Express yourself, they say. For it clears the mind and softens the heart. It blurs the guilt and shapes the outlook. It curtails your fear and makes you bolder. It helps you face the past and prepares you for the future. In brief, it is cathartic. And art is, as writer Dorothy Parker says, catharsis.
Vikram Bhatt’s film “Ankahee”, released on May 19, is a form of his own catharsis. This maker of a superhit “Raaz” with Dino Morea and Bipasha Basu as his debut effort in filmmaking confirmed his status with “Ghulam” and “Kasoor” and now with his new film is unveiling his heart. “Ankahee”, starring his all time favorite Aftab Shivdasani, Esha Deol and Amisha Patel, is his own tale of life.
Reports say that it is about his past relationship with former Miss World Sushmita Sen, a fact he himself had quietly admitted earlier. But now he denies it.
“It is not about my relationship with Sushmita. How can I make a film on her? It is only about me and my past. It is a true story of love, obsession, betrayal and family values. The film is my catharsis,” he asserts. On the “rumor” that Esha Deol’s role depicts Sushmita Sen, he says, “These are wrong media reports. I have been denying it constantly that it is not based on my relationship with her. I have no right to make a film on Sushmita. It is just a film on extramarital relationship. It is completely a fiction. And all characters in this film are fictional.”
“It is about a doctor played by Aftab who is happily married and has a daughter. The peace in his life gets a jolt when he comes across a Miss World who comes to his clinic with her wrist cut. He finds that she is manic-depressive. How he helps her during her phase of depression and falls in love with her during the course of her treatment, and how his wife suffers pangs of betrayal is what the film is all about. It also shows the suffering of a family because of an extramarital relationship. It is about that depression, that isolation, that euphoria I underwent during that phase of my life. The film tells you that it is human to fall in love more than once. And often, an extramarital relationship is not out of one’s own volition but caused by love. I have completely unmasked myself in it. I haven’t manipulated even a single moment in it,” he says while elaborating on the storyline.
Amisha plays Aftab’s loving wife and a doting mother in this film. The length of her role is smaller than that of Esha, informs Bhatt, adding but each has its own importance.
But catharsis never comes without a cost. And this time, the cost seems to be Sen’s reputation with the masses and his own love life under people’s scrutiny. When asked whether he felt guilty after making this film. “No. Why should I? There is nothing wrong in telling the truth, about being honest. It is my heart’s tale. I am just unburdening myself with the film,” he claims.
The film is about the eternal triangle — two women and a man, with the man caught between the wife and the other woman. But Bhatt has infused this age-old formula with his own twist. It begins with a flashback with a father telling his 16-year-old daughter the tale of his past life. The film has three songs.
Bhatt wanted to make this film some time back with Sanjay Suri and Rituparna Sen Gupta. We know Sanjay Suri as the major face of the film “Jhankar Beats” and Rituparna is a well-known name in Bengali films. She has made her presence felt in the Hindi film scene with Chandan Mishra’s “Main Meri Patni Aur Woh” (Me, My Wife and My Lover) opposite Rajpal Yadav. As the title depicts that too had a similar theme. But after the previous producer, whose name Bhatt doesn’t want to reveal, cried out, Bhatt made the film with Pritish Nandy. “Under Pritish my film got completed within nine months,” he says. Bhatt is also ready with his next film “Rooh” which will have newcomers in the lead roles. “Ramesh Sippy will be its producer,” he adds.
Well, after having a look at the recent film career graph of Bhatt, one may not pin much hope on this film. Considering his mutlistarrer “Elaan” that gave Mithun Chakaravarty a new lease of life in mainstream cinema and “Deewane Huye Pagal” that bombed at the box office recently, he would be hoping that his tale of heart proves heart-rending this time.
