Nobody values freedom more than a caged bird. Building on this, many a filmmaker has tried the impossible blend of mixing a bustling whorehouse with a fortress of freedom fighters.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali tried it, disappointing viewers who were enticed by the song, dance and wicked intrigues of a glittering, fantasy world. They soon found the nautch girls shutting shop to take to the streets not in search of customers but to filibuster “Azaadi” and “Inquilaab”. It was like a captivating brothel drawing in clientele only to declare its inmates celibate.
The percentage of those who stayed riveted till the last episode was minuscule compared to those who watched the opening episodes with fascination.
During its making, there would be daily tales of how Netflix had its staff on the set to ensure confidentiality and creativity, with a story or two on how Bhansali was cajoled into reshooting portions. But, after watching the whole show, you wonder what Netflix was monitoring. Where was the supervising team when the world of vibrant nautch girls with rivalries, jealousies, baby boys being wrenched away from mothers and little girls being forced to wear ghungroos, changed tone like a classical raga incorporating out-of-sync notes?
One more sour note many noticed was the nepo-kid syndrome. If Bhansali really believed so much in his niece (sister’s daughter) Sharmin Segal’s talents, how come he didn’t cast her as Gangubai or, indeed, make a film with his money to showcase her? Why use the pile of notes received from a platform to put the spotlight on his niece in Heeramandi? Where was the “no-nonsense team” when the filmmaker was giving his niece prominence over others?
OTT teams, too, seem to be dazzled by glamorous big names. I’m Not Done Yet, a flop stand-up show by Kapil Sharma in 2022, has been followed by The Great Kapil Show, which steadily registers sliding ratings. But Kapil’s not done yet on Netflix because, like a muscular political party, there is no worthy opposition to challenge him.
To return to the oil and water non-mix of brothels and Independence-Partition struggles, Karan Johar made the same mistake when he overdosed on colour, opulence and commercial stars Madhuri-Sanjay Dutt-Alia Bhatt to make the 2019 film Kalank. Tricky paternity questions that arise in most brothels gave way to the mangled chaos of Partition. But the trainloads of mutilated bodies took the emotional investment out of one solitary couple’s love story. If Johar’s team had sorted out Madhuri-Sanjay-Alia-Varun’s knotty equations within their familiar kotha of intrigue, it may have worked instead of the ambience of the blood-chilling murders of 1947.
In 2017, Srijit Mukherji too had made a monumental flop by allowing Vidya Balan’s feisty Begum Jaan peter into a feeble, ego situation when plonked in a world of Partition misery.
To digress, the buzz that T-Series boss Bhushan Kumar had divorced actress-wife Divya and agreed to an alimony of Rs 800 crore has turned out to be a case of 2+2=22. The witness is Mumbai-based astrologer Bhavikk Sangghvi. It was this astrologer who advised the ambitious working woman in Divya to drop “Kumar” from her name and add a double “S” to her surname. Husband Bhushan was on board when Divya changed her spelling to Khossla, leading to speculation that the missing middle name was proof that her marriage had ended. But Divya and Bhushan are still a couple, even if there are whispers that Nora Fatehi is a T favourite.
This month-end, Savi: A Bloody Housewife will be released, directed by Abhinay Deo, who helmed Anil Kapoor’s TV production 24. Anil and young actor Harshavardhan Rane partner Divya in the film. It also marks Mukesh Bhatt stepping in as co-producer with T, in his continued bid to stay independent after splitting from brother Mahesh.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author
