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 July 1, 2002 
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Humraaz
A star-studded July
Big budgets, multi-starrers at the marquee

Subhash K Jha

July releases emphasise star power in all its glory.

Beginning July 5, when Abbas-Mustan's Humraaz, a slick adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder hits the marquee, audiences should get ready for the most star-stocked month of 2002.

Locked in a triangular fight-to-the-end are Bobby Deol, Amisha Patel and Akshaye Khanna. Again, none of the three stars has a market to speak of. Bobby is reeling under the impact of Kranti and 23rd March 1931 -- Shaheed.

Amisha's three-tiered flop, featuring Kranti, Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai and Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage makes her a liability at the box-office. As for Akshaye Khanna, Dil Chahta Hai hardly brought back the producers queuing at his doorstep.

"But Humraaz is looking so slick. And the three stars already have the viewers agog," Vashu Bhagnani thinks it would be a suitable precursor to his Om Jai Jagadish when it hits the theatres on July 19. But before that Vashu has Devdas to reckon with. The Devdas factor looms large over the film industry.

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On the fate of this Rs 500 million magnum epic rests the immediate future of the Hindi mainstream cinema. Should films become larger than life in scale? Or is it time to deescalate the prohibitive trend? That is the question Devdas will answer when it finally opens July 12.

Actor Sunil Shetty, a shrewd trade watcher, predicts, "A Rs 10 million budget project will coexist with a Rs 250 million to Rs 300 million opus in the near future." For now, all eyes are on Sanjay Leela Bhansali's literary adaptation. The film's centrifugal force is provided by Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai as novelist Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's doomed triangular figures.

Shararat Debutant Gurudev Bhalla has decided to release his film the long-delayed Abhishek Bachchan starrer Shararat alongside Devdas July 12. Says Bhalla, "I am not trying to be brave or anything. I have no choice. June was glutted with releases and so is August. I cannot delay my film any longer. I am hoping enough people would be interested in seeing a contemporary subject alongside Devdas. Though let me tell you Shararat is by no means a small film."

Smallness is certainly not a crime that the July releases can be accused of. Vashu Bhagnani claims his Om Jai Jagadish has put him in the red. Whether the gambit pays off we shall know on July 19. A week later Manmohan Desai's son Ketan Desai produces his father's most ardent student David Dhawan's father-son comedy Yeh Hai Jalwa, featuring Rishi Kapoor and Salman Khan in the main roles. Aftab Shivdasani and Amisha Patel did not click as a pair in Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai.

That did not deter distributors from showing a nodding interest in Vimal Kumar's situational comedy Suno Sasurji which opens July 26.

Om Jai Jagadish In fact the only 'small' film scheduled for July is new director Rahul Dholakia's Kehta Hai Dil Baar Baar, which features Jimmy Shergill with Kim Sharma. The film also features Paresh Rawal. After Aankhen and Awara Paagal Deewana, Rawal is considered the biggest draw in Bollywood right now.

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