Salman Khan’s Only Hollywood Film Marigold Turns 17
Like Shah Rukh and Aamir, Salman has never pined to go global. His only international project Marigold was directed by Willard Carroll who made a romantic comedy called Playing By Heart, featuring Sean Connery.
Carroll shot Marigold in Rajasthan.The breezy rom-com replete with songs in English and Hindi, and dances choreographed by Remo was shot at Khimsar Fort, which is a two-hour drive from Jodhpur in Rajasthan.The story is about the romance that blooms between an Indian choreographer Prem (Salman Khan, using his favourite name borrowed from Sooraj Barjatya’s cinema) and an American actress Marigold (Ali Larter) and Prem’s Indian love interest Jahnvi (Nandana Sen).
Nandana who quit Filmistan recalls, “Willard Carroll seemed to have studied the Bollywood conventions more closely and intimately than most of our own director. He seemed to know our song and dance tradition better than us! I had a ball shooting with Salman and Ali.I had worked with international crews earlier, and this one was as professional as it gets. They had everything so much in place that I couldn’t dream of taking a day off to visit my ailing grandmother in Shanti Niketan [in West Bengal] . There was just no room for even a small break.”
In the Rajasthani splendour of the deserts Prem wants to marry Marigold but he’s betrothed to Nandana Sen who loves the American guest Barry(Ian Bohen). Before the two pairs of moonstruck lovers find their right partners the narrative hems and haws and hiccups to a point of no return. Salman and his American co-star perform some appallingly choreographed numbers(tuned with lip-parching nonchalance by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) before the wedding shehnai is heard loud and clear.
At the end of it all Marigold isn’t such a bad film. It has some sassy lines and an ultra-cool Salman who swings from sweep-waltz to sleepwalk in the blink of a (moist) eye. There’re lots of digs at Bollywood.Vikas Bhalla plays a very bad actor rather well and Hollywood(the sequel mania which has gripped our cinema has its origins in Bush-land). But Marigold Lexton needn’t fear another number added to her repertoire.
Marigold (Ali Larter) is unbathed, misbehaved, misinformed and Miss Incorrigible all the way. In her journey from the US to India she lies to get a seat, talks loudly and rudely on her phone after takeoff is announced, screams at the cabbie in Mumbai and sneers at the kind helpful production controller(Suchitra Pillai) who ‘s given the thankless task of informing the bratty b-grader from Hollywood that the film she came to shoot in India has been shelved. Then of course , Marigold misbehaves some more.
Soon we get to know why. “I’ve never done a film which doesn’t have a number in front of the title… Basic Instinct 3, Fatal Attraction 4.…After every film of mine my father leaves me a voice- mail message asking how much lower I’ll fall,” she tells the calm cool and captivating choreographer.
Nandana says there was no undercurrent of rivalry with the American actress. “I guess that’s something that happens when two Indian actresses work together. I’ve worked with international crews earlier, and this one is as professional as it gets.”
