Never Say Goodbye dances with cultural taboos

If the controversy surrounding Bollywood film Never Say Goodbye seems much ado about nothing to legendary Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan, it's because he's seen it before.

The film its Hindi title is Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is the first Bollywood film to receive a gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival and has sparked controversy because of its depiction of infidelity.

But its a subject that Bachchan the legendary deep-voiced actor of the 1970s already covered in the 1981 film Silsila.

"The exact things they pointed out in Silsila are exactly the things they point out today," said Never Say Goodbye director Karan Johar during an historic film panel featuring the director and actors Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.

"In Indian cinema we say we give you poetic justice in three hours," said the veteran Bachchan. "And in this film they didn't seem to feel it was poetic justice, so that's why they questioned it."

Never Say Goodbye follows Shah Rukh Khan as an injured soccer player who falls for another man's wife, played by Rani Mukherji. Bachchan gives a comic turn as an incorrigibly lustful widower.

Johar said the film's treatment of a subject normally considered taboo to both Hindus and Muslims as well as more graphic love scenes are part of a movement by younger directors to take Indian cinema in new directions.

Beyond simple entertainment

But he looks at the controversy as a sign the movie has moved beyond simple entertainment, saying when people stop to talk to him now "I hear people's lives."

The controversy also shows the importance of film to the lives of Indian people, said Khan, one of Bollywood's most popular actors.

"The Indian film goer, he takes cinema very seriously and this film proves it," he said.

Many viewers make strong associations between the actors and their characters, which is fine when the film is a comic romp, he says.

"But when you start getting so close to life itself, people ask me 'Would you do this in real life?' " Khan said.

The news conference for the film was a preamble to a Mavericks presentation later on Sunday entitled The Making of a Bollywood Blockbuster, which all three men attended.

It also gave fans of Indian cinema a chance to see two of its biggest stars in the same room.

Khan described his role as a movie star as waking up in the morning and trying to entertain theatre goers. "I try to be good in dark rooms," he said.

Bachchan said no longer playing leading men has opened up new roles for him. But, he adds, "I've become 65. At 65 you're fortunate to be getting some work."