AMITABH BACHCHAN AND THE LEGEND OF DEEWAAR

On the eve of iconic Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s appearance at the opening night of the 2014 Indian Film Festival Melbourne (IFFM), SCREEN-SPACE takes a retrospective glance at the late Yash Chopra’s epic 1975 crime-drama, Deewaar, the film that made Bachchan a star and crafted the creative template for the Bollywood industry to this day.

Often spoken of as ‘India’s The Godfather’, Chopra’s seamless vision of the script by the legendary writing team of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar (pictured, below right) proves utterly timeless, as relevant and captivating to both eastern and western audiences today as it was nearly 40 years ago. The legacy of the film courses through the very lifeblood of modern Indian cinema; in addition to the global status of leading men Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan (pictured above; from left, with co-star Nirupa Roy), the archetypal portrayal of strong matriarch figureheads in modern Indian cinema and the box-office goldmine that is the Bollywood crime melodrama can also be attributed to the long shadow cast by this intimate yet sweeping multi-generational epic.

Chopra establishes his film’s thematic elements of family, honour, social standing and revenge in a deftly handled extended prologue. Anand (Satyen Kappu) is a working class husband to Sumitra (Nirupa Roy) and father of two sons, Ravi and Vijay. As the leader of a strike against his corrupt boss, he is forced to sign an agreement against his will that ends the strikes and betrays his co-workers, none of which know the truth – the boss had threatened to kill Anand’s family had he refused the agreement. Shamed before his people, Anand leaves and his family is forced to flee to a life of destitution on the streets of Mumbai.

As the boys grow into manhood, their lives take divergent paths. Vijay (an impossibly charismatic Bachchan, in one of Indian film’s great performances; pictured, left) is swept up into the world of crime, amassing an enormous though immoral wealth and falling for bad-girl Anita (Parveen Babi); Ravi (a wonderfully animated Kapoor) ascends to the upper echelons of the police force with his integrity and reputation beyond reproach, his life enriched by the beautiful Veera (Neetu Singh). Inevitably, the brother’s personal and professional lives collide, the impact and conflict felt no more profoundly than in the heart of their ageing mother.

Yash Chopra’s control over the more melodramatic elements of his sweeping narratives became less important to the director over time, but here he displays a sublime technical prowess and storytelling fluency that ensures the heart and soul of his film is never compromised by the genre machinations. There are certainly some florid leaps made in the film’s chronology and logic (not uncommon at all in even the greatest of Bollywood films), but Chopra (pictured, right; in 2007) and his cast skim by them with never a backwards glance. Even after a weighty 176 minutes, the denouement is a richly emotional, deeply satisfying one.

Watching the film retrospectively, one is struck by how polished it looks and vibrantly plays out. Deewaar set several new standards for Indian cinema, not least of which being Babi’s ‘bad girl’ archetype, whose indulgent immorality shattered decades of meek female non-roles and pushed her into the international spotlight (pictured, left; the actress on the cover of TIME magazine, July 1976). The film emerges after 40 years as a work of global standing, while its impersonators within the Bollywood sector are too numerous to mention (including remakes in both Telugu and Tamil dialects). Despite originating from a film culture that at the time went largely unseen in western society, Deewaar exhibited the auteuristic flair that was redefining the film language of the day. Decades later, modern directors adopt its narrative beats and filmic energy; it exhibits a clear influence over such works as Brian De Palma’s Scarface and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.

Despite Chopra’s masterpiece sweeping seven categories at the 1976 Filmfare Indian Film Awards, Amitabh Bachchan did not score a Best Actor trophy for his landmark portrayal (it went to Sanjeev Kumar for the political drama, Aandhi); organisers have remedied this, with Bachchan now the most nominated actor of all time with 39 nods. It is a body of screen work and level of stardom that goes unmatched to this day and would not exist without his portrayal of Vijay Verma in Deewaar, unarguably a major work of cultural and artistic importance.

Amitabh Bachchan will attend the Opening Night ceremony and the Awards function this week at the IFFM. Further details are available at the event website here.

LITTLE WOMEN: IS SHAILENE WOODLEY TOO YOUNG FOR STARDOM?

At 21, Shailene Woodley was carrying a potential tentpole blockbuster. In November 2012, she was deep into production on Divergent (pictured, below) and still hot off her Oscar-nominated performance in The Descendants. Superstardom comes a lot sooner nowadays; Kristen Stewart (Twilight; Snow White & The Huntsman) and Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games; Silver Linings Playbook) were both A-list stars before they turned 21. But what of the screen goddesses of days gone by? Some, like Shirley Temple or Jodie Foster, were well into (or well past) their movie careers. But were the career paths of other great actresses mapped out for them by that tender age of 21…?

JULIA ROBERTS:
Happy 21^st! October 28, 1988
Her debut, the girl band drama Satisfaction, had just bombed, yet everyone was talking about the young actress who had stolen the limelight in the arthouse ensemble hit, Mystic Pizza. Insider word was that her performance in Herbert Ross’ adaptation of Robert Harling’s play, Steel Magnolias (pictured, right; with co-star Sally Field), was going to be her breakout performance. By early 1989, Roberts was preparing to star in her first romantic comedy…Disney’s reworking of the old ‘hooker with a heart of gold’ plotline.  

MERYL STREEP:
Happy 21^st! June 22, 1970
One year before graduating from the all-female Vassar College, the young woman that would become the greatest actress of her generation was taking on any role she could in school productions. Most notably, she played the title role in August Strindberg’s play Miss Julie (pictured, left), Frosine in the original production of The Miser and was preparing for her graduating performance as Sarah Millwood in The London Merchant. Her first film role, opposite Jane Fonda in Julia, was seven years away.

CATHERINE DENEUVE:
Happy 21^st! October 22, 1964
Deneuve had been working steadily since her teens; she was 13 when cast in Andre Hunebelle’s 1957 film Les Collegiennes. Her exquisite beauty and flawless talent was not lost on the French producers, who would cast her in seven movies over three years. In late 1963, the 20 year-old began production on The Umbrellas’ of Cherbourg, director Jacques Demy’s groundbreaking romantic-musical that would become an international sensation. At 21, Deneuve was European cinema’s hottest starlet.

JULIETTE BINOCHE:
Happy 21^st! March 9, 1985
The miracle of filming with Jean-Luc Godard was tempered by the controversy surrounding what would be Juliette Binoche’s second feature film. The actress turned 21 a few weeks after Hail Mary (pictured, right), the great director’s modern spin on immaculate conception, premiered across Europe to howls of religious protest. The ingénue buried herself in work, completing seven movies in three years; the workload lead to her acclaimed US movie debut, opposite Daniel Day Lewis in Philip Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1988.

AISHWARYA RAI:
Happy 21^st! November 1, 1994
Despite a modelling career that saw her represent key brands such as Pepsi and Ford in one of the world’s biggest markets, it would not be until 1997 that Indian cinema’s most successful actress debuted onscreen in a series of films that included Iruvar, The Duo and …Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (for which she would win the Screen Award for Best Newcomer). In 1994, the 21 year-old Rai was coping with the adulation of a nation after having been crowned Miss World (pictured, left).

HELEN MIRREN:
Happy 21^st! July 26, 1966
The future Dame was barely dipping her toes in Britain’s cinematic waters at the age of 21. It would be the year she first stepped in front of a camera, with an uncredited bit part in the Norman Wisdom comedy vehicle, Press for Time. But her reputation as one of England’s great theatrical hopes was well established. By the time she started work in late 1966 on her second film, Australian expat director Don Levy’s Herostratus (featured, below), she had conquered the role of Cleopatra for the National Youth Theatre and was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. The 21 year-old Mirren made such an impact, she became the subject of John Goldschmidt’s documentary, Doing Her Own Thing (1970).

BETTE DAVIS:
Happy 21^st! April 5, 1929
The actress that many refer to as ‘The First Lady of The American Screen’ had not stood before a camera when she turned 21 in April of 1929. That would be the year that she would introduce herself to New York audiences in her Broadway debut, Broken Dishes. It would not be until 1931 that Davis would make her first screen appearance in the Universal melodrama The Bad Sister (pictured, right), opposite a charismatic leading man named Humphrey Bogart.

LOUISE BROOKS:
Happy 21^st! November 14, 1927
Arguably the most iconic actress of the first quarter-century of cinema, Brooks had survived a miserable childhood in Kansas to be an acclaimed dancer; in 1925 at the age of 19, she landed a featured role with the famous Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway. Her beguiling beauty and offscreen reputation (at age 20, she had a well-publicised liaison with Charlie Chaplin) ensured film work was steady; by 21, she had eleven film credits and was being noticed by some of Europe’s leading filmmakers. Highest amongst those was GW Pabst, the German who would cast Brooks, nearing her 22^nd birthday, in her iconic role of Lulu in 1929’s Pandora’s Box. 

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: INTERNATIONAL STARDOM AND ITS CLOSE CALL WITH WENDY HUGHES

Of the many adoring obituaries that have been published to commemorate the sad passing of cherished actress Wendy Hughes, very few have detailed the troubled project that would be her American film debut, Happy New Year.

Wendy Hughes had become one of the most beloved screen actresses working in Australia after a run of critically lauded hit films, emerging as a central figure in a period of production referred to as the ‘Australian Film Renaissance’. Having built her reputation on films such as Petersen, Newsfront, My Brilliant Career, Hoodwink, Lonely Hearts, Careful He Might Hear You and An Indecent Obsession and dominated the small-screen during the mini-series boom period (Power Without Glory; Lucinda Brayford; Return to Eden), Hughes secured an LA agent and ventured to Hollywood.

At the height of Hollywood’s obsession with French remakes, journeyman director John G Avildsen (Joe; Save the Tiger; Rocky; Neighbors: pictured, right) was preparing a remake of Claude Lelouch’s delightful 1973 farce, La Bonne Annee. Hoping to tap into the successful trend of hit remakes such as Three Men and a Baby, Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Three Fugitives, Columbia Pictures greenlit the jewelry heist romantic comedy Happy New Year, based on a script by Nancy Dowd (working under the pseudonym ‘Warren Lane’) and starring funnyman Peter Falk, character actor Charles Durning and Brit import Tom Courtenay. Wendy Hughes, with barely a US credit to her name, was cast as the romantic foil, Carolyn.

In a 2007 interview, Hughes recalled the daunting nature of filming a big Hollywood studio comedy after a decade of small Australian films. “It just used to terrify me, because you'd go on and do an intimate little scene and there'd be 200 crew behind the camera, or a hundred people, and that I found intimidating. Normally we have five or something,” she said. “(Projects of) that bigger scale, can be really, um...well, for me, sort of intimidating.”

Despite her reservations, the shoot went relatively smoothly; principal photography wrapped in mid-1985. Falk (pictured, top and left; with Hughes) gives a wonderful comic performance, donning heavy make-up to play both an elderly woman and grumpy old man (the picture would earn a single Oscar nomination for Robert Laden’s prosthetic effects). The chemistry between the cast is strong, with Hughes contributing a sweet but strong-willed turn and matching her more experienced old-school comedy stars stride for stride.

But Avildsen’s comedy soon found itself hog-tied by a dispute between the director and the studio. Delays in post-production forced Avildsen into conflict with his current project, The Karate Kid Part II; contractually bound to finish the martial arts crowd-pleaser for a summer release date, Columbia rode roughshod and shelved Happy New Year until Avildsen delivered the Ralph Macchio sequel.

By the time Avildsen returned to Happy New Year, the studio was involved in one of the most turbulent boardroom power struggles in Hollywood history: after a merry-go-round of executive ‘hires and fires’ following Coca-Cola’s purchase of the studio in 1982 and studio head Frank Price’s departure in 1983, projects that carried the baggage of past administrations were giving little support. By the time British producer David Puttnam assumed the mantle of studio head in 1986 and oversaw production and PR nightmares such as Ishtar and Leonard Part 6, the fate of Happy New Year was sealed.

Wendy Hughes’ US debut had become ‘cinema non grata’ to the new regime. Happy New Year surfaced briefly in the dumping ground that is the late summer theatrical schedule; it debuted August 7, 1987, in a mere 40 theatres and would play out its cinema run in 7 days, grossing US$41,232.00. It found favour on VHS in the rental boom period and is fondly remembered by those that saw it but, to date, has received no studio-backed DVD release (it is currently downloadable via Amazon Prime).

Wendy Hughes (pictured, right; with Falk) was noticed by the handful of analysts who saw the film. Critic John Varley described her as, “a cool Grace Kelly type who should be better known by now”; Carrie Rickey in The Philadelphia Enquirer, declared, “Hughes is, with Judy Davis and Mel Gibson, one of Australia's greatest gifts to the screen.” She would work intermittently in the US (opposite Kevin Kline and Jim Broadbent in the 1994 film, Princess Caraboo; guest stints on TV series Homicide and Star Trek: The Next Generation), but it would be her homeland that truly embraced and benefitted from her extraordinary talent.

Wendy Hughes passed away on March 8 after a battle with cancer. She was 61. 

REMEMBERING HAROLD RAMIS

Harold Ramis, the Chicago born comic who rose from the legendary stable of Second City performers to become one of his generation’s most iconic comedic figures, passed away on February 24 after a four year fight with the rare disease auto immune inflammatory vasculitis; he was 69. SCREEN-SPACE honours the great funny man with a look back at a career peppered with some of the most beloved moments in American comedies of all time…

TVTV at the Super Bowl:

Ramis and comedy cohorts Bill Murray, Christopher Guest and Brian Doyle-Murray were given unprecedented access to the locker rooms and lives of the players, coaching staff and fans in the lead-up to 1976 Super Bowl X between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys. The result was freeform faux-journalism at the dawn of television’s big-money commitment to sports coverage, predating the current cable net comedy giants by over three decades. Ramis shared multiple duties with a pre-SNL Murray and pre-Spinal Tap Guest, but it would be his skill and timing as director that shone through (watch the full video here). It lead to him overseeing such comedy classics as National Lampoon's Vacation (1983; pictured, right, the director on-set), the Al Franken SNL spin-off Stuart Saves His Family (1995), Multiplicity (1996) with Michael Keaton, the remake of Bedazzled (2000) and the John Cusack film, The Ice Harvest (2005).  

The Screenwriter - Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes:
Having served as Head Writer on the television offshoot of the improv troop Second City, Ramis co-wrote one of the most successful comedies of all time, the John Landis directed Animal House (1978). He tailored the part of frathouse wildman Bluto for his good friend John Belushi, with whom Ramis had been sharing the Second City stage since 1972. The films blockbuster status opened doors for the young writer; in quick succession, his scripts for Meatballs (1979), Caddyshack (1980) and Stripes (1981) were in production. Other Ramis scripts included Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School, Robin Williams’ Club Paradise and John Candy’s Armed and Dangerous (all 1986); Analyze This (1999) and its sequel, Analyze That (2002); and, his final bigscreen effort, the 2009 Jack Black/Michael Cera farce, Year One.

When Harry met Billy…:
By the time Bill Murray and Harold Ramis played opposite each other in Ivan Reitman’s Stripes, they had been inspiring each other’s unique talents for a decade. Ramis arrived in New York from Chicago in 1972 and was soon working alongside Murray on The National Lampoon Radio Hour. Ramis’ script for Meatballs provided Murray with his breakout hit; their late-night improv sessions led to Murray’s Carl the Groundsman in Ramis’ directorial debut, Caddyshack. When Dan Aykroyd presented Ramis and Murray with his dark, edgy script about a trio of paranormal investigators in NYC, Ramis worked on lengthy rewrites to better accommodate the three actors distinctive stylings; Ghostbusters (1984; pictured, right) would become the most successful comedy of all time.

“Don’t drive angry!”:
When Ramis came on board to direct Danny Rubin’s script for Groundhog Day, he tweaked the concept considerably (among other things, Rubin’s script began in the midst of one of Phil’s repeated days) and set about finding a leading man. Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks and John Travolta all tested, but Ramis felt all played too ‘nice’. Bill Murray was approached and the film, along with their Ghostbuster collaborations, became an iconic work for which both will be forever remembered. In 2007, the films status as an American classic was ensured when it was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.

The Great Straight Man:
“The moment I knew I wouldn't be any huge comedy star was when I got on stage with John Belushi for the first time," Ramis told the Chicago Tribune in 1999. “"I stopped being the zany. I let John be the zany. I learned that my thing was lobbing in great lines here and there, which would score big and keep me there on the stage." From his debut as Russell Ziskey in Stripes (featured, above), Ramis made the absolute utmost of every part he played. He was one of cinema’s greatest straight-faced comedy leads as Dr Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters; other notable film appearances included Baby Boom (1987), Love Affair (1994), As Good as It Gets (1997), Orange County (2002) and Knocked Up (2007).

Harold Ramis was surrounded by family and friends when he passed away at 12:53am on February 24. He is survived by his wife, Erica Mann Ramis.

OBITUARY: TOM SHERAK

Hollywood is mourning the loss of Tom Sherak, the industry executive and philanthropist whose reputation as one of the cutthroat LA industry’s nicest men was beyond reproach. Passing away on Tuesday at the age of 68, Sherak’s death was not sudden, as he had been bravely fighting prostate cancer for over a decade; his family and friends were gathered for his final moments at his home in Calabasas, California. But the industry grief is profound, a testament to the legacy that Sherak left behind after five decades in ‘the biz’. SCREEN-SPACE honours the man with a look at the defining moments of Tom Sherak’s career…

THE 20^TH CENTURY FOX YEARS: Sherak served under the legendary Robert Evan’s in Paramount’s distribution division in the early 1970s (upon hearing of Sherak’s passing, Evan’s tweeted, “He singularly raised the bar of integrity with those of us who were lucky enough to know him. What a fine human being.") before a stint as chief film buyer for General Cinema. But it would be Sherak’s ascension through the corporate ranks of 20^th Century Fox, first as President of Domestic Distribution & Marketing, followed by Senior Executive Vice President and ultimately Chairman of the film division’s domestic operations, that would consolidate his status amongst the industry’s great executives. From the early 1980’s until his departure in 2000 (Sherak once noted that he survived 10 regime changes), he oversaw a roster of films that included Romancing the Stone, Aliens, Broadcast News, Wall Street, Die Hard, Home Alone, There’s Something About Mary, Edward Scissorhands, The Fly, True Lies, Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day, Speed, Predator and Titanic. When George Lucas (pictured, right: with Sherak) began taking meetings to negotiate the domestic distribution rights for Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Sherak made a short film in which he starred as a Luke Skywalker-type hero; it was called ‘Episode VII -- The Distribution Wars’. Lucas issued a statement soon after the Sherak's passing, stating ""Tom's passion for everything he did made him an inspiration to work with. His boundless enthusiasm for Star Wars earned him an honorary Jedi master title."

THE EVOLUTION OF REVOLUTION STUDIOS: Sherak’s departure from the Fox fold in 2000 led to his involvement as an equity partner in Revolution Studios, a high-profile start-up venture that was the brainchild of Joe Roth. Roth had been chairman of 20^th Century Fox from 1989 to 1993 and worked closely with Sherak; the pair would shepherd such films as XXX, Black Hawk Down, Punch Drunk Love, Maid in Manhattan, The Missing, Anger Management, Hellboy (pictured, right: director Guillermo del Toro with Sherak), Rocky Balboa, Click and the ambitious Julie Taymor vision, Across the Universe. The pairing was not without its commercial and critical misfires (Gigli, Hollywood Homicide, Zoom, Next, Rent), but, due in no small part to Sherak’s sense of old-school showmanship and business acumen, turned solid profits on a slate of low-brow/low-cost comedies (The Animal, The Master of Disguise, Daddy Day Care, 13 Going On 30, The Benchwarmers) and minor genre works with major star power (Halle Berry and Bruce Willis in Perfect Strangers; Julianne Moore in The Forgotten). Revolution ceased its film operations in late 2007.

THE AMPAS PRESIDENCY: After a stint as Treasurer and an ongoing seat on the Board of Governors, Tom Sherak was elected President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science in 2009. He moved swiftly to reform the Oscars ceremony, which was in danger of becoming an irrelevant relic of Old Hollywood. He would be instrumental in expanding the Best Picture nominees from five to ten, allowing for more audience-friendly fare to feature; negotiated primetime broadcast agreements that will last until 2020; set in motion a long relationship with the state-of-the-art Dolby Theatre as the event venue; and, forged a relationship with the LA County Museum that will result in an extensive film museum, the first of its kind in Hollywood, designed by architects Zoltan Pali and Pulitzer Prize-winner Renzo Piano. Having served three consecutive terms, he stood down in 2012 having cannily handled the James Franco/Anne Hathaway hosting debacle and Brett Ratner/Eddie Murphy storm; he announced his departure by issuing a heartfelt letter of resignation to the membership.

THE PHILANTHROPIST: Tom Sherak’s daughter Melissa (pictured, right: with her father) was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1993. As his career soared at Fox, his family life was under tremendous strain. But he rallied in the face of adversity and had soon organized a charity event to help sufferers of MS from all walks of life. As chairman of the annual MS Dinner of Champions, he would draw donations in excess of US$45million to the cause. In September 2013, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti bestowed upon Sherak the role of ‘film czar’, his primary duty to draw production activity  back to the city he loved most of all; for this enormous task, he asked for an annual salary of US1.00

Sherak dealt with his disease for 12 years, though rarely mentioned it in public.  At the Academy Governor’s Awards in November 2011, he drank a toast to the late cancer victim Laura Ziskin, honouring the example she set with her strength and personality “for all of us who have struggled with cancer.” Sherak was due to attend the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14; the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce arranged to have the monument brought to his bedside ahead of the ceremony.

Tom Sherak is survived by Madeleine, his wife of 45 years, and their children Melissa, Barbara and William.