I don`t like being typecast into a genre: Jagmohan Mundra

Srinagar: After making issue based movies like `Bawander`, `Provoked` and `Shoot on Sight`, Jagmohan Mundra is now back to the thriller genre with the film "Chase", which he believes will help him break away from the image of an art house filmmaker. Mundra, who is currently in Srinagar to shoot for `Chase`, says, "As a filmmaker I am a storyteller first. My job is to be able to tell a story in a way which connects to my audiences. I made `Bawander` and `Provoked` because they had an important story to tell but I don`t like being pigeon holed in my craft."

"It does not matter whether a story belongs to a particular genre. There is no issue in `Chase`. It is a simple story of a man fighting to prove his innocence," Mundra told reporters. Starring Udita Goswami, newcomer Tarina and Anuj Saxena of `Kumkum` fame, the film which was earlier titled `Begunaah` is about a man, who is punished for a crime he did not commit and his struggle to prove his innocence. Saxena`s Maverick productions, which had earlier made `Aloo Chat`, is producing the movie, which is tentatively slated to release in October this year. Mundra, who started his film making career with semi-erotic thrillers graduated to socially relevant cinema with `Bawander`, which depicted the struggle of a rape victim, Bhanwari Bai, to get justice.Starring Nandita Das, the film became an international sensation and Mundra followed it up with `Provoked` which was based on the real life story of Kiran Ahluwalia, a victim of domestic abuse, who ends up killing her abusive husband. Mundra picked Bollywood`s leading actress Aishwarya Rai to play the role of a vulnerable Punjabi wife in the film which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. His last release was `Shoot on Sight`. The Naseeruddin Shah starrer film was based on the 2005 London bombings and the wave of xenophobia that started after that. The filmmaker hopes that despite a relatively new star cast `Chase` will make its mark at the box-office with its stylised action scenes and a gripping story. "I know the film can be disappointing to my regular audiences, who have loved my socially relevant films but it was a risk that I had to take to avoid being typecast as a filmmaker. "Chase has an interesting story and we have done no compromise in making it. It has a great story to tell and has some of the most stylised action sequences," Mundra said. When asked why he decided to shoot an action-thriller in Kashmir, a place which has been the backdrop of some of the biggest romantic classics of Bollywood, Mundra said,"The film has a flashback romantic song and the lyric talk about things which can only be found in Kashmir. The song is about nature and longing and I decided that the picturisation can only be done in the idyllic beauty of Dal lake," he said."The other reason I wanted to shoot here is that I wanted to show the beauty of Kashmir to the present generation, which has grown up watching Switzerland in every other Bollywood film. They have forgotten the legendary beauty of this place, which has been captured so beautifully in the films that I have grown up watching," he added. Mundra is also excited about his upcoming sex comedy with Govinda, which he believes is his most challenging job till now. "It is a difficult film for me because I am not used to Govinda`s brand of cinema. I don`t understand it. I am going by the flow this time. I leave Govinda to act in his style and when I see that my crew members laughing I convince myself that the scene is right," Mundra said. The filmmaker, who has shifted his base from New York to Mumbai is happy with the new crop of Bollywood directors, who are giving new definition to Hindi cinema with their unique style of movie making. "It is one of the best times for Bollywood with young filmmakers like Anurag Basu, Imtiaz Ali, Raj Kumar Hirani and Anurag Kashyap making films, which are commercially viable despite not confirming to the typical style of filmmaking," Mundra said. Bureau Report