Lights, Camera, Shootout! - Hindustan Times
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Lights, Camera, Shootout!

Hindustan Times | ByHT Brunch, New Delhi
Mar 31, 2012 08:20 PM IST

At HT Brunch, we like to stay off the beaten track. That’s why our maiden edition of Brunch Dialogues – Conversations with Indian Cinema, turned out to be such a different event. We love the movies. And what better way to extend our engagement with entertainment than through an event where conversation – about ideas and trends in cinema – ruled.

At HT Brunch, we like to stay off the beaten track. That’s why our maiden edition of Brunch Dialogues – Conversations with Indian Cinema, turned out to be such a different event. We love the movies. And what better way to extend our engagement with entertainment than through an event where conversation – about ideas and trends in cinema – ruled. The topic of the first Brunch Dialogues, held recently at Trident Bandra Kurla, Mumbai, was Bollywood’s obsession with organised crime, underworld gangs and tough cops. It was engrossing, absorbing, completely riveting.

Gangsters and their molls have always fascinated filmmakers all over the world. Bollywood hasn’t been immune to the high-octane mix of guns, goons and girls either. It first dazzled us in the ’50s with stylised movies such as Baazi. Later, Haji Mastan inspired a few blockbusters and in the shootout capers of the 2000s, glamour gave way to grit. No wonder the maiden edition of Brunch Dialogues – Conversations with Indian Cinema that tackled the twin themes of cinema and crime, turned out to be so smokin’ hot. It had to be, what with Brunch columnist and advisor, HT Media Limited, Vir Sanghvi quizzing the panellists on urban capers as well as gritty tales from the hinterland.

In the first session, filmmaker Sanjay Gupta recalled a newspaper photo that set him thinking about a movie on the shootout that killed don Maya Dolas. “It showed the then Maharashtra DIG AA Khan walking out after the encounter, shirt unbuttoned, sporting flashy sunglasses.” That movie was Shootout At Lokhandwala. Coming up next (in December this year) is a prequel, Shootout at Wadala, produced by Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Motion Pictures, about Mumbai’s first shootout in 1982. Ekta, also on the panel, spoke about how Shootout At Wadala was the best script she had read in years.

The third panellist, Tigmanshu Dhulia, fresh from the success of Paan Singh Tomar, said that “in Bihar and UP, they don’t hire a teenager from Azamgarh to kill. They pull the trigger themselves.”

After the first session ended, Bartenders – a noirish band – played classic Hindi film numbers with a sensuous, modern twist. They were followed by Brunch columnist Rajiv Makhni’s short, sparkling question-and-answer session with the audience.

All that jazz...
And then the stage was set for the second session on ‘Glamour in Gangland.’ The panellists included Manoj Bajpayee, whose portrayal of Bhiku Mhatre in Satya is a touchstone for celluloid baddies; Kangana Ranaut, who has perfected the moll act in Gangster, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and John Abraham, who plays Manya Surve in Shootout At Wadala. John said he wanted to move away from roles that showed him “emerging from the water in yellow trunks.”

Both the sessions were engaging, edifying. The 200-plus audience, which included Mumbai’s movers and shakers, then repaired to the after-party at the terrace of the Colosseum. And as conversation flowed over Fratelli and Vat 69, Mumbai raised a toast to this new exciting platform for cinema. Catch the Brunch Dialogues on NDTV Good Times, soon. Watch this space.

If looks could thrill: From left: Bajpayee, Ranaut and Abraham chat with Vir Sanghvi">
If looks could thrill: From left: Bajpayee, Ranaut and Abraham chat with Vir Sanghvi">
Spunky trio: From left: Dhulia, Gupta and Kapoor during the Brunch Dialogues ">
Spunky trio: From left: Dhulia, Gupta and Kapoor during the Brunch Dialogues ">
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