MUMBAI: Actress-turned-director Pooja Bhatt says she is keen to revisit her father’s 1974 “radical” and “shocking” film “Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain” and Mahesh Bhatt has welcomed the daughter’s decision.
“I would love to look at my father’s ‘Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain’. It was banned by the censor board that time and he broke a table in frustration. I was very small that time. We didn’t have money and he walked back home from there (censor board office) to Shivaji Park. It was the dead end in his life. ‘Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain’ was a bit too ahead of its times. It is the kind of a film I would like to re-look and may revisit,” added the filmmaker, who is gearing up for the release of her adult film ‘Jism 2’,” said Pooja.
Forty years ago Mahesh Bhatt made “Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain” with Kabir Bedi, Gulshan Arora and Prema Narayan in the cast. After facing several censorship hiccups, the film finally hit the screens, but neither the critics nor the public appreciated it. In last four decades, the Indian cinema has revolutionised with both audiences and scribes accepting bold films like “The Dirty Picture”, and adult comedies such as “Delhi Belly”. “But way back in the 70s, makers of such films were labelled as beast”, says Mahesh Bhatt.
[pullquote_right]It was banned by the censor board that time – Way back in the 70s, makers of such films were labelled as “beasts”. [/pullquote_right]
“The film got released much later with too many cuts and mould. It was a box office flop, too radical and shocking for the audience. I was young that time… I was 21 or 22. Indian cinema feels only bad people have sex and good people fall in love. Since I have made a film like that, people thought I was some kind of a beast,” said the filmmaker, who is known for films like “Arth”, “Saaransh” and “Naam”.
The filmmaker has welcomed his daughter’s decision of revisting ‘Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain’. “If Pooja wants to re-look at the project, then why not? She can,” he said.
