What really bonds? Perhaps Love

This is the set of a new film, Perhaps Love, currently being shot in Shanghai. Directed by Hong Kong director Peter Chan (Comrades, Almost a Love Story) and produced by Hollywood’s Andre Morgan (Million Dollar Baby), the film promises to be an extravaganza that marries the best of Bollywood with the cream of Chinese cinema, in an ambitious attempt to get a new genre of film going: the Chinese Musical.

“When we first came up with the idea, everyone said, ‘Why are you doing this? Chinese people don’t go to see musicals. You’re crazy,”’ smiles Andre Morgan. “But why don’t they go to see musicals? Because no one makes them,” he continues. Indeed, barring a spate of Broadway style musicals made in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 60s, and a few patriotic operas filmed during the Cultural Revolution, the musical has virtually been absent from the Chinese cinematic tradition.

In the immediate aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, Indian movies were amongst the first foreign films to be shown in Chinese theatres. Even today, for Indians in China, it’s part of the normal course of life. However, the average Zhou has had few chances to be acquainted with the modern face of Bollywood. For the last 20 odd years it’s been American movies that have reigned supreme here. There is currently no formal mechanism for releasing Hindi movies in the mainland, and in 2003, Lagaan became the first Indian film to be shown in Chinese theatres in well over a decade.

But the love of music in China, which any karaoke goer in the Mainland can attest to, is something the makers of Perhaps Love hope to capitalise on.

Perhaps Love is a movie within a movie. Set in contemporary Shanghai, the film revolves around the making of a musical, which in turn is set in a circus in 1940s Shanghai. The story parallels the events that take place in the present, involving a love triangle between the director, actor and actress of the musical.

Director Peter Chan “knew from the outset” that if the film were to work, the Chinese crew would need help from the outside. Chan and Morgan together, decided to pass on Bollywood, since they wanted something “less traditional and more extreme” than the typical Broadway fare.

Chan flew to Bombay to meet with several choreographers and returned with Farah Khan. For Along with a crew of 10 dancers she has spent nearly a month in China, rehearsing the movie’s five song and dance numbers.

“The poor (Chinese) dancers! I think I’ve really made their waists and hips hurt,” she smiles, adding that despite some initial misgivings, the dancers have impressed her with their discipline and willingness to learn.

“I think its been such a pleasant experience for all those involved in the film that most of the people working on it are already cooking up various future projects together. Whether projects in India or projects that involve Indian components,” enthuses Morgan.

Farah says she has been persuading Peter Chan to shoot his next film in India. “We can make sets and costumes quicker and cheaper than they can,” she beams. “Really, we can do it even cheaper than the Chinese!”

Morgan believes that in the future, the film industries and China and India will see increasing cooperation. Chan is a little more cautious: “You never know but if we can get more joint productions involving India it will be magic.”

Perhaps Love is scheduled for release in December.