By Subhash K Jha
Priyanka Chopra performing the enduring Rekha Mujra Salaam-e-Ishq meri jaaan from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar?
It seems like a dream dance. But get up and smell the ittar. The Mujra is prepared for a grand revival.
The last really remarkable Mujra in a Hindi film was Madhuri Dixit's Maar daala in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. After that even Bhansali decided to position his ambitious Tawaif-Kotha-Mujra project Heera Mandi at the backburner because he can't discover a gallery dancing heroines to support his nautch vision.
But the shortage of coaching in classical dancing will not deter Ekta Kapoor from conceiving an executing "essentially the most lavish Mujra ever filmed in a Hindi film"
The Mujra for the Ekta Kapoor's production of Shootout At Wadala can be at the scale of Madhubala's Pyar kiya to darna kya in Mughal-e-Azam. But where-oh-where is the fashionable Madhubala who could be seen dancing in front of Dawood and his colleagues at a kotha in a complicated redlight area?
According to sources, Ekta and Gupta desire a super A-lister who's trained in classical dancing who can perform a Mujra convincingly.
"Which, let me tell you, really really narrows down our list. Which of our A-lister girls today can perform a Mujra?" Sanjay Gupta wonders aloud.
"And we wish to recreate the Kotha culture in its minutest detail in 1979. This was a real place which was ironically called Congress House. It was a spot where the largest of politicians and criminals gathered to observe a Mujra every evening. That is where the Mujra in my film will happen. We've given Pyar kiya to darna kya and Salaam-e-ishq as reference points for the Mujra. However the problem is, who a number of the current A-list heroines will perform the Mujra? The last really graceful and convincing Mujra was by Madhuri Dixit in Devdas."
While Gupta is unwilling to divulge any further details we understand from sources that the production house have been negotiating very seriously with Priyanka Chopra, since sources say, she appears to be the one A-lister who can dance, or lets say, she appears to be the one top-รข€˜nautch'?
Laughs Gupta, "I AM NOT revealing our dancer's name. But yes, Priyanka some of the current A-listers is an able dancer."
