Sunny Deol, Dulquer Salmaan, and Pooja Bhatt’s Chup is slated for release on September 23
Sunny Deol and Pooja Bhatt are all set to share screen space after a long time in filmmaker R Balki’s upcoming romantic thriller Chup – Revenge of the Artist. The film also stars Dulquer Salmaan and Shreya Dhanwanthary in major roles.
After the release of its first look teaser on August 25, the makers decided to unveil the motion poster of the film. The trailer of the psycho-thriller is expected to release on September 5.
Talking about the movie, R Balki said in a statement, “Chup is special for more than one reason. For me, the biggest reason is it marks the official debut of Amitabh Bachchan as a music composer. Amitji saw Chup and played an instinctive original melody on his piano as he relived the film. It was his way of expressing his feelings for the film, paying tribute. This composition, his gift to the film, will be the end title track of Chup. I don’t think there can be an artist whose sensitivity can beat Bachchan’s and Chup has his touch.”
Filmmaker R Balki says cinema legend Guru Dutt was the perfect reference point for ‘Chup: Revenge of the Artist’, his upcoming thriller which depicts the pain of an artist who suffers from “wrong criticism”.
A teaser of ‘Chup’, unveiled over the weekend to mark Dutt’s 97th birth anniversary, pays homage to the late director’s film ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’.
The 1959 film, starring Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in the lead, was subjected to severe criticism upon its release and was later resurrected as a world cinema classic.
“The script has a lot of references to Guru Dutt,” said Balki, who has co-written ‘Chup’ with Rishi Virmani and critic-turned-writer Raja Sen.
“We will have a lot of music from his films and have a lot of sensitivity of Guru Dutt. It is about the sensitivity of an artist. We are giving a rare example of an artist who has been wronged by the viewer or fans or the media, not so much media but opinion makers,” the director told PTI.
‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ was Dutt’s eighth directorial effort after hits such as ‘Baazi’, ‘Aar Paar’, ‘Mr & Mrs 55’ and ‘Pyaasa’.
The film follows Suresh (Dutt), a lonely movie director who stumbles into Shanti (Rehman) one rainy evening and casts her as the lead in a film. In a cruel twist of fate, Shanti becomes a superstar and Suresh falls from the upper echelons of the film industry.
‘Chup’ is an attempt to explore the trauma of an artist who is judged after presenting their creation in public, said Balki.
“For me, (it) was about sensitivity towards artists. Guru Dutt sahab is one of the greatest artists who suffered from wrong criticism. Now the same community, all of us are calling ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ a ‘masterpiece’. It’s ironic. How much that person must have been hurt at that point of time?” he wondered.
Citing the example of ‘Sholay’, the filmmaker said there are numerous examples across the globe where people have dubbed “great stuff as trash”.
“It is not just cinema, but it is with books, advertising, architecture, etc,” he added.
Chup – Revenge of the Artist is produced by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Anil Naidu, Dr Jayantilal Gada of the PEN Studios, and Gauri Shinde. The screenplay and dialogues of the film are co-written by R Balki, Raja Sen, and Rishi Virmani. While, the music of the film is composed by musicians Amit Trivedi, Sneha Khanwalkar, SD Burman, and Aman Pant.
R Balki is not only known to be one of the finest storytellers of Bollywood, but he has also explored unconventional themes successfully in mainstream cinema.
Chup – Revenge of the Artist is all set for its theatrical release on 23 September.
