by Subhash K Jha

Writer-director Karan Razdan who once wrote and acted in the epoch-making tv serial Rajani (where he co-starred with his late wife Priya Tendulkar) has come a long way.

The man who acquired notoriety last year with two back-to-back sleaze fests Hawas and Girlfriend has just taken a U-turn in his career with Umar, a film about three lonely old men.

Why the change? "It's a subject that was with me for fourteen years," reveals Karan.

"Bahut shareef si film hai . Not that I intended any badmashee while making Hawas or Girlfriend. Those were subjects that came to me quite naturally. I didn't make them because it had becomea trend to make sexy films. Yes, they were bold films. But they had a point to to make."

What baffles Karan Razdan is the way Girlfriend's leading lady Amrita Arora turned around to badmouth and disown the film on Koffee With Karan. "Why after so long?" laughs the other Karan mirthlessly.

"Girlfriend is long gone. Amrita Arora had no problems doing the film, or the hot scenes ...Nor did she have any problems promoting and marketing the film. Now suddenly, sitting in front of Mr Karan Johar she gets embarrassed about a film she has done?

She's free to badmouth Girlfriend. I stand by my film. I own responsibility for it. It's as much part of my growth as a writer and filmmamker as Dushmani which I wrote for Shekhar Kapoor, or Roshni which I directed and which never got released. I've believed in every emotion I've put down on paper or celluloid."

Now with his new film Umar Karan says he has found immense self-satisfaction. "Kader Khan, Prem Chopra and Satish Kaushik play the lead. Umar is a film about getting old and the loneliness that it causes. I'm getting no younger and I feel the need to introspect and find my roots."

Umar would be one of the rare films about the old, like Mohan Kumar's Avatar and Amrit and Gurudev Bhalla's Sharaarat.

"And what really makes me happy is the fact that Manna Dey has sung the theme song for composer Shamir Tandon . Manna-da agreed to return to the microphone after he heard the film's theme. I think the last song he sang in Hindi was for Nana Patekar's Prahaar . That really makes me proud."

Yup, the Girlfriend director has come a long way!