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2008/10/30 Casting रणWhen News Channels, Political parties and Industrial czars are the principal movers and shakers in a film, there is obviously a tremendous scope for high drama. As I mentioned in my earlier post on रण, the film is going to be a very high drama affair. And this is not so much my conscious intention as the director of the film, but the very demand of the subject matter.
Having said that, even the so-called high profile people at the end of the day are, ‘people’. And no matter how powerful they are, they are not without their share of insecurities, egos, jealousies, and dilemmas. I really enjoyed the process of casting for the incredibly exciting and thrilling characters of रण. These are a few of them: Harshvardhan Malik Cast: Amitabh Bachchan The founder of the first ever private news channel in the country INDIA 24/7, the Harvard-educated Harshvardhan Malik is India’s most respected media personality. He is a hardcore upholder of journalistic ethics. No wonder his Channel is battling for survival! Jay Malik Cast: Sudeep A go-getter and highly aggressive and ambitious son of Harshvardhan Malik, Jay looks at his Dad’s news channel purely as a business enterprise that must make profits to justify its existence. He hates that his competition is doing better than him. Purab Shastri Cast: Riteish Deshmukh Armed with a degree in journalism, Purab Shastri truly believes that the media should be the check point for the people of a country, and therefore, it should report news, instead of manufacturing news. Purab’s thinking sets him apart from most youngsters of this country. While everyone is chasing their individual dreams, Purab aggressively wants to work towards a better India. Needless to say, a clash between Purab and the powers-that-be looks inevitable. It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong! Mohan Pandey
Cast: Paresh Rawal It is every politician’s dream to become the Prime Minister of his country. To that extent, the leader of the opposition Mohan Pandey is no different from his contemporaries. The only difference being - if the need arises, Pandey can and will kill to get the coveted chair. Amrish Kakkar Cast: Mohnish Behl Amrish Kakkar was the first to have the VISION and the foresight to realize that even the business of delivering NEWS can be made ENTERTAINING. Amrish therefore can be safely held singularly responsible for taking the television news industry to the dogs, or to the heights, depending on how you see it. His channel is no less than a shady brothel, the content that is NEWS is no less than a cheap hooker, and Amrish Kakkar - the most powerful pimp around. Nalini Kashyap Cast: Manisha Koirala Nalini Kashyap is the programming head of Harshvardhan Malik’s news channel, INDIA 24/7. Having been in the industry for long enough, she has developed a practical view of how things operate here. And this comes in direct conflict with what her boss Harshvardhan Malik, thinks. Juggling the cut-throat world outside with the idealistic universe of her boss, Nalini Kashyap has her job cut out. Naveen Shankalya Cast: Rajat Kapoor Naveen Shankalya, apart from being the son-in-law of Harshvardhan Malik, is also one of the topmost industrialists of the country. Despite this, he is the most insecure man on earth, and won’t rest till he becomes the number one industrialist in the country. His best buddy Mohan Pandey becoming the Prime Minister of India will surely help his cause. Nandita Sharma Cast: Gul Panag The assistant of an ad filmmaker, Nandita Sharma someday hopes to bag an independent feature film. She is in a live-in relationship with her boyfriend Purab. Nandita is smart, educated, and intelligent. She is also highly indifferent to what’s happening in the country, and first thinks about herself and her man, before anything or anybody else. On both counts, she represents the youth of India. Yasmin Hussain Cast: Raima Sen An ex-model, and fiancée of Jay Malik, Yasmin watches TV, reads gossip columns, and for most part, takes everything that is dished out to her, AT FACE VALUE. She does not understand the intricacies of power games, and hidden motivations behind actions of people. The resources at her disposal to know what is true and what is not, are limited. She is not innocent, and she is not clever either. Yasmin therefore epitomizes the ‘common man’. Anand Prakash Trivedi Cast: Rajpal Yadav A creative editor, Anand Prakash Trivedi has a knack for sensationalizing even the driest story and making it sound like the story of the decade with super catchy headlines. More than any filmmaker, he makes far better movies. Only, he calls them NEWS. 2008/10/24 My reactions to reactions1. How true is that post Aag you went bankrupt and shifted from your office to a dilapidated building?
Ans: Not true. Actually I have shifted to under a tree and I now operate from a footpath. 2. What on earth were you thinking when you made Naach?
Ans: Thinking? 3. Who really manages your blog?
Ans: My ghost. 4. Stop reacting and start responding.
Ans: 5. Why don’t you make a film as big as Shankar’s film? Ans: Why don’t you just go and watch Shankar’s film? 6. You will die alone.
Ans: I will prefer that to your company. 7. Do you decide to go on a floor on instinct or logic or something else?
Ans: Instinct and logic and something else. 8. Did your engineering degree help you in filmmaking or is it just Ayan Rand?
Ans: Ayan Rand among plenty others and also plenty other things but definitely not my degree. 9. Why does Swami in Sarkar have more brains than Rashid?
Ans: The same reason why I have better than yours. 10. Why didn’t you give another chance to Saurabh Narang of Vastu Shastra?
Ans: I don’t give chances. I take chances. I took mine. He does not want to take his. 11. How much of technical knowledge do you need to understand cinema? Ans: None. 12. ………in that sense you wasted Amitji in Aag.
Ans: I accept. 13. Thanks in advance for reading.
Ans: I agree with several of your points. 14. You are one of my favourite directors.
Ans: Please don’t tell the names of the others and spoil it for me. 15. Meeting you is in my control. Not yours.
Ans: Superb. 16. Nishabd’s scene of Jiah being drenched was better than in Adrian Lyne’s “Lolita”
Ans: I disagree. Nobody can shoot a woman better than Adrian Lyne. Just check the introduction of Dominique Swain in “Lolita”. 17. If there was no Fountainhead would there be “Naach”?
Ans: No. 18. Was the blog on Amitji to butter him?
Ans: You are free to believe whatever will butter your happiness. 19. What is the importance of money to you?
Ans: Thanks for asking me. I have a lot to say on this and I will write a piece soon. 2008/10/22 My reactions to reactions1. Will you cast Mohanlal in any of your future films?
Ans: I think he will cut my hands if I approach him again. 2. Being irresponsible and selfish do you have the right to question media responsibilities?
Ans: Hello? Who’s questioning? All I am saying is that it takes one to know one. 3. Your scripts are not well developed?
Ans: I am waiting with bated breath for your inputs. 4. If a doctor tells you that you have only 2 months to live, how will you spend them?
Ans: Exactly the way I do now as I live moment by moment. 5. Rann sounds good. I hope it won’t loose anything between Idea and execution.
Ans: Keep hoping. 6. Why are most of your male protagonists atheists?
Ans: Because they are my alter egos. 7. Why do all your heroines have such terrific bodies?
Ans: Ahhhhhhhh! 8. How do you like the title “Ramgopal Varma ka Rann”?
Ans: As much as anybody would like your stupid sense of humour. 9. The scripts you are selecting lately have less substance?
Ans: Ho… Hum. 10. Did you fail your directors or did your directors fail you?
Ans: You as a viewer failed us both. 11. You wasted the character of Amitji in Aag.
Ans: Oh my! Somebody has woken up from a long sleep. Ek coffee laana please! 12. You may be eagle-eyed but how did you watch people’s expressions in a darkened theatre?
Ans: Since you obviously seem to be stunted go back to my “B and me” blog and notice that I said “not so darkened theatre” and this time write it down 50 times so that hopefully you won’t forget it. 13. Sir I have a story idea for you that has simplicity, love, passion, career growth and male escorting in it.
Ans: Boo hoo! Not fair. Not fair at all. Just because I made Aag it’s not fair that you and your breed want to torture me like this. Please leave me alone or I will make another Aag. 14. Electronic media is making lot of movies every day but they call it news. Ans: Superb. 2008/10/21 B and meIn a very bad and not totally darkened theatre (because of the light leaking through some vents and gaps in the closed doors) called Ramapriya in Vijayawada town in Andhra Pradesh, for the first time I consciously began to understand the phenomenon of Amitabh Bachchan.
The film that was playing was Khuddaar and the scene which was going on at that precise moment was, when Amitji learning the lie his own brother told him, barges into the discotheque where his brother is grooving away with a girl. As he shouts at the DJ to stop the music and looks at his brother at the far corner with hurt filled eyes, a gang of vicious looking bouncers move towards him. He looks at them and with an emotion choked voice says that he will break their legs if they try to stop him. There was an audible gasp in the theatre from the viewers as he said this. The interesting point is that none of the guys in the theatre could speak Hindi as Vijayawada is a Telugu speaking town. So what did they connect to? It is just the raw emotions of anger, betrayal, helplessness and above all the hurt he managed to communicate through his body language, his voice and his eyes.
As I looked at the faces of the people sitting in the theatre I could see a tremendous sense of awe, admiration, respect and above all a connectivity in their faces. Each and everyone of his viewers connected to him deeply through the characters he portrayed in his various films. Each and everyone wanted a brother or a friend or a leader like him.
Even after volumes spoken and big fat books written on him, I think it is still very easy to underestimate his incredible influence and his unimaginable impact not only on cinema but also on at least on a couple of generations conscience.
Kids loved him in Amar Akbar Anthony then and Kids love him now in Bhoothnath.
I have seen street goondas emulating him from Kaala Patthar, Kaalia etc and modern day gangsters are awe-struck with his intensity in Sarkar.
Women used to swoon over his romances then and today’s women would want a life-partner like him.
Old people back then wanted a son like him and today’s old people see the reflections of their own life through his performances in movies like Baghbaan etc. His contemporaries back then were dying of jealousy and unable to understand what is making him tick and today’s stars and technicians resume cannot be completed unless and until they feature with him at least in one film.
For me Amitji is raw, real and gritty and he hit me like a thunder bolt both as a viewer and as a director. His charisma, his screen presence, his personality made such an impact both on me and millions of others like me unsupported by today’s so-called massive production values. Unlike today’s superstars he never had to hide behind catchy songs or lavish sets or exotic foreign locales etc.
Any random man you pick on the road anywhere in the country, and if you ask him what you remember of Amitabh Bachchan, he is bound to come up with at least a hundred of his favourite scenes, dialogues or moments from Amitji’s various films whereas if asked about any of today’s superstars I doubt that they will remember beyond their hit songs and their films box-office collections.
From the time of being awestruck with him in Zanzeer, Deewaar etc to consciously understanding his screen prowess post Khuddaar (which incidentally largely was responsible in influencing my own technique of shaping up characters in my films), my biggest desire cinematically was to do a film with him which eventually I realized in Sarkar. In the run up to the making of Sarkar in my several meetings with him I started seeing a very different side of him other than what I only perceived through his films. Behind the obvious power and intensity was a sensitivity and vulnerability and also listening to his thoughts made me sense his incredible versatility as an actor. By that time my proximity to him blinded me as a viewer of him as a star and the filmmaker in me got greedy and dumb enough to experiment with him as an actor which resulted in Nishabd and Aag. It’s not so much only about the quality of those films that I am talking here but it is just the idea of casting him in those roles.
Amitji’s make-up man Deepak told me on day one of shooting of Nishabd that the film will flop because no one is going to accept Amitji in a role like that. Whether that is the reason or not, I for myself as a viewer wouldn’t probably want to see him featured in a role like that. As an actor I think Nishabd is Amitji’s finest performance mainly because of its sheer complexities and it demanded such subtle nuances of reactions, which most of the so-called art-house actors won’t even begin to understand in their life-time let alone portray them. But the question is does one want to see Amitji just as an actor? I for one don’t want to, unless the acting is coming from a certain immensely larger than life perspective.
Similarly in Aag there will be a difference between a viewer’s reaction and my reaction to his performance. As a director I judge an actor by seeing what he does with what is given to him. The viewer sees the final effect of that in the context of the film and hence he cannot have an idea of how I could have screwed it up in the screenplay and how badly I edited it or various other blunders I could have committed. People seeing the film react on the effect, whereas as a director I know the cause.
On the other hand if somebody argues that he had no business to do those films without knowing what he is getting into, yes he is guilty of misplacing his trust in me but he is not guilty of not doing his best which he does invariably better than any other actor can ever even hope to do.
From what I gathered from my association with him, I understood that by being the ultra professional that he is, once he agrees to do a film based on whatever reasons he has, he completely succumbs to the vision or non-vision of the director. The end product sometimes can look a mess but the inside secret will be that he would have always given much more than what was expected of him.
The close-up of his when he stands on the steps looking at Aftab taking Jiah away in the climax of Nishabd calls for an extraordinary understanding of human emotions and hence a far superior performance, compared to him saying “Tujhe bhi karne nahin doonga” in Sarkar which he would have done a thousand times before. But sadly the effect of that line in Sarkar will become cinematic history whereas the Nishabd’s close-up might go unnoticed. On the basis of what all I said above if anybody out there understands, my favourite performances of Amitji from my films as a director are in the order of
(1). Nishabd (2). Aag (3). Sarkar Raj (4). Sarkar But forgetting myself as a director and thinking like a viewer they will be
(1). Sarkar (2). Sarkar Raj (3). Aag (4). Nishabd. The effect of Sarkar’s performance as compared to Sarkar Raj is probably higher for many primarily because of the shock value of seeing Amitji in such a role after a very very long time but if you look deeper you can’t find a single shot in Sarkar which is comparable to, for an example the expression he has when he shows Sanjay Somji’s body to Raosaab. There are many many such moments in Sarkar Raj, Nishabd and Aag.
So the point I am trying to make in summation is that he never ever failed as an actor and he never will. It’s only directors, both other’s and me who frequently fail in framing his art in a given context.
Karan Johar’s favourite film of his is Kabhie Kabhie and Silsila which I loathe compared to my favourites like Deewaar and Zanzeer which Karan loathes. I dislike seeing him in movies like Last Lear and Black whereas Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Rituparno Ghosh might not want to make films like Nishabd with him.
But that’s what sublimal art is about. You can take whatever you want from it and interpret it in any which way you want to.
Amitji is an artiste who can and will allow himself to be conformed, adapted and shaped up in any which way one wants to mould him and the final result he will leave it in the hands of the director he is working with.
But irrespective of what on a personal level he might think of the result, the effort he puts in and the passion he brings in to elevate even the most mundane of scenes, the performances he brings and the way he speaks his lines is for me my personal proof of what Amitji truly and really is.
Amitabh Bachchan is that rare art form which takes birth just once in several life times.
2008/10/16 रण - a NEWS storyI have titled the film I am going to make on the media as रण.
रण means battle. And battle is a fight between large organized forces. In the context of a civil society and its deep complexities, large organized forces (read news channels, political parties and industrial czars) are not just involved in a fight with each other, but more importantly and frighteningly, they are battling a war within themselves and this is especially true of news channels.
If dog bites man, it is not news. But if man bites dog, it is news. And if a cat bites a dog, it’s Breaking News. Getting news is not the easiest thing in the world, so the next best thing obviously would be to make anything and everything appear to be news.
The way the news are presented today are much more entertaining than family soaps and thrillers. What’s worse is that we enjoy this kind presentation so much that we have got addicted to them for our daily dose of fun and drama.
AND HIGH DRAMA IS WHAT रण IS GOING TO BE.
There is the government - a system which runs the country, then there are wealth creators like industrialists etc and then there are politicians in the ruling party and the opposition. All the above in a democratic society are supposed to be working for the common people and the one and only means of the common people having any idea as to what those are up to is through the media. Hence the media has been invented as a truth telling machinery serving the purpose of the common people so that they know they are in good hands or in case they are told that they are not, they can hope to exercise the power of their vote to bring about a change.
But in a free economy system where there is so much competition the media by default is lost in its purpose.
The Media is a reporting agency. It reports News. NEWS is what is new. New is what you hear for the first time. So to be able to be the first to tell you the various Newspapers and Channels have an intense competition among themselves and this they do on a need to survive, on an ego to be on the top and on a greed to get rich.
To be ahead of competition means more circulation and higher TRPs which in turn generate more and more Ad revenue which will translate into making more and more and more money.
Also the fact that in the process the people who run the media realize their power of influencing the common people inevitably makes them power hungry.
To sum up this film’s intention would be to expose the behind-the-scenes truth of how a truth telling machinery by the very virtue of its positioning has no choice but to corrupt itself to become a money-making and power-brokering enterprise.
Truth is Terrible
- Friedrich Neitzsche (Ecce Homo)
2008/10/15 My reactions to reactions1. How are creativity and logical thinking related?
Ans: Creativity is a spontaneous burst of Ideas whereas logical thinking can either result in an effective implementation of those ideas or most often completely fuck them up. 2. Success defies everything as does failure.
Ans: Superb. In my experience failure does it better. 3. I have some fantastic horror/thriller scripts.
Ans: Why don’t you yourself make some fantastic horror/thriller films out of them? 4. No matter how intelligent you think you are there will always be someone more intelligent than you.
Ans: I have this nagging feeling that you think you are that ‘more intelligent’ guy but let me inform you that I am more intelligent than you thereby proving that your thinking is absolutely right. CONGRATS and CHEERS! 5. You are a shadow of your past. I saw Sarkar and Sarkar Raj. They are ordinary.
Ans: Ok Sir. 6. My girl friend says that you look scarier than your movies.
Ans: Thanks. 7. Make films on international drug peddling and on street gangs.
Ans: Anything else Sir? 2008/10/13 My reactions to reactions1. You are a sociopath on the loose.
Ans: You can also add psychopath to that. 2. What would have Satya done if Bhau asked them to come to his house?
Ans: When I die and go up I will ask Satya and let you know. 3. People who take you words seriously should get their heads examined.
Ans: I want to kiss you. 4. You are suffering with a Antisocial Personality Disorder.
Ans: Ok doc. 5. My mother says that you are half mad.
Ans: And my mother says that your mother is full mad. 6. I find songs distracting in a movie.
Ans: If the songs feature nice legs, heaving bosoms, slim waists and voluptuous butts I many times find the story distracting. 7. Can a book change the reader?
Ans: No. But a reader can shut it. 8. Can you publish the article you have written “The ideas that killed 30 million people”?
Ans: I don’t have a copy as I wrote it 20 years ago. But I will quote a few passages from it. The start of the article:
Although the Ideas that nourished the intellectual roots of Adolf Hitler can be traced back to many a megalomaniacal thought that poured out from a few German minds of the 19th Century not other man’s thoughts have contributed so much to the barbaric part of the Nazi mind as those of the philosopher Fredrich Nietzsche.
The essence of the article:
I quoted from Nietzsche’s “The natural history of morals”. “The strong men, the masters regain the pure conscience of a beast. They return from a fearful succession of arson, rape, torture and murder with the same joy in their hearts and the same contentment in their souls as if they have indulged in a harmless students rag. When a man is a master by nature and violent by gesture, of what importance are treaties to him?”
My writing in the article under the above quote:
These words uttered by the most terrible man that has even existed on the face of the earth as Nietzsche described himself in his autobiography “ecce homo” had a profound impact on the shaping up of the mind of Hitler and host of lesser Nazis and in time they would justify such ruthless deeds as the breaching of the Versailles treaty, the violation of the Hague Convention, the killing of his own followers in the blood purge of June 1934 and the senseless massacre of millions in the IInd World War and the brutal torture of Jews in Auschwitz and other such concentration camps”. The end of the article:
All things said and done no one can blame Hitler for surprising the world with his doings because he bared each and every intention of his, years before he was given the power to do them. Any reader of his autobiography “Mein Kampf” will have no doubts about that. 9. What compels you to do something that you did not believe in?
Ans: A little bit of not being sure and lots of dumbness. 10. Why don’t you shoot ur movie and watch it yourself?
Ans: Why don’t you write your comment and read it yourself? 11. If you are so selfish can you make a movie without cameraman, assist. Director, choreographer etc?
Ans: If you are so charitable why don’t you give away your pen, internet and your brain and then try to communicate? 12. Creativity should not fill your head. Give some space for humanity in your grey cells.
Ans: Pompousness should not fill your head. Give some space for creativity in your grey cells although I suspect you have none. 13. Satya and Company are highly superior films. We believe in your genius inspite of Aag.
Ans: Hello. Hello. Hello... if there is one thing I am scared of more than my haters it’s well-wishers and patronisers like you. That’s because I can so easily fall a victim to your kind of breed as you guys create a false sense of security. I beg you and plead to you and request you to chill and see my movies and read my blog if you feel like it or don’t if you don’t feel like. I don’t need anybody to tell me how good or how bad I am. If you praise me beyond what I think of my worth is, I will think you are a fool and if you praise me below what I think my worth is also I will think you are fool. Nobody knows me beyond I, me and myself.
Oh my haters! I plead you all to come save me, a self-obsessed megalomaniacal fuck-all filmmaker from the love of my well-wishers and patronisers.
P.S: I think I have overdone this but what the hell. I was just in the mood Vaishak :) 2008/10/9 My reactions to reactions1. Can one really reach a state of moral indifference?
Ans: I did. 2. How can you have the audacity of thinking yourself as God?
Ans: If you are referring to an answer I gave in an earlier post, I said that I was playing God. In truth I think I am bigger than God. 3. Do you contradict yourself because you don’t have clarity in your thoughts?
Ans: Only because I have clarity in thoughts I contradict myself. 4. You are just one more among the thousands of ‘got more than deserved Bollywood biggies’.
Ans: Ok smallie. 5. Apart from Ayan rand what other books do you read?
Ans: Mad magazine for comedy and Nick Carter for sex. 6. What principle of Fredrich Nietzsche guides you?
Ans: The principle of quoting from as complicated a writer as him because most people don’t understand him and hence they will imagine that I understand him just because I quote him and then I can pass off as a very well-read man and an intellectual. 7. I think you are an escapist.
Ans: No. I am a fantasist. 8. Had you written the ‘Dramacomic tragedy’ just after the accident it would have been surely different.
Ans: Ok Mr.Psychiatrist. 9. There is no comedy at all in this tragedy. Your callousness is disgusting.
Ans: Ok… I will look you up in heaven on my way to hell. 10. What made you divorce?
Ans: Marriage. 2008/10/8 A dramacomic tragedyYears ago I was involved in a train accident, while travelling from Hyderabad to Naraspur for the shooting of ‘Prema katha’, which resulted in around 17 deaths. It was one of the most dramatic, comic and tragic experiences of my life.
I was sleeping on the upper berth in a First Class cabin, when I suddenly heard a huge rattling sound, and at the same time a moaning sound started coming from a person sleeping in the lower berth steadily rising in its volume. My first thought was that the train is off the track and I felt it will crash when the moaning below will reach its crescendo (I have this disease of constantly living in a state of filmdom irrespective of the situation). Both the rattling and the moaning stopped suddenly and there was complete silence. It was pitch dark and for a few seconds I thought I must have been dreaming.
Then I tried to get up and I couldn’t as my head was being pressed against the wall of the coach. I couldn’t figure out why, for a while, till I realized that coach was on its side inclined at about 30 degrees. With great difficulty I managed to get down and started searching for my shoes. As I wore them I started hearing faint whispers of people asking each other whether they were alright. The volume at which they were talking almost made me feel that they were scared to disturb the situation.
Slowly I managed to reach the coach door. There was a very faint moon light outside. As I stepped out my shoe went into the slush of paddy field. My first thought was “Yuck, my shoes are fucked.” I bought this new pair of shoes just the previous day. Once I got over the tragedy of my shoes I looked around to see a couple of coaches behind lying on their side and people slowly crawling out through the connecting doors of the coaches which broke in the accident. I went walking to the track which was about 50feet from the train as it was dry there. By that time people were coming out.
The initial reports were that nobody was killed or hurt. Now where these people got these reports from is anybody’s guess. One guy got a bed sheet and a pillow from inside the train, put it on the tracks and instructed people around to wake him up when the rescue train arrives.
As I looked around there was a mixture of shouts, sounds of people crying and strangely laughter too. Quite a bit of my unit was in the S5 coach which was about 4 coaches down. So I started walking towards it when a little ahead I saw a man with a severed leg on the grass. That’s when I came to know that the ‘all are well’ news were false. As I went further I saw the coach just before S5 so mangled and I could hear a man moaning in pain asking for water from inside. I couldn’t see the inside through the window in the darkness but I could make out that he was somehow trapped. A guy walked up to the window with a water bottle to hand it through the window when somebody shouted at him not to give the water. The water guy turned to the shouting guy to ask him why and the shouting guy gave his gyan on why an injured man should not be given water. The water guy had a sudden desire to be educated more on the subject. So both the shouting guy and the water guy went into an educational tour of the dangers of giving water to injured people. The shouting guy suddenly developed the personality of a all knowing teacher and the water guy of that of a wide-eyed pupil, and this scene was happening with the background score of the man inside the train moaning in pain and begging for water.
“Sir, are you fine?” someone shouted from the back and I turned to see E.Nivas who was my assistant at that time. He was in S5 coach. I asked him what about the rest of the crew. He said “mostly fine but Vidya is out”. I knew even when he said it what he meant, but I still thought it was strange to use a terminology of cricket to describe a known person’s death in a situation like that. Vidya was a camera assistant who joined my unit recommended by my cousin who was very close to his family. Niwas told me that it took him 45 minutes to come out of the coach. He was sleeping in the lower berth and after the accident he tried to move Vidya and he couldn’t and then he realized he was dead.
I took out my cell phone which was working and called up my cousin in Mumbai. It was about 4am. After I told him Vidya is dead, my cousin’s sleepy voiced first question was “are you sure?” I stopped short because I realized that I was just conveying what Niwas told me and I asked Niwas “are you sure?” Niwas also got into doubt and said that “he was not moving, for sure” and I said “then maybe he was just unconscious”. This put Niwas in further doubt, so both me and Niwas trudged through the slush to go to S5 coach which was lying on a 45 degrees incline. We went under it and Niwas started shouting Vidya’s name through the grilled window and I heard a moan. I turned sharply to Niwas and said “he’s alive” to which Niwas said “that’s not Vidya, it’s Murthy”. “Who is Murthy” I asked him and Niwas said he was just a friend they made in the coach the previous night and he was sleeping in the middle berth right below Vidya, and who also was apparently trapped.
Now Niwas started shouting at Murthy to try and nudge Vidya above him to see if he was alive. Murthy’s returning moans from the darkness became a character and I was instructing my directions to Niwas in soft whispers almost feeling guilty about using this new character Murthy as a medium to find out Vidya’s state. So the conversation went 3-ways between my whispers translated to Niwas’s shouts to Murthy’s groans and moans and all of us listening to Vidya’s silence.
Suddenly a cheerful voice from behind said “Varma saab you are here?” I turned around to see a man with a group of people walking towards me. I couldn’t recognise him. He realized that and introduced himself as a Railway Officer who I met in the shooting of the climax of “Kshana Kshanam”. He had come on the rescue train and went about introducing his colleagues “We have all come here to do the needful”, “He is Station Supervisor Ramchandran”, “He is my close friend Venkateshwarlu” etc etc. Then he asked me “Can we do anything for you?” I said “Sir there’s a unit member of mine called Vidya who is trapped inside this coach. Can you help in finding out his state?” To which he said “Yes, yes I will do the needful.” Suddenly a voice from behind said “Are you suspecting any sabotage?” We turned around to see a reporter with a Dictaphone. Suddenly the Officer became very authoritative and told him “First we have to attend to the needful. But any information you should only ask me. My name is Rao.” I could clearly see that Mr.Needful wants to see his name in the paper the next day.
Meanwhile a gleeful looking man from a nearby village was ecstatic about how nothing like this ever happened near his village. I could imagine Mr.Gleeful till the day of death will tell his children and grand children of his experiences.
I left Niwas and the Production Manager Giri to attend to the rest and along with a unit member on the directions of Mr.Needful I started walking towards a jeep to take me to a nearby town Guntur. As I was walking many officers and passengers who recognized me were greeting me and treating me with great respect. I reached the jeep, got in and told the driver to move. He gave me one dirty look and pointed to the wheel which was stuck in the mud and then he went off on a long barrage of expletives cursing the officers for not listening to him when he predicted that the jeep will get stuck. He was least bothered about me or the accident. So I had no choice but to trudge through the paddy field along with some unit members towards a nearby village from which I presumed Mr.Gleeful came from. After I walked a certain distance to the village I turned back to see the train on its side and there was a tree on the right between the train and me. I wished that it was a little to the left so that the visual would have looked better (Hello! Remember my disease of living in a state of filmdom?)
Once we reached the village there were some vehicles. Nagarjuna’s family friend from Guntur took me into his vehicle and drove me to his home. He was hospitality personified and apparently a huge fan of mine and was in awe of me. As I got down in front of his home, I was unbelievably dirty, both my clothes and feet. Even as I asked for water to wash my feet Mr.Hospitality insisted I come in. So I went in to face a woman who couldn’t control her anger looking at the dirt on my feet. Mr.Hospitality introduced her as his wife and she took off on him on why he couldn’t get my feet washed outside to which he screamed at her saying “Do you know who he is?” to which I volunteered to go out to which she said “What’s the point now as you already made the floor dirty.” Now Mr.Hospitality wanted me to sit on the sofa and from the look in her eyes I knew that both me and Mr.Hospitality were in mortal danger if anything even near to that happens. I stomped my feet down literally and said I am not doing anything except for cleaning myself up.
Once I got cleaned I shifted to a nearby Hotel where most people from the accident were put up. Niwas called me and told that Murthy stopped speaking. Both of us remained silent and did not speak about the ‘death’ word.
The S5 coach was mangled and they had to cut the top open. Now it so happened that Vidya was right below the roof as he was on the upper berth. So in the process of cutting the roof, his face got completely burnt from the heat of the welding torch. Whether he died before itself or during this process is anybody’s guess.
My cousin en-route from Mumbai called me and said Vidya’s father was coming and I have to break the news to him about his son’s death. His father was only told that Vidya is injured. I felt terrible that I am meeting this man for the first time in my life and the first thing I have to speak to him is that his son is dead. I confided about this to a relative of mine Pandu, who came to see me there, to which he said not to worry and he will take care of that. I wondered how he will do that.
When Vidya’s father walked in looking at me very fearfully not knowing what to expect Pandu sharply slapped his back from behind and said in a tone of loud cheerful happiness ‘Your son is very lucky. God loves him and took him away. We all are bastards and I don’t know when we will get that lucky”. I was shocked at the way Pandu broke the news. The effect on Vidya’s father was mesmeric. He was startled both with the news and the way it was told to him. My first reaction was that it was very insensitive on Pandu’s part but on second thoughts I thought it was the most perfect way of breaking the news in that situation. Pandu went on a barrage of advantages, incidents and anecdotes about God and His ways not giving thinking and feeling time to Vidya’s father. Pandu was instinctive but I think he was more a philosopher and psychiatrist than anybody I met.
Later I sat with Vidya’s father and gave a long talk to him on why he should not show Vidya’s body in the state of his burnt face to his mother. I said ‘let her remember him the way he was’, to which he countered how he cannot do that as he is her only son to which I was getting angry more with the fact that my logic was not being listened to.
However by the time he reached his place along with the body, my cousin called me and told me that Vidya’s father decided to go by my advice and got the cremation done without the mother seeing Vidya’s face. I felt triumphant of my counselling power.
Anyway after the entire experience the one truth I realized for myself is that “life is really a comedy which pretends to be a tragedy".
2008/10/4 My Reaction to Reactions1. In ‘Sarkar Raj’ Sarkar’s wife is shown serving tea. Sarkar doesn’t have servants or what?
Ans: Oh that’s such a fantastically mind-blowing awesome observation. I am humbled and will be grateful to you forever for bringing this absolutely brilliant insight into my purview. 2. You need an audience for the movie and not the other way around.
Ans: Hmmm… interestingly put. 3. I wonder how you extracted that action from a python in front of Sridevi in ‘Kshanam Kshanam’.
Ans: That is a russels viper and there was a glass sheet between them. 4. Where did you copy the first song of ‘Govinda Govinda’ from?
Ans: From my heart full of feelings for Sridevi. 5. What do you say about your assistants saying that RGV is a school?
Ans: Well, their non-education says it all. 6. Are we copycats for calling our industry Bollywood?
Ans: It’s one of the blatant examples of our hypocrisy. On one hand we keep claiming ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’ and at the drop of a hat we want to ape everything from America from Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood to 9/11 attack becoming 7/11, 6/10, 26/12 etc attacks. 7. What made you cast Jiah in ‘Nishabd’?
Ans: Her legs. 8. I am working with the Greyhounds and I have a story.
Ans: Please give me your contact. 9. It’s very hard to find a good movie.
Ans: And it’s even more harder to find a good viewer. 10. What are your views on marriage?
Ans: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! 11. Why does Manoj Bajpai call you the greatest liar ever?
Ans: Because I am. 12. Can we take out a part of the film and will it still be success?
Ans: Let me tell you an instance. When Mani Ratnam’s ‘Geetanjali’ released it had a very bad talk in the first few days in the trade circles. The story as per Mani’s intent was about the protagonist and the audience knowing that he will die and then he falls in love. A panicky distributor of Guntur removed that scene where it is revealed that the hero will die, thinking it will make it more dramatic. Subsequently the film became a super hit in all areas as well as the one where that all important scene was cut. 13. By praying to God we get relief in certain situations. Since you are an atheist how do you cope with the same?
Ans: By playing God. 14. Why are you so stubborn, arrogant and intelligent?
Ans: Because I am stubborn, arrogant and intelligent. You can be too if you were just a little more smarter. |
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