by Subhash K Jha

He's reclusive to the point of being invisible.

"I like it that way. Better to let your work speak for me."

Why a strange title like Taxi 9211? "Just a title suggested by someone which we thought suited the film's mood....And before you ask, it isn't a remake of the Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx film Collateral. That's a very dark film.

Ours is a light-hearted film. The whole idea was to do a film against the clock, like Run Lola Run, Phone Booth and Enemy of The State. It's a twenty-four story in a mad city and what happens to two guys who meet one day."

Nana Patekar and John Abraham together is a bit of a stretch. "And that's how we liked it. They play two guys who don't want to take responsibility for their lives being in a disarray. They come to a point where they realize they're quite like each other."

Male Bonding seems to be Milan Luthria's forte. "I agree my Kachche Dhaage was about the bonding between Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan. But it was hardly the first of its kind. I'd say my producer Ramesh Sippy's Sholay was the first big male bonding film.

It's a nice territory to explore. It always breaks the clutter. Taxi 9211 breaks the mould, though I can't say whether it cracks a new genre. Maybe it's been done somewhere."

Milan cracks up at the mention of the chalk-and-cheese pair. "John had his young school kids and girls, Nana had his cabbies and street-wallahs visiting on the sets. I'd look at them and say, 'The film is coming together after all.' When we started out Nana has taken a hiatus.

John wasn't doing well at all—he had given Elaan, Karam, etc. It was very hard to raise funds. We were told we were going down the wrong road. But Rameshji is a man of very strong convictions. We pulled through."

Though Taxi 9211 is largely song-less Milan isn't against the song-and-dance formula. "I saw some lovely films recently. But I got restless watching them, because of the songs. I wanted the story to get on...Though songs and dances will always be there. Though city audiences in India aren't so fond of the formula, overseas audiences still love it. I think the old formula has to be adjusted to audiences' limited attention span."

It wasn't easy for Milan to move away from the traditional song-and-dance formula that he embraced in Kachche Dhaage. "I changed my entire team. I got a crew from LA, got a new-age music director Vishal-Shekhar.

I still remember Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who did the music in Kachche Dhaage telling me, 'You've given me a treat to my ears'. I feel music in a film touches the soul. Even in Taxi 9211 I've used a couple of songs in the background."

Milan is moved by the Sippys' faith in his talent. "They left the whole film to me, though they were always there to help when I got stuck. The best thing about them was they didn't push us to hurry up. We shot Taxi 9211 in forty-five days."

Grateful to the core the un-prolific director is all set to direct a young love story for the Sippys. "I intend to get prolific now. Earlier, things got out of my hands. Chori Chori took too long to make. I couldn't abandon it when it was stuck. The same happened with Deewaar..

Due to the combination dates of the huge stars the film took too long to make. I had the option to start another film and go back to Deewaar. But if you look at the old directors they always made one film at a time. With the exception of Mahesh Bhatt and David Dhawan all of us are doing the same."

Milan is happy making his love story for Ramesh Sippy. "When my writer Rajat Arora narrated it to me I was stunned. It's a very young and modern love story with established stars with music. The music will be by Vishal-Shekhar. They've a soft romantic side to them. When I gave them Laxmikant-Pyarelal's Ek pyar ka nagma hai as reference Shekhar went mad. Gawd, I miss that era! How much musical talent. They were the Tendulkars of their times."

The film at 1 hour 55 minutes is one of the shortest ever in Hindi. "I remember director Joel Schumacher saying, 'When making a film against the clock don't give the audience time to think.'

He talks about some recent films. " Maqbool and Iqbal were amazing.. I didn't like some of the successful films in recent times. I didn't think much of Bunty Aur Babli or No Entry while some gems like Iqbal went unnoticed. I'm happy about Kalyug with new talent, exciting music...Rang De Basanti had me floored. I wish the new directors would get madly in love with the medium. Flashy lifestyles have overtaken true commitment."

Unfulfilled wish? "To make a successful film with Mr Bachchan. Too bad our Deewaar didn't work. There's so much to learn from him. There's a lot to come in the near future. I've come to a stage in my career when I'm in control of the medium. I like to stamp myself in every department of the film. My family thinks Taxi 9211 is my best work to date."