A Rare War to be Declared on October 2 to Find Peace Through Entertainment

Ali Peter John

I am sometimes amazed with the ways of the giver of life. One of the reasons is his his way of making me live long enough to see two or three generations of people in this strange world of Hindi films.

I was at the Yash Raj Studios after a gap of more than five years, especially because of the so called tight security at the gate. I was asked too many questions to handle in a place where I once used to walk in my own stride, with no questions asked and no suspicious eyes looking at me. It was a conference to meet the young writer and director of “War", one more film produced by Yash Raj Films and directed by Siddharth.

As I kept looking at the quite handsome and young Siddharth, my mind like it does in some cases went into a glorious flashback.

Siddharth was the grandson of one of the greatest writers of Hindi films, Inder Raj Anand who had written more than a hundred films with his speciality being writing dialogues, some of which are still remembered by film lovers and film historians. He was also one of the highest paid writers of his time. I had the privilege of knowing him as he was the best friend of my guru, K.A Abbas. He had also given me a job of reading some of the best James Hadley Chase novels and writing the synopsis of, for which he paid me a rich sum of rupees twenty-five per synopsis.I later came to become very good friends of his son's, Bittu Anand, who was a producer and had produced “Shahenshah" with Amitabh Bachchan, Meenakshi Seshadri and Pran in key roles. Tinnu Anand who was an assistant of Abbas Sahab could have been the seventh Indian in “Saat Hindustani", but had joined Satyajit Ray at the last minute and so made way for a new actor from Calcutta whose name was Amitabh Bachchan. Inder Raj Anand had died when Siddharth Anand was only eight years old and Siddharth's father, Bittu Anand too died when he was very young. Siddharth grew up to be a lover of films and was soon assisting some known directors and was a screenplay writer, who had gained a reputation with films like “Hum Tum" and some other films which were very popular in early two thousand....

His talent took very little time to be recognised and he was soon directing his own films which were in a class of their own. Siddharth had specialised in making travel-based films and the films (he made “Salaam Namaste",“Ta Ra Rum Pum",“Bachna Ae Haseeno",“Anjaana Anjaani" and “Bang Bang!").

He decided to take a break and spent the next five years traveling all over the globe and reading books for which he had no time when he was busy making films. It was books that opened up a whole wide world for him and it was also books that gave him the inspiration to make his next film, the result of which is “War",a film which besides achieving many impossible feats is planned as a visual celebration with the film being shot in and across various countries of the world. Siddharth had spent a long time in working on the script which was loved by Hrithik Roshan with whom Siddharth had formed a strong bond during the making of “Bang Bang!". He needed two strong and handsome men to put across his story and had no problems signing Hrithik who is one of the most difficult stars to sign for a film easily and who does not do more than one or two at the most in a year. It was a story of two daring men, one being a superman and the other being his dedicated disciple and Siddharth could not find better choice than Tiger Shroff who was popular for performing some of the most daring scenes and who could look believable as one-man who declares a war against the world and who together with a mentor like Hrithik Roshan could form a deadly combination. Vani Kapoor could have hesitated in accepting her role as the leading lady, but after a stage of listening to the script, she realised that her role was the focal point of the story to move forward.

Siddharth had no problems of any kind while shooting the film, especially with a company like Yash Raj films backing him all the way. He has tried his best to give the audience a double dose or more of complete entertainment at its best.

With a title like “War", the film just had to do with a lot of action sequences and Siddharth promises that he has them all, with all the car chases, the bike chases, chases in the sea and the most modern chases in the sky. The film also has some rich music with “ghungroo toot gaye' becoming popular already. Siddharth made it clear that the song was not a re-creation or a re-hash of any previous song and that the only thing common to the song in the film were the two words,‘ghungroo toot gaye', which was inspired by a traditional song and otherwise the song is an entirely new creation. He is also happy with the other songs in the film which talks about a war, but doesn't lose the basic need to entertain the millions. He says “War" will be released on October 2, which happens to be the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of peace and the date has been a coincidence more than a plan.“people can celebrate the birthday of Gandhiji and also celebrate with my film which is titled “War", but ultimately speaks about the absolute necessity in today's world".

The next six weeks will go in promoting the film in every possible way with Hrithik, Tiger and Vaani committed to promote the film to the hilt.

Talking about himself, Siddharth said he was booked to make the next three films of his career as out and out action film, but speaking from his heart, he said, he would jump at any good subject that would encourage and inspire him to make a romcom or an out and out love story which he has always wanted to make.

There has also been such talks about his making a sequel to “Bang Bang!", but no final decision has been taken yet.

For now, all that matters to Siddharth Anand is to spread ‘anand'(joy) and peace in the world through his film, “War".

Can  “War" bring peace in these troubled and tormented times? The audience will have to wait till October 2 to find the answer according to Siddharth Anand whose name is the name of Siddharth (Gautam Buddha who lived his life to spread the message of peace) and it will have to be seen whether Siddharth lives up to be a modern version of that great soul called Siddharth?

Where are you, my friend, Inder Raj Anand and Bittu Anand? Wherever you are, I want to let you know that Siddharth is doing a very plaudable and courageous job in the world where you ruled once and where he is one of the few rulers know?

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Siddharth Anand, War, Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff