Wanted to break out, reinvent myself: Vishal Bhardwaj on 'O' Romeo'

New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) Wrapped in "John Wick" and Quentin Tarantino style action sequences, "O' Romeo" is a "deep and unusual" love story and one that is very different in mood from "Maqbool", "Haider" and "Omkara", says Vishal Bhardwaj. His newest will also be his most successful, he adds with confidence.

The Shahid Kapoor-Triptii Dimri starrer is stylised, funny, romantic, next level violent. And is not an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" though it has hints of the play on the star-crossed lovers.

Happy he has broken out of the mould critics had cast him in, Bhardwaj said he doesn't know he got the image of an intellectual and recounts a message from a childhood friend about "O' Romeo": "I didn’t know you had the capacity for this violence, blood, gore and, of course, love.” “We have been friends for over 40 years. I told him, ‘You should have led with love and then the violence and gore could come later’. Because, essentially, it is a very deep and unusual love story,” Bhardwaj told PTI in an interview.

“This is going to be one of the most successful films of my life. I have to say this to break the heart of those critics who have criticised this film. I’m so proud of this film. I am not ashamed of anything. I am so proud of the violence and the love story I have created in this film,” he added.

The director-music composer-singer, who successfully reinterpreted William Shakespeare’s three tragedies – “Macbeth” and “Othello” in the Hindi heartland through “Maqbool” and “Omkara” and “Hamlet” in the wintry landscape of Kashmir with “Haider”.

“O' Romeo” is a fictional take on the real life story of gangsters Sapna Didi and Hussain Ustara and inspired by a chapter of Hussain Zaidi's "Mafia Queens of Mumbai”.

Produced by Nadiadwala Grandson in association with Vishal Bhardwaj Films, its earnings have crossed Rs 75 crore since its release a week ago. The film, with music by Bhardwaj and lyrics by Gulzar as always, also stars Avinash Tiwary, Farida Jalal, Nana Patekar, Tamannah Bhatia and Vikrant Massey.

Shahid, who has reunited with Bhardwaj for the fourth time for a film, plays a quirky, music loving gangster who is quite the master when it comes to killing his enemies with a barber’s razor. He has fallen foul of former friend Jalal and now works as a covert operative for an IB officer. He falls for a woman who comes to him seeking vengeance on those responsible for her husband’s death.

Bhardwaj, who has also made children’s films like “The Blue Umbrella” and “Makdee” and dramas like “Kaminey”, “7 Khoon Maaf”, “Rangoon” and “Khufiya”, said he is filtering out reviews for now and will read the critics’ verdict – good, bad, mixed – a few months later.

“Some critics have an issue with my reinvention. They want to cage you in the personality they have made of you. There is a difference between individuality and personality. They don’t know who I am. I have grown up on Manmohan Desai’s cinema – ‘Parvarish’, 'Amar Akbar Anthony’, 'Suhaag’.

“I don’t know how I got this intellectual image. Maybe my aesthetic grew deep on the other side because of my love for poetry and music. But in cinema, I am totally ‘desi’. When I started making movies, I made certain kinds of films. But this was the time to reinvent myself, which I did. I think I succeeded at the box office but whether I have succeeded with critics, I don’t know.” With "O' Romeo", he said, he wanted to create a spectacular story with its climax in a Spanish bullring.

“I was very scared. It took so much out of me physically, emotionally. But even then, when this film ended, I felt so full, so happy and I wanted to write it on the eve of or before the release because when the critics and the reviewers start talking about your film, whether good or bad, you get coloured.” Asked if the film's violence is a reflection of the real world, Bhardwaj said he wanted to show reality as his film is about gangsters, and not some bank manager.

"We are the people of that country, where Mahabharata is worshipped and accepted. When we talk about violence, whether we are aware of it consciously or not, we have a very big capability to absorb violence.

"... I am saying that the violence in society has become a part of us... The way we hear about rape cases, the way it happened with Nirbhaya, do you think it is the work of human beings? But they exist in our society. So, I don't want to argue about violence... We are still showing it (by softening) through songs." The film has some standout stylised action sequences. The first, for example, is set in a cinema hall with Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor singing and dancing to "Dhak Dhak" as Kapoor’s Ustara goes about slashing throats, and occasionally matches steps with the heroine on the screen.

Shahid is a trained dancer and Bhardwaj said he used his skills to the full as he roped in Spanish action director Dani Del Rosario and from India, Anal Arasu.

“For the first time, I had this liberty, intention and the ask to be a little stylish in my action sequences. I have done a lot of real action and I was kind of tired of it… I wanted to do stylised action like ‘John Wick’ films, Tarantino’s films or all the big action movies…" Speaking of Mahabharat, it is the text that Bhardwaj has been working on diligently.

"I want to adapt Mahabharata in contemporary times, the whole of it. It is a huge task and I have worked a lot on it but I don't know whether that will be my next or not. Right now, the time is to celebrate 'O Romeo'," he said.

Bhardwaj, who first gained prominence as a music composer with Gulzar's "Maachis", is the forever composer.

"...I became a director so that I can keep my music composer alive. Otherwise, I had no interest in becoming a director. And I still don't. If I get so much work in music that I can only do music, then I will only do music. So I look for that excuse in every film, I look for that place," he said. PTI BK MIN MIN