There's lots of spice in Cheeni Kum - Hindustan Times
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There's lots of spice in Cheeni Kum

None | ByPrincy Jain & Bhawna Gera, New Delhi
May 24, 2007 07:12 PM IST

From title to storyline to cast and even crew, there is everything offbeat about this sugar-free baby, write Princy Jain and Bhawna Gera.

A title like

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Cheeni Kum

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makes one wonder. It also spells immediate connect for a certain age group. "It sounds like a film about us, senior citizens. I am curious," says Poornima Singhal (56). And younger citizens are not complaining either.



Says Akash Ma1hotra (29), "A 64-year-old romancing someone half his age. I can always borrow some ideas." If you thought the title and the storyline were both offbeat, wait till you meet some of the crew.



Meet Balki


Or R Balakrishnan, director


Ad to films:

The best way to learn about films is by watching them. I am a big film buff. In ad-world an idea gets over in three months. Here it takes longer and the challenge is to keep the idea fresh for that long.


Sugar-free baby:

"When I scripted the film, I didn't need to sketch Budhdev Gupta's character I knew he had to be exactly like Bachchan. He is the

Cheeni Kum

man. I saw the funny side of the whole thing a romance between a 64-year-old man and 34-year-old woman. The two characters share an amazing chemistry When you see both of them you are convinced that this can happen.


A film without music:

That is what it would have been if Illayaraja had refused to do it. I am a great fan of his. And I knew if any body would do the music it had to be him.



Mr Scissorhands

Chandan Arora, editor


Chopping a Bachchan film:

Every film comes with its own set of challenges. But this was a Bachchan film. To add to that there was the God of cinematography PC Sreeram working on it. And, then of course it was being directed by man who is used to conveying a story in 20 to 30 seconds. On the whole, both learning and challenging.



Panditji


Manoj Tapadia, 32, lyricist


Love letters:

From making money by writing love letters for school friends to writing songs for

Cheeni Kum

, it's been good so far In any case, I'm more interested in the journey than the destination. It was great fun working with all these people and for some strange reason Mr Bachchan would always call me

Panditji.


First feature film:

It's my first feature film as a lyricist. I'm excited. I don't know what the future holds for me and I'm waiting for people to react. I've been working under Balki (the director of

Cheeni Kum

) for the last three-and-half years. Together we've done numerous advertising projects but this time it was dit^ferent.


Working with Sameer:

I was asked to help Balki with the dialogues of the film. I didn't realise at the time that I'd end up writing the lyrics. That I'd share the credits with none other than Sameer I was a little apprehensive but Sameer was very supportive. There were times when I raised objections to the lines written by him. In those situations, Balki's word was final. I've contributed to almost all the songs expect one and it feels good.


Forever and ever:

There may be more films offers pouring in after

Cheeni Kum

but I'll never give up advertising for anything. I'm what I'm today because of advertising.

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