Jaspal Bhatti's swansong 'Power Cut' hit theatres today

Jaspal Bhatti's Power Cut will hit theatres today, as the master satirist believed that "The show must go on." The irony is that Bhatti himself won't be around to witness the audience's response to his satirical romantic comedy. Five days ago, at the Chandigarh Golf Club,Bhatti and his cast had talked about the film, its music and future projects.

 "I know that when you hear the film's title, you'd think, how can someone make a comedy film on such a dry subject? But, that's where the challenge lies   extracting comedy out of a dry subject like power cuts." Bhatti, who is the writer, director and co-producer of the film, will also be seen playing a major role.

Like always, Bhatti has given quirky names to his characters, such as Bijli (played by Surilie Gautam) and Current (played by Zafar Khan). Elaborating on the title, he said, "Power not only denotes bijli (electricity), it also talks about political power, which translates into personal power… If this political power is directed towards solving the actual power (bijli) problem of Punjab, it will help the people phenomenally. Because we live in a blessed city like Chandigarh, we remain unaware of the 20 to 22-hour power cuts that people in Punjab face everyday. In Punjab, the most common phrases are, 'Aa gai, aa gai, aa gai! Chali gai, chali gai, chali gai!'"

Jasraj Bhatti, who is making his debut as an actor in his father's film, had looked excited that day, "Our family has an in-depth knowledge of power (electricity) as my late grandfather was a chief engineer in the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB). As a matter of fact, Jaspal Sir also is an electrical engineer from Punjab Engineering College (PEC) and retired as senior executive engineer, PSEB."

The cast had arrived at the club in a customised, flashy car. According to Jasraj, "This car was Jaspal sir's idea. We got it made from an Amritsar-based modifier, Daljit (aka Diltod Daljit), and spent about Rs.50,000 on the modification. This 'beauty' would be seen quite often in the film, including the title track, 'Ki karooga Jat je lag jaye power cut.'"
The movie features experienced actors such as Jaspal and Savita Bhatti, BN Sharma, Jaswinder Bhalla, Prem Chopra, Gurchet Chitarkar, Rajesh Puri and Chandan Prabhakar, besides the young brigade of Jasraj Bhatti, Zafar Khan (student of Bhatti's MAD Arts school) and Surilie Gautam (TV actress; sister of Yami Gautam of Vicky Donor fame).