Ma On Shan Movies

[Mandy Geise]

Therewere lots of posts over on my Twitter account last night, from UK fans who caught the "Cirque Du Freak" movie on ITV2. I know lots of hardcore Shansters hated the film, but I have to be honest -- I liked it. As film adaptations go (and I think a film always needs to be compared with other films, not with books) I think it worked quite well, and although you might not know it by reading boards where most of the users are full-on Shansters, there are actually lots of people out there who thought so too -- I meet quite a few new fans on tour who had never heard of me, but saw the film, enjoyed it, and decided to check out the books -- which for me is the best thing about having a book adapted. Of course I would have liked it to have been more faithful, and I think it might have fared better if it had been, but Hollywood works to its own rules and I'm of the opinion that you either accept that and go along for the ride, or just don't watch films of books you like. As for the actors, I thought they were well-cast overall, but John C Reilly for me was the standout -- I thought he was excellent as Mr Crepsley. He also really got into the books -- he read them all, and kept trying (with very limited success) to get the makers to be more faithful to them.

Anyway, if you happen to be in Ireland this weekend, come see me at the Dublin Writers Festival on Sunday May 26th at 4pm if you can make it, where you can throw a question or two about the film my way if you wish. I'll also be answering questions about my books, of course!!! -b-with-darren-shan

The film was an average performer upon its initial release.[2] However, it did good business during re-runs. Burman's songs bagged a Best Music nomination at Filmfare Awards. Shaan was one of the last films to feature the vocals of playback singer Mohammed Rafi. The character of Shakaal was inspired from the Ernst Stavro Blofeld's character from the James Bond film series.[3]

Meanwhile, Shiv is investigating a gang of international smugglers and it turns out that they are working for Shakaal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a sadistic international crime lord who is operating from a remote island outside India, while funding crime in Mumbai and rejoicing in pain of his enemies and traitors. The island of Shakaal is equipped with hidden cameras and all sorts of automatic gadgets, including a pack of hunting dogs and a man-eating crocodile in an artificial pond below a rotating table with seats. Shakaal kills Ranjeet (Sudhir), one of his own henchmen, by throwing him into the pond to be hunted by the crocodile on learning that Ranjeet was an informer to Shiv. Due to the fact that Shiv is progressively getting close to finding out the source of crime in Mumbai, Shakaal has Shiv kidnapped and brought to his island by his henchmen, where he reveals that he had only arranged the previous two attempts on Shiv's life. Shakaal also tries to influence Shiv to join his criminal forces in exchange of a wealthy and successful life, but Shiv attempts an escape from the island and is pursued by the pack of Shakaal's hunting dogs. Although he manages to evade them too, Shakaal eventually shoots Shiv fatally on the beach from his helicopter, and has his dead body dumped back to Mumbai.

As Vijay, Ravi and Sheetal lament the tragic death of Shiv, the mysterious man approaches them and introduces himself as Rakesh, a marksman and former circus performer who used to shoot targets blindfolded. Sheetal identifies Rakesh as the man who attempted her husband's murder, but Rakesh confesses that Shakaal had kidnapped his wife, Roma (Padmini Kapila), and blackmailed him to kill Shiv, and that he had deliberately missed on the two previous occasions in hopes of buying time to save his wife. However, Shakaal had already deduced this and released Roma in a car with failed brakes in retaliation, resulting in Roma's death in an accident which Rakesh tried to unsuccessfully prevent. After learning this, Vijay and Ravi join hands with Rakesh with the resolve to destroy Shakaal's empire and pursue justice for both Shiv and Roma. To that end, the trio seeks the aid of Abdul, who provides them information about Shakaal's contraband warehouse in Mumbai. Even though the trio manages to blow up the warehouse, Shakaal retaliates by having his henchmen target Sheetal and Guddi on a remote bridge, but Rakesh saves them with the help of some horses in the stable of a nearby farmhouse. Despite this, Abdul is pursued by Shakaal's henchmen in the middle of a night, and meets his death after being thrown off a bridge, causing a furious Vijay to break into the illegal bar of Shakaal's henchmen and thrash them all for killing Abdul.

As a result, a frustrated Shakaal swears death on the trio, and now has Sheetal kidnapped and imprisoned by his henchmen at his island. Meanwhile, the trio is approached by one of Shakaal's henchmen, Jagmohan (Mac Mohan), who offers them his help to gain entry at Shakaal's island, as he was brutally thrashed nearly to death by Shakaal for his previous failure. Posing as a dance troupe, the trio, along with Sunita, Renu and Chacha, manages to enter the island and performs for Shakaal, who later shockingly captures them all and reveals that he had only sent Jagmohan (who was faking his injuries) to trap them in reality. However, Chacha creates a commotion that allows the trio to be freed and thrash Jagmohan and the rest of Shakaal's henchmen to death, also killing the crocodile in the pond and Shakaal's remaining two henchmen wearing gas masks in a poisonous gas-filled chamber. Just as the trio finally succeeds in capturing Shakaal after avoiding all the booby traps and is about to kill him, Sheetal intervenes and refuses to let them do so, pointing out that their action can be disrespectful to the law that Shiv upholds. In the arguing commotion, Shakaal frees himself and is about to attack everyone with a gun, forcing the trio to fatally shoot him down in self-defense and finally end the ignominious existence of Shakaal. However, Shakaal sets the island to self-destruct with his dying breath. Despite this, the trio, their respective girlfriends and Chacha are all able to escape the exploding island on a helicopter to safety, satisfied that they have defeated Shakaal in his tracks for good.

Logistical issues relating to other projects in which the cast was involved meant that Shaan took three years to make.[4] While Sholay drew its inspiration from the American Western and Spaghetti Western films, Shaan took its lead from the James Bond films with fancy sets and beautiful costumes. Shakaal, the bald villain (originally to be played by Sanjeev Kumar) played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda, was based on the James Bond villain, Blofeld.

A large golden eagle is prominent in Shakaal's island lair and in the Bollywood obligatory final song-and-dance. The eagle is reminiscent of the golden lamb in Cecile DeMille's Ten Commandments; construction on the golden eagle required outside experts to be flown in and cost, in Rupees, the equivalent of the chariot scene in Ben-Hur.[citation needed]

Sippy wanted to repeat the cast of Sholay (1975) for this film, but due to date issues, Sunil Dutt played the role initially offered to Sanjeev Kumar, Bindiya Goswami played the role initially offered to Hema Malini, and Shashi Kapoor played the role initially offered to Dharmendra.

Parveen Babi suffered her first anxiety attack when she completed shooting the song "Pyar Karne Wale". Just after the shooting of that song, there was a scene in the film where Parveen Babi is inside the car and then Amitabh Bachchan gets in the car. The scene was later shot when Parveen Babi returned from the US and she recommenced work by shooting this scene.[citation needed]

Mohammad Rafi recorded a rehearsal for the song "Yamma Yamma", with a final recording scheduled for later. Due to Rafi's untimely death before the final recording, Burman used the rehearsal.[citation needed] This is the only song where Rafi and Burman sing a duet together.

Posting on his blog earlier this year, author Darren O'Shaughnessy revealed that Cirque Du Freak (the first book in his Saga of Darren Shan series) had been optioned for a potential TV show. "[A team is] working on scripts right now, the plan being to adapt the books for television, though they haven't [completely] ruled out doing them as movies either," he teased.

The author didn't elaborate any further on who had done the optioning (or who would write the scripts for that matter), but this marks the first stab at an adaptation in almost 15 years (more on that below). Upon finding SYFY WIRE's initial coverage, O'Shaughnessy made a second blog post, in which he revealed a few more tidbits.

Universal Pictures previously tried to launch a YA film franchise with 2009's Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (now streaming on Peacock), which condensed the first three novels (out of 12) into an hour and 48-minute runtime. Chris Massoglia and Josh Hutcherson, both of them relative newcomers at the time, headlined the story as two friends on opposite sides of a brewing war between peace-loving vampires and a bloodthirsty faction known as the Vampaneze.

Paul Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy) directed and co-wrote the movie, which proved to be a critical and box office misfire. Nevertheless, the project remains notable for its all-star supporting cast which included the likes of John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Orlando Jones, Jane Krakowski, Ken Watanabe, Kristen Schaal, Frankie Faison, and the late Ray Stevenson.

"I wish someone else would make a totally different series," he said. "They did it with The Golden Compass ... There is a different, and no doubt, extremely cool version of this movie that could have been made, which was much darker. But at the time, that was not what people were going for. I'd be interested to see that if someone was to make that."

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