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A new turn

My take Eshmayeel Shroff feels suspense thrillers always work at the box office

Our Hindi film industry is all about instant hero worship. You are a couple of summers away from films and the cinemagoers’ memory plays tricks. A case in point is Esmayeel Shroff. Remember him? He is the man who gave seven silver jubilee films in a row, and 11 of the 14 films he directed had gone to notch up a silver jubilee at the box office. His last film Tarkieb, starring Nana Patekar, Shilpa Shetty and Tabu, came nine years ago and Esmayeel has since receded from public memory.

When he dropped in at Noida’s Marwah Studios the other day to promote the forthcoming flick Naazuk Sa Modd which he has scripted, many media persons even failed to recognise him. It needed a helping hand from some of the cast and crew members of the film for reporters to take note of the unassuming director who still has a couple of films in various stages of production.

Esmayeel is understandably upset with the way Hindi film industry is going. Says the veteran, “Today, it is all about commerce. Films are made keeping in mind the public demand and roles are written to go with the image of the hero, yet there was a time when the same hero could play a village simpleton or an impressive officer with equal ease. For instance, Dilip Kumar had no fixed image yet he was so popular. The change started with Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man persona, and today roles are written only according to the fixed image of the hero.”

Esmayeel feels there is too much concentration on stars and technique today and less on emotions. He reacts, “Not enough attention is paid to the dialogues and script, we need good scripts and dialogue writers.” Incidentally, Naazuk Saa Modd is the first film where Esmayeel has done the script and dialogue writing without donning the director’s mantle.

The creditable director also feels that the subject of Hindi commercial cinema is often removed from reality. “Films have gone away from our villages, and the common man beyond metropolises does not identify with the subject.” Esmayeel feels that unlike NRI subjects suspense thrillers always work at the box office. “Three of my hit films have been suspense thrillers. The genre is there to last for ever.”

Naazuk Saa Modd is directed by Adeep Tandon, the lyrics of the film has been done by none other than the renowned poet Nida Faazli. Raghav Marwah is the executive producer of the film which is expected to be released very soon.

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