Hindi Cinema Vivah

[Daisy Hughlett]

Kapoorand Rao's performance in the film earned them a nomination for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively at the Screen Awards. Vivah is the first Indian film to be simultaneously released in cinema and on the internet (through the production company's official site). The film was also dubbed into Telugu and released as Parinayam.[5]

Poonam is a middle-class girl living in the small town Madhupur in Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh. Her parents died in her childhood and since then, her uncle Krishnakant has fulfilled a father's void in her life. However, his wife Rama is jealous and unable to accept Poonam, driven by the fact that their own daughter Rajni is darker in complexion and not as beautiful as her cousin. Despite this, Rajni and Poonam are close and consider themselves sisters. Harish Chandra Bajpayee, a renowned businessman in New Delhi, has two sons: the married Sunil, and the soft-spoken and well-educated Prem.

Poonam's simple and affectionate demeanor impresses Bhagatji, a jeweller and Krishnakant's friend, who takes her marriage proposal for Prem. Harish asks for his son's opinion on the proposition. Hesitant, Prem feels he needs to focus on his career first. Harish convinces him to at least meet Poonam before deciding, which Prem agrees to. They visit the Mishras and let him get acquainted with Poonam. Prem and Poonam are instantly attracted to each other, agree to the marriage and get engaged.

Krishnakant invites Bajpayees to their summer place in Som Sarovar so Prem and Poonam get to know each other better. The two go through the most magical and romantic period of their lives, begin to fall in love and become attached. Later, Harish and his family return home to attend a business meeting urgently. Poonam and Prem communicate via telephone and letter. Prem joins the business and takes on an essential project in Japan.

Upon returning, the family brings Poonam as a surprise, and a celebration is held in honour of Poonam's first visit and Prem's successful business venture. During the celebration, an angry and jealous Rama hides in her room, refusing to join. Krishnakant finds her and angrily confronts his wife, calling her out on her refusal to accept Poonam despite her attempts throughout her life to win Rama's love. He informs Rama that she is the only person who has ever had a problem with Poonam.

Sooraj Barjatya noted that the story of Vivah is based upon a newspaper article his father read in 1988.[6] Like in all of Barjatya's previous films, the male lead is named Prem. The story combined elements of Hindu tradition to set itself up as a film of cultural significance and was constructed differently than Barjatya's earlier films. Barjatya hoped that the film would be remembered as the first to tackle the definitions and dynamics of a marriage.[7] In an interview with Times of India Barjatya said, he kept in mind all the novels of Saratchandra Chatterjee while making Vivah.[8] Barjatya felt that the film should possess a lyrical feel, since it was, according to him, "a lyrics oriented film."[9]

Samir Soni was cast to play Kapoor's brother, Sunil. He added that Barjatya would explain scenes to everyone individually.[13] Lata Sabharwal was cast as Bhavna opposite Soni. Anupam Kher, Alok Nath, Seema Biswas, Manoj Joshi and Amrita Prakash were cast in other prominent roles.[14]

Filming took place during the first months of 2006.[10] The main hurdle came up with the location.[9] Barjatya wanted to shoot film in an authentic way. He asked the film's art director Sanjay Dhobade to create the entire town of Madhupur that can give a realistic look, particularly portions where water leaking takes place and portions where spit marks were visible on the walls of the buildings in the film.[9] Later, the town was created in Film city, Mumbai. Outdoor session of the film was done in Delhi, Lonavla, Ranikhet, Nainital and Almora.[15]

The soundtrack (songs and the background score) and lyrics for Vivah was scored by Ravindra Jain. Vivah was seventh collaboration of Ravindra Jain with Rajshri Productions.[9] It was produced under the Saregama label. The composer primarily gave special importance to "taal" and opted to keep two "antras" followed by a "mukhra" in the songs.[9] The orchestra combines with classical Indian instruments, like the sitar, sarod, violin, dholak and tabla to produce a blend between classical western and classical Indian music.[17] The complete film soundtrack album was released on 26 September 2006.[17][18]

Although the songs were appreciated, the music was criticised due to its monotony choice of instruments and music arrangements being very similar to one another. Rediff.com wrote in its music review that, "Vivah's music disappoints".[19] Nofil of Glamsham gave the album 2.5 out of 5 stars and noted that, "The music of Vivah fails to emerge as successful as other Rajshri family potboilers, Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun [sic] and Hum Saath-Saath Hain."[20]

Vivah premiered on 10 November 2006 across India.[21] Like Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), Rajshri Productions released limited number of prints for the film and eventually increased prints with increasing popularity. Early reviewers of Vivah predicted that it would be a huge disappointment. The film opened well and went on to become a commercially successful venture.[22][23][24]

Madhuparna Das of The Telegraph criticised Vivah for lacking plot, flat characters and mentioning that the story was "rather weak and improbable."[31] BBC described Vivah as "a didactic, worthy, and highly sanitised take on reality in keeping with the Rajshri tradition."[32] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave only 1 out of 5 stars and condemned the screenplay, calling both Kapoor and Rao "insipid and boring."[33] A review carried by Anupama Chopra mentioned, "Sooraj Barjatya's fantasy world is carefully constructed, but his conviction infuses his films with an emotional heft."[34]

Vivah remains one of the most popular cast ensemble film of Indian cinema.[38] Kapoor and Rao's performance has been noted as one of their most notable works.[39][40] Bollywood Hungama placed Kapoor and Rao in its list of the top 10 best romantic couples of the decade.[41]

Indian painter M. F. Husain, decided to create a series of paintings inspired by Amrita Rao and Vivah. Husain planned to create an entire exhibition around her.[42] He organised a private screening for 150 friends and press attendees to "convey his interest for the film" at Dubai's Plaza cinema.[43] The Regent, a theater in Patna, Bihar, put up a festive banner to promote the movie.[44] The banner reads Poonam weds Prem. Vivah inspired couples at that time to emulate the protagonists.[45]

nice post mez...i was contemplating on whether to go see vivah or not. I didnt go and see it though, but it depends on the reviews...Did you like the movie? Is it a typical Rajshri type movie like MPK, HSSH, HAHK, MPKDH?

And yea, prerna means "inspiration"

-Behbood

LOL, sounds hilarious! Well, maybe more like CORNY ALERT AVOID AVOID ABORT ABORT!!!!!!

Is that the aone with Anrita Rao? I saw this way big poster of the movie in AMC the other day... I thought it didnt look bad, but I guess I was wrong. Let me know how "Bulbul" or "babloo" or something or the other is if you happen to catch it, Rani is there in that one!

Thanks Em..I am trying hard to be a regular commentar on mezba's posts... :)

isheeta...the movie you are talking about is Baabul. There has been just too much hype about this movie just because of Senior Bachchan and Hema Malini... But its nowhere close to being a super movie.

The movie to watch would be DHOOM 2. Its releasing this friday :)

-Behbood

Hey,we still got that phone back at home. My mom says that she still likes it coz it rings so loudly and she wants to hear the phone ring even if she is at the 3rd floor.heheheh :)

I think I saw a song of that movie,am no desi,but I think it's muje haak he???

sf

SH: true. And then there is the bawarchi (cook) called Ramu, the chaukidar guard called Bahadur...

Mystic Soul: lol at the telephone. My father is a little bit more modern. He just did not replace his cellphone for 10 years until just last month.

Saqi Namah: There's actually quite a lot of Hindi movies now that are different (most are copies of some Hollywood film).

The new Don was quite good actually. I watched it three times so far. It has so many layers, especially after you know the twist you can go back look for clues. Very non-cliche.

Behbood: It's hard to say whether Vivah was good or not. It was bile-inducing. I found the pace very lethargic. I took 10 days to watch it. Watch, stop coz it was getting slow, come back after 2 hrs or days, and so on. But it has some very, very good parts. Especially father's advice to son, daughter knowing values and so on. I would say its a movie for a date with a woman who likes these type of movies (yea very dr phillishly obvious statement).

Isheeta: Corny, cringe-worthy, cheesy, old school, jaw dropping in its backwardness at times.

Yet sometimes so true to the core in some teaching or dialogue and very ideallic.

Bottom line: out of touch with reality.

Baabul has two good songs - Come On (remix) and some other crap I listened to once and liked it but don't know the name. I don't think it will be a good movie.

Em: Thanks, I like my dad too. He is sometimes quite blunt in his accessment.

Ya, I am glad Behbood is back as well.

Suroor: I am glad to be of help. I would be very interested to know what you think of this movie. Please do watch it and tell me if it's a) good b) bile-inducing.

Isheeta: Yes it's the same movie with Amrita Rao. I actually thought the bhabi in this movie was more sexy in her first scene than the heroine!

Sf: yes, "muje haak he" is a song from that movie. it's actually quite hummable once you have seen the movie.

and ringing loud is precisely why we still havve an old cuckoo clock, you know exactly on the hour even if u r on the 3rd floor.

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