Crime pays in Bollywood

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript" src="Config?Configid=43376741"></script><br /><img align="left" src="/photo/26973.cms" alt="/photo/26973.cms" border="0" />Facts are stranger than fiction. Perhaps this is why Bollywood, never known for its logical plots, is choosing themes from real life. Films such as <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Supari, Plan, Ek Din</span>: <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">24 Ghante, Paanch</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Kyun</span> show just how Gen X is willing to take any route to get money -- even the path of crime.<br /><br />Rahul Dev, who stars in both <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Supari</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Kyun</span> feels that films should depict the changing face of urban India.‘‘<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Supari</span> is about four friends who take to crime in order to combat a particular situation,’’ reveals Rahul. Co-starring Uday Chopra and Purab Kohli, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Supari</span> shows four boys with different family backgrounds, but a common thread -- an individual compulsion demanding a change in lifestyle.<br /><br />Uday, whose role in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Supari</span> has him playing Aryan, a character who wants to make money fast, feels that films depicting youth taking to crime are important since they are real. ‘‘Such films have characters with shades of grey -- just like people are in real life. Unlike what is often depicted in Hindi movies, everything is not black or white. It is time this trend changed,’’ he elaborates.<br /><br /><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Plan</span>, directed by Sanjay Gupta of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Kaante</span> fame, stars Sanjay Dutt, Sanjay Suri, Rohit Roy and Bikram Saluja and is about a group of youngsters who resort to kidnapping in order to earn money fast. Unfortunately, their victim (Dutt) happens to be a don himself!<br /><br />Incidentally, Nandita Das features in two of the upcoming Gen-X crime thrillers --<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Supari</span>, in which she plays an underworld don; and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Ek Din: 24 Ghante</span>, in which she plays a girl whose boyfriend is caught in an underworld nexus. ‘‘These films deal with youth and crime -- an issue which is very topical these days,’’ reasons a trade analyst, ‘‘The times are changing and there is a need to depict this change in our films.’’<br /><br />But will these films dealing with the changing face of India click at the box-office? ‘‘That remains to be seen,’’ says distributor Sanjay Mehta, ‘‘Whether these films depict reality is secondary. What matters is whether the films are well-made.’’ <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Kyunki</span> the audience always has the last word.</div> </div>