It
was clear after the first two days
in theatres that the public was not
willing to let grass grow under its
feet while watching a movie. Three
and a half hours of screen time was
the biggest weakness of Salaam-E-Ishq
and the producers seem to have woken
up to this fact.
A quiet first day and a stupendous showing on
Republic day, a few scalding reviews and a few
sniggers in theatres seem to have shaken up the
producers a bit. They must surely have prodded
the director to do something about this.
Nikhil Advani picked up the scissors and went
snipping from different parts of the movie until
the length was closer to three hours rather than
three hours extra. That is a cut of at least 20
minutes. If readers remember, there had been reports
that there were a few scenes and a song that had
not been included in the original prints. Director
Nikhil Advani had planned to include these too
if the initial response had been good. But the
exact converse of what he had dreamt of has happened.
There have been movies of nearly four hours length
that have captivated audience. Ben-Hur, The Ten
Commandments and our ever very own Mughal-E-Aazam
are examples. Clearly Salaam-E-Ishq cannot aspire
to be in that league.
