over. Its been a year since this film has been completed. Yet its fate remains ANJAAN (unkown).
I was shooting a television series for UTV called ‘Family Business’. It was one of the first gangster sagas on television and was being launched on what seemed like an exciting channel then – Star One. I am still very proud of the stuff I achieved in that series. The first 4 episodes were special. They were languid, understated and had a wonderful play of light and shade. By the 4th episode, however, the channel began to interfere in the creative process. They wanted to shift focus from the gangsters to the women in the gangster family. ‘Kyonki Saas bhi…’ meets ‘Godfather’. I had to get out of the trap. And as luck would have it, the opportunity came to me in the form of ‘Anjaan’.
Sleazy, sex flicks were the flavor of the season then. I suspect my producer wanted to join the bandwagon. Why he chose me to execute his ‘vision’, is still a mystery. The idea that he narrated had the seeds of something very interesting. I always wanted to deal with marriage and morals. I called Suparn. In less than a month he came up with one of his best screenplays. The film was mostly set in one house and had three principal characters. The characters were well-defined and Suparn’s real-life humour had shown up in his screenplay.
To the producers’ credit, he gave me a totally free hand. Almost. I was adamant on shooting in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The approach was voyeuristic. I wanted to intrude into the privacy of a failing marital relationship. I wanted my camera to ‘cover’ the action. No melodrama, no exaggerated close-ups. But my producer freaked. He said no distributor would buy the film because of the aspect ratio. They wanted the traditional cinemascope 2.33:1 ratio. I refused. I was sacked. I tried to get back to making the television show but realised that there was already a new director in my place. I relented. I agreed to shoot on cinemascope. My poor cinematographer. He insisted on using a Arri-435 camera. With the earlier aspect ratio (1.85:1) it was fine. The lenses were light and we were shooting all the scenes hand-held. But with cinemascope he had to carry a weight in excess of almost 50kgs on his shoulder.
What is commendable about this film is the spirit in which it was made. We decided to make the film in 30 days and with new actors. I made the film with new actors and in 18 days. We shot in Alibag which is three hours away from Bombay by road. It takes 45 minutes by ferry from the Gateway of India. We lived in a small 3 star hotel. I cooked quite a few meals for the unit. They claimed that the meals were delicious. I would like to believe so.
While ‘Anjaan’ cannot be called a masterpiece by any stretch of imagination, I do believe that it is the kind of film that would have created a whole new intelligent B-flick culture (It was made at a less than modest budget of US$ 150,000). It was voyeuristic, sexy and dark. The story-telling was elegant and extremely honest. There was no attempt to titillate. There were no item songs. The actors were refreshingly normal. The setting was unnerving and private. The camera played voyeur with panache. Most importantly, ‘Anjaan’ remains an original piece of work.
For its sheer spirit, originality and spunk I do hope ‘Anjaan’ gets released. For the sake of the lead actors, the technicans and the producers I hope ‘Anjaan’ is seen by audiences beyond preview theatres. On a more personal note, I met the love of my life on the sets of ‘Anjaan’. She isn’t an actress, she has very little to do with films (except watching them), she wasn’t even a part of my film. She was just visiting. I was grappling with a painful broken relationship and that visit changed my life. For bringing love back into my life, I hope ‘Anjaan’ sees light of day.
I could ramble on and on. But my editor beckons. The scene demands my attention.
[display_podcast]
There is a beautiful song from ‘Anjaan’ composed by the vastly underrated Viju Shah and sung by Kailash Kher. Download, sit back, relax and enjoy!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
hansal… ya i saw d serial family business for a few weeks cuz i really liked the concept initially.. but ya u were right..the serial took a wrong turn… the new director i dunno who he was… the serial was really bad then ya
There were many serials which were gr8 like SIDDHANT by Abhinav kashyap.. but it was ok when some anil senior took d directors chair…
Anjaan looked refreshing when prommos were aired for few weeks… i loved ur chhal…
one qn: is abhinav kashyap brother of anurag???
even abhinav is a gr8 director… siddhant was such an intense serial and so well made
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Hi Hansal,
I was looking forward to ANJAAN after some rumours of a November 2005 release. Is there hope for a theatrical release? If not, how about a DVD-only release?
I’d also love to hear more from you about JAYATE (wasn’t this Anurag K’s screenwriting debut?) and the chance of seeing a DVD some day (as far as I can remember it’s been limited to some film festival screenings).
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“An intelligent B flick”: isn’t that like… you know… an oxymoron….
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Hi Hansal, I like your posts for their ‘real’ fervour. Completely unpretentious. True to their salt, like some of your films, and their music too. I am drawn back to the earthy songs of Dil pe mat le yaar-swagatam(it still brings me back my mumbai dream days), chal padi, paagal, lai jaa re badra sandeswaa, jee jee. I still hold it was Vishal’s most underrated work. You guys had created an imagery in that little audio tape I had once bought just cus I liked the name of the film. It later was to take different roads as I moved through my little journey. Few years later, I heard Chhal, I was always a fan of Viju Shah. I loved the song chup chaap so much that it played till the tape ripped apart. and simply fell in love with Prashant’s speaking through the dance number-maut ka ek din muhaiyyan hai(ghalib). Then came ye kya ho raha hai. and SEL was never so youthful…kuchh hum bhi pagal hai, hum ne ki aarzoo to hamein kya mila, ye samaa…the film and theme so restless and the music so deep yet young…
I have been a fan of your music senses. Sorry for the sudden outburst. The memories just came running down.
Cant wait to listen to Anjaan and Woodstock Villa. Is Viju Shah on this one as well?
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Wow .. hansal .. the song is AMAZING .. need to listen to it again and again .. to understand the poignant lyrics … who has written it by the way ??
Viju shah is an excellent music director but he has his own style .. the banjo (which was there in mohra’s mast mast.. shikar’s fitna dil… and ankh ladiya in Asambhav ) sound similar…
that said … i love his music and he is a very under rated guy .. loved the songs of chal .. and how Viju enhanced the film .. with his Music and background music. Dil jhanjanale .. Chal title track and Chup chap are my personal favorites..
I hope Anjaan sees the light of the day
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Hey Hansal…what the best part was the rekkie trip to thailand unfortunately we couldn’t shoot in the house we saw in pattaya but one of the house we show with the pier, sanjay gupta made that dutts house in zinda:)
ur fear in the editing room is so real, I mean i dont sleep until the first day of the edit where I know that I have taken all the shots, my biggest nightmare is schedule over and some important shot will be missing and the editor will turn around and say ‘dude u have to shoot again’
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well how 2 download it!… m not able 2 download from d link provided!
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- Bhavesh… after clicking on the Download link, give it some time… downloading should start sooner or later depending on your internet connection and speed.
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Push, are my eyes seeing things, because i’m sure i read you posting a plug in for your blog on another post too .. free marketing ey
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although it was not my intention at all..
my be i did a wrong move….i thot its okey to post few things on anurag here as PFC has got access ….sorry for that…..
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ooh sorry i was just commenting on the plug in’s .. it wasn’t a dig at you
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you might be jumping to conclusions? there might just be a slight error with the page. I’d wait until Oz or another PFC author informs you of any wrong doings before you think otherwise.
Also just as a observation, if you are trying to gain Anurags attention and comments on your blog then why not post it to him when he is replying to comments?
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- Push, I had to block you from comment because you were spamming PFC with the same comment in all posts over and over again.
Hansal, sorry about the comment thread moving off topic….
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Nice one. When did Viju Shah last do something half as good as this?
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the song is written by amitabh verma. he wrote all the songs in ‘chhal’ too. amitabh is an editor from FTII, Pune. but a supremely talented writer.
viju shah is not only underrated but vastly under-utlilized. given a choice i would work only with him. after vishal he is one composer that delivers wonderful music to me.
suparn – yes, thailand was great fun! pity we couldn’t shoot there. but i think alibag was a good decision. at least we got paid as much as we did!
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glad to see a plug for Amitabh Verma (CHHAL, MY BROTHER NIKHIL, BAS EK PAL). The songs for your film CHHAL were my introduction to his work
: the Ghalib quote in dil jhan-jhanaa le, the lovely chup chaap. Great melody on that last one from Viju Shah; loved the title song and his background cues too. All this just brings me (once again) to stick up all thumbs for CHHAL. I never get tired of recommending it to people (and I’m also often shocked at how few people have even heard of it).
Didn’t know Amitabh was an editor too … has he exercised the scissors on any film?
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george .. amitabh verma’s imdb shows that he’s more into writing than ’scissoring’ …
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1242454/
And yeah … me too recoomend chhal … wonder WHAT THE HELL IS PRASHANT NARAYANAN DOING THESE DAYS ???
Besides seeing him for a festival film ‘Shadows of Time’ and ‘Mudda’ I haven’t seen him anywhere else..
Hansal .. I believe there is an intresting anecdote about how he got the role in Chhal .. Pls tell us about it .. I would like to hear it from the horse’s mouth !!!
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here’s something i found about anjaan …
http://www.nowrunning.com/film/preview.asp?movieNo=2610&mv=Anjaan
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[edited by admin : td - watch it dude - no verbal slapping ]
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Kartik, thanks for the link… I see a lot of Hansal in the initial parts of the synopsis
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sometimes even a 5 minute shot can tell u how capable a director is and after watchin chhal i thot its one of d best gangster flicks( with satya company sehar i feel) with a unique storyline.. i love the movie and can watch it any number of time but these tv channels never show good movies…
hansal mehta is a brave and talented director and i hope anjaan gets a release.. m sure d film will b gud…
btw how a film like tom dick and harry can release with no problem and good movies r always stuck for different reasons…
y cant these fuckall movies face problems in the making!!!!
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Dear Hansal,
That post was like a chat. Haven’t chatted with you for eons now. Will read the rest of it. Great going. I hope it gets released.
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hey hansal…btw wats ur movie RAAKH about?? wats d outline??
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Dear Hansal,
Can you please tell me when your new film “Raakh” is going to be release? It took too much time, but some times back I heard it is been completed now. I saw some pictures of Mithun Chakraborty, he was looking impressive, and he has been getting appreciation from everywhere for his latest movie “Guru”.
He is great actor no doubt; he is neglected genius of Indian Cinema! If you would like to share your experience with him, how you found him?
Waiting for your new film “Guru”. I heard it is well made movie.
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hi hansal
actually i was the one who wrote the screenplay of anjaan for the producer. it was to be directed by Mazhar Kamran then.it was my first film as a writer.. i was hurt when i was not paid and my name was not there in the credits..i was naive but wrote it with utmost sincerity. I felt as a filmmaker you should be aware of this when you credit the screenplay to ur writer. Writing is a very lonely and a stressful job..it is sheer hardwork to realise an original story on screen.you might find my name in the draft which the producer gave u. it was not my story but i thought it was a good one.we never met,though you had come to my house for designing publicity of the film.(i was out of station). i may be a stranger to you but we are somewhere connected with the film and i wish u luck for anjaan and other films as well..
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Hi, does anyone know if this film anjaan was released as it has mahek chahel in it, or where i can get it on dvd??
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Hi Hansel,
Any news regarding Anjaan??
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Anjaan has been picked up by Zoom Entertainment. Congrats Hansal. Hope it releases soon.
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It seems PFC is way to go for flop brigade of film industry. I see blogs of many so called independent (independent!!! in which way) directors who gave nightmares to moviegoers by their creations. Did neone here watched Woodstock Villa???
One word comes to mind—-Bizzare!!!!
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