Bhawana Somaaya

On 9 February Shaukat Kaifi’s book Kaifi and I was released in the lawns of The Club, Juhu at the hands of Tabu. It was my duty to introduce the guests on the dais -Urvashi Butalia, pulisher Zubaan, Nasreen Rehman, the translator of the book, Tanvi Azmi who read passages from the English translation, Shabana Azmi, the moderator for the evening and finally, the star author Shaukat Kaifi, theatre and film actress par excellence.

All of us dream about writing our memoirs some day but very few of us get down to doing it. Shaukat Kaifi has dared to write hers at a time when most people her age hang up their boots. She makes a dramatic foray into the publishing world in sunset years and alters history.

The book has been translated into Hindi, Marathi and Japanese and selected by 14 Universities in USA for referential reading in the South Asian Department for a story that transcends the personal to encompass the socio political cultural ethos of the times in a voice that is distinctly female.

The original Yaad ki Rahguzar has been adapted into a very successful play by Javed Akhtar called Kaifi Aur Main starring Shabana Azmi as Shaukat Kaifi and Javed Akhtar as Kaifi Azmi with Jaswinder Singh singing both Kaifi’s film songs and nazms produced by IPTA and directed by Ramesh Talwar.

This is no minor achievement for writing about self, about people we love calls for alarming honesty, photographic memory and commitment. Shaukat Kaifi has all that and more. Those who know her intimately will agree that she can be uncomfortably candid and embarrassingly honest. Let me give some examples:

Thirty years ago when I became friends with Shabana, she introduced me to her father and said, ‘Abba ye meri achi dost hai’ to which Kaifi Azmi looked at me and said, ‘Dost hain to zahir hai achi hi hogi.’

Cut to…

Shabana introduced me to her mother; Shaukat Kaifi looked at me and said, ‘shakal soorat to achi hai magar sadi achi nahin pehni.’ That day I learnt my first lesson in connection with Azmi household. I learnt that if you have to be anywhere near Shaukat Kaifi, you have to be presentable because she is obsessed with aesthetics. She craves for beauty in everything she does and this reflects in her belongings, surroundings. I learnt that it does not matter whether you are heading from a wedding or a funeral, from a work meeting or travel, if you are visiting Shaukat appa you better meet with her approval.

A few years ago, when she was laid up in the hospital bed and all of us would be rushing to meet her, our tension had less to do with the restricted visiting hours and more to do with making an impact on her. As we got out of the car we worried if our hair was in place, our face washed and clothes not too crumpled and frail as she was, she never failed to reprimand us.

The family was not spared on any occasion either. Many years ago when her son Baba Azmi was making his debut as a cinematographer we were attending the premier of his film Bezubaan. As we walked inside the auditorium, Shaukat Kaifi found herself seated beside Naseerudin Shah. ‘Are you watching the film for the first time aapa?’ Naseer asked Azmi to which she rolled her eyes in utter boredom and said, ‘Nahin doosri baar aur meri himmat ki daat deni chahiye.’ Fortunately the producer or the director did not overhear the conversation, nor did they watch her fall asleep as soon as the film commenced but even if they had, I have no doubts that Shaukat would have disarmed them. That is her attraction, what draws people to her.

Over the years she has been a strong source of influence on many lives, mine included. She has provided me love, reassurance and confidence when the going was tough. On the brighter side she introduced me to finer arts, to weaves and hues, taught me to look at the sky and dress according to seasons. When I was launching a new magazine and struggled with designs and artworks, she unknowingly parted with a guru mantra has that come handy in my career. She said ‘Whenever in conflict about colours, seek from nature, see how the yellow leaf droops over the green leaf and entwines with the brown stem soiled inside the red earth and all will fall into place.’

It did, not just the colours in the design but the mounting problems of life. When I was unwell she fed me with her brand of homeopathy medicine and I recovered miraculously. In moments of crisis she tied imamejameen around my arm and whispered an ayat and it sounds bizarre but the problem suddenly ceased to exist.

There are so many moments, so many memories…From the heart of a well-known family of Hyderabad to life in a single room with the barest of necessities, Shaukat Kaifi’s memoir of her life with the renowned poet Kaifi Azmi, speaks of love and commitment.

As young people Shaukat and Kaifi fell desperately in love with each other but were soon parted. For Shaukat’s family, a card-holding communist, a poet with no source of income, was hardly the kind of person their daughter should be marrying. Yet Shaukat’s father, a liberal man and a loving father, took the bold step of putting his daughter’s happiness before social opprobrium, and brought the two lovers together.

A marriage of over half a century, a life steeped in poetry and progressive politics, continuing involvement with the Communist Party of India, Indian People’s Theatre Association,(IPTA) the Progressive Writers Association, Prithvi Theatre, ongoing links with the village Mijwan in Azamgarh to which Kaifi Azmi belonged… all of these and more forms a beautiful tale of love.

Shaukat Kaifi’s writing details life in a communist commune, a long career in theatre and film, and a life spent bringing up her two children, cinematographer Baba Azmi and actor Shabana Azmi.

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen says of the book in his preface: “To say this is a lovely book would be an understatement. It is an enchanting recollection of the life of a hugely talented and sensitive human being, shared with a great poet. They were united not only by love and marriage, but also by an individually assessed joint commitment to social change, artistic creativity, and personal and political ethics. It is a lively account of an important part of Indian history – fired by sympathy, inspiration and imagination, but tempered by the hardship of reality.”

So many beautiful moments expressed on paper, an extra-ordinary life, an extra-ordinary character.

Bhawana Somaaya
blog.bhawanasomaaya.com

Hindi cinema is going through a wonderful phase. In the same month we have a costume drama- Veer, a rural raunchy love story- Ishqiya, a patriotic Road to Sangam, a historical – Raja Harishchandra chi Factory and Rann – an expose on the media. While Veer has attracted the single screens, Ishqiya and Rann have favoured the multiplexes. Road to Sangam has traveled all the festivals and Harishchandra… is on Dadasaheb Phalke and India’s entry to the Oscars this year.

Some of these got into controversies. Ram Gopal Varma particularly has a penchant for courting trouble. Ten days before the release of Rann, a freelance journalist dragged the filmmaker to the Bombay High Court alleging that the film was based on her script Break Ke Baad. Instead of jeopardizing the release the producers saw wisdom in settling the copyright infringement dispute but Verma is not happy with the decision. He feels that these days, writers think it is fashionable to defame filmmakers to popularize their books.

After Chetan Bhagat fighting over his credit for 3 Idiots this is another case of a writer suing a filmmaker. Anil Sharma, director of Veer, agrees with Verma because he along with producer Vijay Galani and actor-writer Salman Khan have been sued for a dialogue apparently borrowed from a book by a Gurgaon-based writer. Pavan Chaudhary has filed a case in Delhi High Court claiming that a line in the film describing India is lifted from his book Safalta ki Triveni: Chanakya ka Rajnitik Gyan. If Chetan Bhagat was paid Rs 10 lakhs as bonus for the success of 3 Idiots and Sonal Mehta has been paid a hefty sum to keep her mouth shut by producer of Rann, Chaudhary has claimed Rs 20 lakh in damages from the producer of Veer. Anjum Rajabali who has been crusading writers battles with filmmakers states that it is time to define transparency in contracts.

Sometimes technology is a curse and director Sudhir Mishra realised this recently. His forthcoming film Tera Kya Hoga Johnny is yet to be released but a rough cut of the movie has been leaked on video sharing website You Tube. The film starring Neil Nitin Mukesh & Soha Ali Khan was premiered at the London International Film Festival in October last year and slated to release mid 2010. Manu Kumaran, CEO Medient Corp has filed a complaint with the cyber crime cell and also at Juhu police station.

Some how tempers have been rising all over particularly in Jodhpur. The Bishnoi community and wildlife activists are agitated over the Padma Shri conferred on actor Saif Ali Khan, an accused, along with Salman Khan, in the killing of a black buck. Terming it as an insult to the award, activists of Community for Wildlife and Rural Development and Bishnoi Tiger Vanyajeev Evam Paryavaran Sansthan said they would protest to the President and the PM against the decision.

History has a way of repeating itself. A few years ago three filmmakers were working on Bhagat Singh and this time the greatest hero of the Chittagong Uprising, Surjya Sen better known as Masterda, is the subject of two forthcoming films. Ashutosh Gowariker is making Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey with Abhishek Bachchan and Shonali Bose has signed Manoj Bajpai to essay the role of the revolutionary. While Gowariker is shooting in Goa, Bose is shooting in Northern West Bengal. Let us hope that unlike Bhagat Singh’s Surjya Sen’s do not get into media battles and controversies.

South star Khushboo must have never imagined that an interview on pre-marital sex and virginity given to a magazine would turn into her worst nightmare. It is four years since she made the over publicized comment that “No educated people will insist that their bride be a virgin” but the statement continues to hound her. She came under adverse light in the Supreme Court when the translated version of the interview in a Tamil newspaper created furore and 23 cases were filed against the actress all over the country. Every time the old files open up, the festered wounds resurface. Grapevine has it that Khushboo’s husband plans to make a film on the episode and reveal their side of the story.

Most of the time, films imitate reality but sometimes reality imitates films as well. In Chak de, a charismatic mentor helps the Indian female hockey players to overcome the adversities and accomplish the World Championship. In a case of real life imitating reel and without the presence of a Shah Rukh – female hockey players have come together to make their case public. The women players have decided to openly fight the gender prejudices against the association and opened a joint bank account in Bhopal seeking monetary contributions from the public to help players in distress. Shah Rukh Khan are you reading this? If you are, then you should be sending the first cheque.

Bhawana Somaaya
blog.bhawanasomaaya.com