Cinema changes every decade, so does technology and when we move from one to the other, suddenly, the old appears outdated. When colour came into movies, there were no takers for Black and White films and when the trend of big budget, multi-star films began in the 70s there were suddenly no takers for single star projects. This happened with the single screens as well when the multi cinemas mushroomed in the city.  Hyderabad Blues would not have been a hit had it not been for the multi-screen concept and Vinay Shuklas’s Godmother would have received rave reviews had the film released after the multi screens came about.

Today, all kinds of subjects are released on the OTT platforms. We are living in adventurous times when every aspect of entertainment is being explored and indulged. Often, I watch old films on television and feel that they should be re-released on the OTT platform only to get a refreshing perspective One such niche film that comes to my mind was released around this time in the year 2004. Written and directed by Sahtya Akademi awardee playwright Mahesh Dattani, revered for his powerful plays Mango Souffle and Dance Like a Man. Morning Raga featuring Shabana Azmi and Perizad Zorabian was a story about music, traditional and modern and also about friends and trauma. I had interviewed Dattani and asked him if the story was based on a true incident and he shared that the idea came to him when he was composing the music of Mango Souffle.

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Bhansali recalls that when he was older and went to watch movies, he was fascinated with the projector fascinated and the beam of light falling on the big screen, “I wondered how it happened and told myself that one day, I will tell my story too. I shot nine films and a few songs, created music for my movies and have enjoyed the process. This year is special because a film I enthusiastically look forward to Gangubai Kathiawadi makes it to the cinema halls and there is more…

Netflix will showcase the ambitious Heeramandi a subject close to my heart. My friend Moin Baig presented the story to me 14 years ago but I had to wait because it had to be presented on a grand scale. Then OTT happened and I knew that the time had come and Netflix is the perfect platform for the extravaganza. Stories are forever wandering in my head and I never know which one I will pick to make my next film. Twenty-five years have gone by and years have gone by and more decades will pass, but my love for cinema can never diminish. I always say you don’t need money to make films, you need passion.”

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This is a special year for Sanjay Leela Bhansali who completes 25 years in cinema. Bhansali recalls that he was four- years-old when he visited a film shooting for the first time with his father. “My father had to meet some friends and seated me on a chair from where I could watch the shooting. He said he would come and collect me, so I sat there, watching people, camera, props move from one place to another and I was fascinated.

When father finished his work and came to fetch me, I did not want to go home. I wanted to be inside the studio forever, it was more exciting than going to school, being with my friends and cousins. It was only when I turned much older, did I understand that they were shooting a cabaret dance on that day. It was all so colourful, so enchanting that I was captivated in the world of the dancer and knew all the steps because it was so many times.”

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Somehow, the only South director Hindi cinema is attracted to is Mani Rathnam and when news came around that Aishwarya Rai was shooting with Ratnam again, they were all the more curious. Ratnam’s next is based on Tamil celebrated book Ponniyin Selvan portraying the Chola dynasty and Sobhita Dhulipala of Made in Heaven fame, a trained classical dancer, plays the pivotal role of a princess who is a master of Kuchipudi and Bharatnatyam. The film is a multi-lingual project and also features Vikram, Aishwarya Rai and others.

The coming months are promising for Yash Raj Films because Bunty Aur Babli is due for a Diwali release while Prithviraj starring Akshay Kumar as the king and directed by Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi a new year opening and Ranbir Kapoor’s Shamshera directed by Karan Malhotra is scheduled for March 2022.

To those who allege that show business is changing rapidly, I will respond that opportunities are too many. What was not okay just a few years ago, is perfectly fine now. When Masaba told her story with mother Neena Gupta, many were horrified. Then came the Bollywood Wives and now suddenly everyone is telling their stories. Legendary tennis players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhuppathi have shared their conflicts in Breakpoint and allegedly Salman Khan and Prabhu Deva are next in the line. 

There is so much content to absorb on the small screen that it is a refreshing to read about projects coming on big screen. Rani Mukerji after shooting for a month in a bubble has just wrapped up Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway, story of a mother who fights a nation for the sake of her child. Interestingly, South star-director Revathy has roped in Kajol also for the story of a mother titled The Last Hurray.

Film: Sardar Udham

Date: 15.10.2021

Sardar Udham is well intended but unusually slow

by Bhawana Somaaya

Shoojit Sircar directed Sardar Udham is the story of revolutionary freedom fighter who shot General Michael O Dwyer in the presence of all at Caxton Hall, London. Dwer was the man to give fire orders in Amritsar’s Jallianwala Baugh that killed 20,000 Indians. When the massacre occurred in1919 Udham Singh was only 20 years old and it became a life transforming event in his life.

The film touches upon all those landmark years: 1913 -1929 -1921 -1927- 1931 -1933 and 1940 and we travel all these cities, Punjab-Rawalpindi-Scotland-USSR-Lahore where Udham walked the streets, markets, spent happy times in the field, stable, picked by police stations, at times hiding in dingy lodges haunted by recurrent nightmares and the pall of gloom during his long imprisonment.

The camera exposes you to all his demons, not an easy film to shoot because it is tough to compress so much information within just two hours. The research is detailed, authentic and excels in sound, cinematography, locations, language. The problem is the pace. All the sequences are long, Udham’s investigation unending and frequent flashbacks-flash-forwards annoying.  

The Jallianwala Baugh massacre is superbly shot, but again never ending. Nobody expects entertainment from a patriotic film but some humour, light moments could have changed the narrative. Vicky Kaushal plays Udham with quiet confidence and repressed anger but the character is devoid of   shades. Watching the film, I kept wondering how Irrfan Khan would have portrayed the role.

It is not easy making a film like this, not easy revisiting wounds. It is 100 years since the massacre but India is yet to receive an official apology from the British. The bigger tragedy however is that the revolutionary who sacrificed his life for the nation has been forgotten.

Thank you, director Shoojit Sircar, for reconnecting us to our hero Sardar Udham. Jai Hind.

This is indeed a rough life compared to the luxuries a star like you is used to, don’t you miss the pampering of a star? Doesn’t your heart crave for the spotlight and the camera? Do you sometimes yearn to do that one more film and a role? “You mean come back to movies and acting? No, no not at all, I cannot bear the thought of starting my day looking into a mirror. I have done it for many years, on stage and on screen. I deserve a break now. Let me tell you that one of the reasons I am forever declining social engagements is because I detest the idea of dressing up. I’d rather stay at home and read a book”.

Once upon a time Asha Parekh lived in a palatial bungalow overlooking the sea, when she felt she did not want to be weighed down with the responsibility of the maintenance, she moved into a duplex apartment in the adjoining building, also overlooking the sea. I have visited her many times a at her bungalow and her duplex apartment over a cup of masala chai and freshly prepared poha and let me tell you she is happy and she knows it.

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It must be tough winding up a serial you have been attached to for over a year? Asha Parekh sighs deeply, “It is very painful to part with a team you have worked with like a family but the curtain has to come down, that’s showbusiness”. What about your next series Kangan, this timeyou chose to tell the story of a man instead of a woman? Asha Parekh smiles, “Strange that nobody asks these questions to men? But women filmmakers are always questioned if they choose to tell the story of a man, why?  It is time to rise above these gender discriminations. A story is a story and it does not matter whether the story teller is a man or a woman.”

Tell us about your learnings as a filmmaker? “I was learning on the job, learning from my artistes and from my technicians every day. We had a schedule in Balarampur and have shot 105 scenes in just nine days that too in the mid-summer heat. The climate was so cruel that all of us suffered from sun stroke!”. Today, a similar situation is unthinkable.”

To be concluded