Entertainment and the Arts: Cinema: Cliched Clutter

Exotic locales, a contemporary plot and the RK tag--yet Rishi Kapoor's directorial debut fails to impress.

Rishi Kapoor seems almost resigned to it. The comparison with his legendary father Raj Kapoor, he knows, is inescapable. After all it is a legacy that has haunted him throughout his life. "As an actor I was compared to him and now as a director I am being compared to him," says Rishi. "It's unfair. He was a genius."

Akshaye and Aishwarya: Nothing to fall back on

RK Films latest offering and Rishi's directorial debut, Aa Ab Laut Chalen (AALC), a Rs 18 crore syrupy extravaganza shot extensively in the US and Australia is the first RK film to star a non-Kapoor as the hero. Akshaye Khanna plays an impressionable, out-of-work graduate who goes to the US in search of a better life. Lead actress Aishwarya Rai also heads there on an invitation from her brother who, unknown to her, plans to get her married to his much-divorced boss in exchange for a promotion.

The film has dominated the actor-turned-director's life during the past year. He literally chased the changing seasons across the globe, filming the stunning fall colours in America before catching the riotous hues of an Australian spring. "As an actor, life was laid back. Now there's much more responsibility," says Rishi who is also joint producer with brothers Randhir and Rajeev.

In true showman style, the trio flew a 100-strong unit to New York for nearly 100 days of filming. "New York is almost a character in the film," says Randhir. Akshaye found his producers to be perfectionists. "They don't bat an eyelid if they don't like something. They'll redo it until they are perfectly satisfied."

Alas, this brave attempt at perfection is drowned in a sea of stereotypical characters and clich d dialogues by Rumi Jaffrey. Women with curly hair are either spoilt rotten or scheming. The gloomy widowed mother spends her time praying and talking to her husband's portrait. And Akshaye's father -- Rajesh Khanna in a comeback role minus all the charisma of his superstar days -- finds his estranged family via a gold locket.

Rishi Kapoor

Rishi Kapoor speaks on the making of his maiden directorial venture. Excerpts:
How did you turn to direction?
My wife egged me on to it.
Your views on today's films?
Earlier films had men and women as the lead pair, today they've young boys and girls. That's why we are all jobless.
Your lead pair has had so many flops. Didn't it worry you?
I took my actors for the chemistry between them, not for their star status. They're future stars who only need the right film.
Do you think this is it?
I hope so. At least they've got many films, I've only one.

AALC takes you to a world where there are no shades of grey. Rishi professes the characters resemble people he has known. But it seems more likely that he has taken the easy way of falling back on the well-tested formula of desi vs western values. The film teems with Indians settled abroad getting sentimental on apna desh. Like cabbies Jaspal Bhatti and Kader Khan and friends Satish Kaushik and Vivek Vaswani, who provide the comic angle. Bhatti as the Sikh who shampoos and lovingly brushes his long tresses every Sunday is quite brilliant.

Good doctor Navin Nischol, long-suffering widow Moushumi Chatterjee and sexy but spoilt NRI Suman Ranganathan complete the hackneyed portrait. Only Paresh Rawal -- a cop who, on weekends, becomes the friendly neighbourhood panditji -- is different.

So why the Big Apple? After all Rajeev's Prem Granth, Randhir's Henna and most RK films since Bobby had rural themes centred on hapless village belles or widows. Randhir says the choice of a more contemporary, youth-oriented plot came from the realisation, post Prem Granth which was a flop, that the Kapoors had to move with the times. And what better time than the 50th year of RK Films? "Audiences have changed, the Yo! generation has taken over," he says.

AALC is also an important film for its thus far jinxed lead pair. "I want a hit as bad as ever," says 23-year-old Akshaye whose latest films Doli Saja Ke Rakhna and Kudrat have bombed at the box office. His vibrant presence flashes in certain scenes. Aishwarya, for the first time, comes across as an actress rather than a model.

RK Films has always been known for some of the best music scores. However, with the exception of the title track, the Nadeem-Shravan duo fails to meet the standards set by their predecessors.

The Kapoor brothers are banking heavily on AALC. "We knew it was going to be an expensive film but we wanted to try it out," admits Randhir. "We're hoping dad will persuade God to be good to us." The film could do with some divine intervention.