Noreen Aslam
Priyanka Chopra performing the iconic Rekha Mujra Salaam-e-Ishq meri jaaan from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar?
It looks like a dream dance. But wake up and smell the ittar. The Mujra is all set 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 put his ambitious Tawaif-Kotha-Mujra project Heera Mandi on the backburner because he can’t find a gallery dancing heroines to support his nautch vision.
But the lack of training in classical dancing is not going to deter Ekta Kapoor from conceiving an executing “the most lavish Mujra ever filmed in a Hindi film.” The Mujra for the Ekta Kapoor’s production of Shootout At Wadala would be on the scale of Madhubala’s Pyar kiya to darna kya in Mughal-e-Azam. But where-oh-where is the modern Madhubala who will be seen dancing in front of Dawood and his colleagues at a kotha in a posh redlight area?
According to sources, Ekta and Gupta want 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 want to recreate the Kotha culture in its minutest detail in 1979. This was an actual place which was ironically called Congress House. It was a place where the biggest of politicians and criminals gathered to watch a Mujra every evening. This is where the Mujra in my film will take place.
