Yaadein makes waves in UK

london: globalisation seems an increasingly lucrative concept for hindi cinema, especially as subhash ghai pitches his newest film, yaadein, to the diaspora and finds it has entered the uk top ten in just one weekend. buy music online subhash ghai's much hyped 'yaadein', with hrithik and kareena in the lead, is here! the music of 'mission kashmir' is the essence of what kashmir was once a movie with a different theme the film, set in britain and india, was released just four days ago."already," says ghai's daughter meghna who looks after the financial side of her father's creative business, " yaadein has earned 133,000 pounds, outstripping taal's performance, and that of lagaan or gaddar in first weekend earnings". she told the times of india that it was especially commendable considering the mumbai export is competing against big new hollywood films such as jurassic park iii and dr dolittle 2. unlike lagaan, its predecessor this summer, yaadein makes no pretence of wanting to be mainstream and attract non-asian audiences. "we're targeting the global indian," subhash ghai told this paper. his leading actor, jackie shroff, added that the hindi film industry was very conscious that 65 per cent of its market was overseas. "i myself am planning two projects, to go mainstream to white audiences," shroff said, offering unlikely thumbnail sketches of the plots: "an american girl falls in love with a rajput prince and all the racial problems that result. and another would be called jackie o jackie, with myself and jackie chan starring". ghai too agrees hindi cinema has to become international. "i will make a film myself for non-asians, but only after i get excited about a story". but how would the hindi epic, with its several hours of playing time, ever fit into the hurried lifestyle of the west? "we have to cut it down," says ghai, "the songs last one hour, we have to take those out". shroff says his white friends, including nick mason, the pink floyd drummer, would probably enjoy a session at the movies, complete with indian extravaganzas such as yaadein. british asian youth at the premiere, hosted by the hindujas in central london, appeared to agree. "my white friends love the music," said suruchi, a second-generation indian, who added that "yaadein really spoke to me, because some of the heavy-handed things jackie shroff says in the film as the father could have been said by mine when i was growing up". but not everyone is as ecstatic. "it's too long," grumbled one asian youth. another said at 30, he felt too old for yaadein, which seemed to be targeted at the teenager or perhaps even the tweenager, the in-between age group of nine-to-13 year-olds. as also their parents, apparently. "yaadein is all about the reality of every family, raj kapoor used to do this and now subhash ghai," said s p hinduja, acknowledging that the time-worn story of a rich boys liaison with a middle-class girl despite opposition from the parents, had a tragic resonance in his own life. industry watchers say yaadein is not a phenomenon, not yet, but an indication of a trend. britain, it seems, is increasingly interested in finding out more about filmstars who dwarf hollywood's greatest in their fan following. coincidentally, on monday night, britain settles down in front of television sets to watch a popular bbc chat show host explore the making of yet another hindi film, kabhi khushi kabhi gham.