HELLO : A Hit book doesn’t guarantee a Hit movie.

Based on a bestseller “One Night at a Call Center” by Chetan Bhagat, the movie is a good example which teaches that we need to do a lot of changes and additions on the scripting stage if we want to make a movie on a novel. In “Hello”, the director has made some additions, but the add on’s are there only to sell the movie and grab attention of the audiences. By only taking Salman Khan for few scenes and shooting a catchy number with shirtless Salman, does not mean that you can ignore the other important aspects of movie making. Sadly “Hello” becomes the culprit of the same thought.

Last week, I noticed and mention it for “Kidnap” and this week we have the same drastic mistake repeated in “Hello”. I cannot simply understand that “How can a movie start straight away with a four-five minute song?” As the viewer excitedly sits to watch the movie, he is simply served a song at the start. This is a definite indication that you are going to watch a mediocre product. And as the time passes, you know that the outcome is not what you were expecting.

An interesting and novel idea gets spoiled with a very poor script and execution. It was hugely promoted as a movie in which a phone call is made by “The God” himself to some call center employees. And the greatest flaw of the movie is that the phone call comes after almost half the movie is over. You keep on waiting for that but the director, Atul Agnihotri is more engrossed in giving scenes to all his characters and in describing the tragedies they are facing. Suddenly the phone call sequence comes and also finishes off in minutes. You don’t feel excited while the call is being attended by the characters on the screen. The scene is not capable of generating any extraordinary thrill in the viewer. And as the “Call from the God” sequence ends, you also end having any interest in the movie. Morevoer, you also don’t find any great results in the movie, even after the God has called.

Performance by the entire cast is simply professional like they are just doing another film. So nothing special is there to write about any specific actor. Only Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif seem to be more interested in contributing to the movie than all others. They both are there enacting “a special appearance” in order to provide a star element to the movie. A catchy title song with Salman, is good to watch, but it should have been there in the end titles instead. The special and heartily efforts of Salman & Katrina are not able to save the movie which is unexpectedly a poor product based on a best-selling novel.

It’s nice to see that we are again picking up good books and novels for the stories in our movies. This practice was done way back in the Black and White era and in later years too by some great film-makers India has seen. But in the current and fast changing times a lot has to be re-shaped and re-written to transform a successful book into a Hit movie. Unfortunately, “Hello”, fails in doing that.

Rating : 1 / 5

Salman, Sanjay Dutt in Raj Kumar Santoshi’s next!

Lahore will be recreated in Hyderabad for the Sanjay Dutt-Salman Khan starrer, which is an adaptation of Asghar Wajahat’s play, Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhya Woh Jamiya Nahin,
, Nitish Roy ,Vidya Balan

Sanjay Dutt-Salman Khan starrer Raj Kumar Santoshi’s adaptation of Asghar Wajahat’s play Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhya Woh Jamiya Nahin won’t be shot in Lahore, as originally planned. Now Santoshi will recreate Lahore in Hyderabad.

Santoshi confirmed and said, “Shooting in Lahore seems impractical. Primarily because we may not get the architecture of the partition times any more. So Nitish Roy is building Lahore in Hyderabad for us. Every lane, bylane, the transportation, the electric wires will be recreated. Our set will look more like Lahore than Lahore itself.”

However, according to a source close to Sanjay Dutt, absence of period architecture is not the only reason for the film not being shot in Lahore. Our source said, “The producers are concerned about the safety aspect. But if Sanju can brave Kashmir for Lamhaa, why not Lahore?”

Our source added that apart from Mahesh Bhatt, who shot a small portion of his film Awaarapan in Pakistan, artistes and filmmakers from Bollywood continue to be shunned across the border. Many industry insiders are unhappy about the fact that a film on Lahore is being shot in Hyderabad . But Santoshi and Tips are all set to shoot from January 2009, soon after their other collaborative project, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (Ranbir-Katrina) is complete.

Santoshi said, “This is my second pre-Independence film after The Legend Of Bhagat Singh. And an even bigger challenge because I’ve to combine drama and fiction into history. While we are getting the cast and crew into place my art designer, Nitish Roy and I are doing extensive research on Lahore during the Partition. We want to replicate every detail.”

Dutt’s Munnabhai co-star, Vidya Balan, has been confirmed to play his wife in the film. Apart from Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan, Neil Nitin Mukesh will play the third male lead. Sanjay and Salman haven’t worked together since David Dhawan’s comedy Chal Mere Bhai. Sanjay Dutt Productions’ CEO Dharam Oberoi’s daughter, Neha Oberoi, will be seen in a key role.