Jhansi Sixty eight-year-old Ilahi Baksh has just canned a film. Shot on a handy camera, filmed in villages around Jhansi with wannabe stars (a railway head clerk and a school teacher), it hopes to create ripples at the ‘‘digital projector’’ box-office and re-establish the link between Bundelkhand and Bollywood.

But it is 11 in the morning and it is going to be a three-hour wait before Baksh can unspool the rushes of his film. ‘‘Every day we have no electricity till 2 p.m,’’ the excited old man says. ‘‘But we’ve learnt to live with it and do all our editing work in the evenings. In the day we just hang around and chat about movies and politics.’’

A die-hard Congressman, Baksh thinks the connection between his movie world and the big banners of Bombay will finally be made thanks to Raja Bundela. Actor and Congress candidate sweating it out in the plains, Bundela is Baksh’s new hero.

‘‘I even clicked some really good photographs of him and after a few touches on the computer they looked great,’’ he says, laughing loudly.

Reminding his captive audience of how he shared the sets with Meena Kumari, Pradeep Kumar, Dharmendra and regaling in his favourite story of how Mahesh Bhatt used to sit under a tree and write, Baksh adds: ‘‘I run a film institute, teaching youngsters the art of cinema. They come to me because they know I’ve been to tinsel town and back. It’s to ensure their future that I wish Bundela wins. At least I’ll have another address to send young aspirants to.’’

Bundela, in the meantime, has other things on his mind. Admitting that he was given very little time to get into poll mode, he harps about a separate Bundelkhand state. ‘‘That’s my poll issue,’’ he says, totally oblivious about Baksh’s expectations and vote-bank politics. ‘‘As head of the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha I have raised this issue everywhere and, in fact, a lot of us young politicians have formed a club to demand separate states.’’

In a giant air-cooled room, he talks about the need for Bundelkhand. ‘‘We are very backward even though we are resource-rich,’’ he mumbles, trying to convince a friend on the phone to come down to Jhansi and help. ‘‘People here have even forgotten to aspire for better things. I find that shocking.’’

A 10-minute drive from his mahal, in Baksh’s studio, an inverter springs to life and a fan starts whirring slowly. Baksh senior has just finished listing the Congress agenda and how the BSP controls three of the four seats in Bundelkhand. Having indulgently listened to his father, Farooq pushes aside the album he is flipping through and shakes his head ruefully. ‘‘It is not that simple anymore for young Muslims like me,’’ he says. ‘‘Honestly, I think the BJP government has not had a fair chance at the centre. Moreover, since they came to power, the Babri Masjid has not dominated politics. And I don’t understand why we should live without electricity half the day. I lose so much work time.’’

So while the father’s choices are ruled by tradition, the son is taking the bijli, sadak, and paani anthem of the Vajpayee Government at face value.

Showing off their modest editing studio, next to a cupboard full of antique cameras, son Farooque Ilahi lets you take a peek into his big Bombay dream. ‘‘In Bundelkhand we are very artistic, music and dance is in our blood,’’ the 20-year old says. ‘‘At Vandana films, we are trying to give these artists a break and make their transition to the sets of Bollywood smoother. I worked with Sanjay Khan on Chandrakanta and do serials because my father had a toehold in the industry. Now we want to give that chance to others. But my father and

Bundela can’t make it work. This will work only if it is untouched by politics.’’

Having disagreed on politics, they decide to go back to their filmi duniya, where both father and son agree on almost everything. ‘‘Arrey politics chodiye,’’ Baksh says as he begins a guided tour of his set. Standing in front of the facade of a hut he goes way back to the 1960s and the camera starts rolling. ‘‘I went to Bombay with just a dream, ended up working with the best cameramen in the business and made contacts that help me even today,’’ says Baksh, pointing at the fraying pictures of ‘‘skinny canteen boy and now director’’ Ashok Mehta, his mentor cameraman K. Mistry and more recent ones of his grandchildren with Jackie Shroff and Shah Rukh Khan.

Allowing his father to cherish the past, Farooq talks about the future. ‘‘I come to Jhansi every once in a while to do my own thing, but Bombay is where my heart beats. I even married a Bombay girl because accommodation can be such a bother there. Now I am set and besides working on daily soaps, I am planning my own shows.’’