Star Bestsellers - Part 2 | Witness | Under Lens

Episode: Witness

By: Imtiaz Ali

Plot: It’s a classic Fyodor Dostoevsky's White Nights plot where a damsel in distress meets a smart and sensitive guy whose work is to earn by becoming witness in court marriage. She is waiting for her beloved who doesn't turn up for their marriage. Now, our hero arranges a roof for this girl and gradually falls for her. The girl also starts feeling for him. They decide to marry and in the climax, the lover of the girl appears from nowhere. Hero realises taht the girl doesn't love him... she still longs for her lover only. He lets her go.

Legacy: Imtiaz Ali reworked on the story and with some little tweaks presented it as Ahista Ahista, Shivam Nair's Directorial debut. Ahista Ahista had a promising casting of Abhay Deol and Soha Ali Khan in the lead roles with Jhankar Beats and Jessica Lall Murder case fame Shyan Munshi in a small role of Soha's boyfriend. Music of Himesh Reshammiya was one of the strong points of the movie.

Note: Imtiaz retained the basic plot and names of the characters in his screenplay. The telefilm was a worthy 45 minutes of entertainment. The chemistry between leads brings smile on your face. Cameo by Akshay Anand (a big TV Star then) was a bit over the top though.

Star Bestsellers - Part 1 | Unknown Heritage | Under Lens

When I was young school-going not-so-movie-freak and Star Plus was not as boring as it became since the advent of legendary Ekkta Kkapoor, I used to watch one show which my grand mom disliked… Star Bestsellers. While only a few TV shows from 90’s still linger in our memories, SBS deserve a special place along with wonders like Neem Ka Ped, Byomkesh Bakshi and few others.

In SBS, each episode was a different usually unconventional story presented by some budding director/writer. They were less tele-serial and more tele-films. The content of most of the episodes were really impressive and were adapted into films as well. There was not usual pattern in the story which is usually a case for many such shows. Some stories would revolve around romance and other human relations while some would stress on ambitions and crimes. Each story had a special feeling, a special freshness.

90s was a different age altogether. Conventional movies used to work and people loved even Akshay Kumar and Sunil Shetty’s stupid movies which made no sense. It was like Post Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood stopped thinking and making cinema. Television imitated cinema to some great extent. SBS was a relief. Had it been showcased at late evening slot in second half of last decade, SBS would have got what it deserved. It’s unfortunate that SBS never got big TRPs… though it was fortunate that SBS existed. Why?

Anurag Kashyap, Hansal Mehta, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Imtiaz Ali, Sriram Raghavan are some names Indian Cinema is proud of. They all are SBS alumnus. Interesting nah? Infact, one of the most riveting episode Last Train to Mahakali was directed by Anurag Kashyap. Also, Hasil fame Tigmanshu was perhaps the biggest contributor to the series. In two seasons, he directed about six episodes.

In next few issues, we will cover some of the best of SBS. If you want us to cover some episode, let us know.

Feel free to mail us at the.reel.admin@gmail.com.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh