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Overwhelming Mahesh Bhatt
From building fences to mending fences, the Indo-Pak saga of comfort in conflict appears poised for a paradigm shift to harmonious coexistence, with the mass entertainment industry as the prime mover in changing mindsets. Mahesh Bhatt was in town a few months ago for the KaraFilm Festival screening his film Zakhm, a film with an explosive story-line based on inter-communal love and hate, and lives lived in crisis of identity. Mahesh was having a crisis of his own while in Pakistan!
“It’s been an overwhelming experience that has done something to my emotional centres. There is a relentless outpouring of affection that comes from the people here. This is certainly not enemy territory! That’s something we have been made to believe by the people we have trusted.”
But there is a problem, isn’t there? It can’t just all be hype!
“Obviously! We have lived through some terrible wars where tales of bloodshed and massacre have poured in through the radio and television. I am not in denial. But all those nasty images get obliterated once I step into the real Pakistan, what is called enemy territory.”
Can the power of the film industry rival and prevail upon the power of the military industrial complex?
“I need to have the audacity to hope, and the defining feature of an artist is his capacity to keep on hoping! Ultimately, story-tellers have bridged the distances between hearts through centuries, and nations have come closer through the vehicle of story-telling. I was asked to come to a function in Karachi where tribute was being paid to Nur Jehan. I was a little unsure, being a bit of a recluse at home. I was inching towards the venue where the who’s who of the Pakistani entertainment industry had gathered. Anxiety had caused a knot somewhere in my body. I did not know what I was opening myself to in the midst of strangers. But the moment I heard Nur Jehan’s sounds from a distance, it had a calming effect upon me because it brought back memories of my childhood. My mother listened to Nur Jehan a lot. Like when you feel the fragrance of parathas being cooked, you feel at home! Nur Jehan became the glue that held together an Indian like myself and people in Pakistan. There is a need to engage in making more good memories.”
Mahesh Bhatt has hung up his directorial boots and is now content functioning as producer. ‘I felt that it was time to leave the auditorium while the applause was still resonating and hand over the reins to a younger generation. When you get older you need to invest in the youth and have more faith in them. What stirs me is spotting talent and giving that talent a platform’
Mahesh was in Manali (Himachal Pradesh) near Simla shooting for daughter Pooja’s film when he got a call from Hassan Zaidi to participate in the KaraFilm Festival.
“Pooja and I were overjoyed and agreed. Call it chance or coincidence, but Pooja’s directorial debut Paap has Ali Azmat’s and Rahat’s (Nusrat Fateh Ali’s nephew) music in it, and the background score has been done by musicians from Pakistan as well. So Paap was a natural choice. Our two countries’ mutual strengths have already been put together in this film. We have not waited for some politicians to sign some paper and give us the go-ahead! We have gone ahead and done it!” He says triumphantly.
What about all those Indian films that take pleasure in demonizing Pakistan?
“I have vociferously maintained a position on this. Anything that demonizes each other should be attacked on the front foot. We are in a society where these things are not censored. We need to provoke a sense of balance within those who do this sort of thing for their economic self-interest. These negative types should be brought here so they can feel the love and affection!”
Pakistan’s censor policy has Mahesh’s grudging admiration.
“As an Islamic country there are clearly defined limits, and it makes the job of the practitioner simple. There is no pretension involved. In India we tell ourselves that there is something like absolute freedom, and when you come down to exercising it, then we behave in a far more repressive way than the neighbour we pretend to be better off than! I find that kind of hypocrisy absurd. I may think I am free, but as I grow up in life I realize that I am not. Censorship should be out of choice, a case of self-restraint.”
Making films based on other people’s stories almost nipped Mahesh’s early talent in the bud, with four flops to his credit. Finally Arth got for him the recognition he craved.
“It was a catharsis of my personal trauma. I discovered that man is nothing but memory. When you tell your own story it has the pulse, the throb, the beat of life. So it was about my own extra-marital affair and the subsequent trauma in the life of people around me.”
He strongly advocates resisting cultural colonization, with technical skills the only justifiable import.
“Our nuances and detail are what define us. What makes Nur Jehan is the expression and dard (pain) in her voice. She never tried to sing like Lata Mangeshkar. Uniformity is anti-art! Our uniqueness as a culture needs to find expression in our work. In this age and time the world is literally pouring into our drawing rooms. The only thing that will keep us alive is our own rooting. No film-maker, no matter how great, can come to Karachi and make a significant film like someone who has lived in Karachi.”
How does Mahesh cope with a celebrity daughter like Pooja?
“She is very clear about what she wants out of life. She was never given a prescribed path to follow, no cultural or moral compass. She was warned about the world she lived in, and that whatever she did here she would have to face the consequences of. Pooja has her own fierce individuality, and an opinion that is drastically different from mine at times, and she makes it stick! I am vulnerable to being manipulated by a daughter, but the director in me is firm and uncompromising. She is lucky to have a fine man in her life now, her husband, a man who is gentle and artistic, and understands that there is in his wife a wild streak of wanting to do unconventional things. Like her father, her husband is very supportive of her. She has got it made!”
Mahesh has hung up his directorial boots and is now content functioning as producer.
“I made Zakhm, which was my last directorial project, a semi-autobiography based upon the memories of my mother and the carnage of 1992-93. I felt that it was time to leave the auditorium while the applause were still resonating, and hand over the reins to a younger generation. When you get older you need to invest in the youth and have more faith in them. The film industry consists of people who don’t let go. What stirs me is spotting talent and giving that talent a platform. Put a package together. Make films.”
Distances exist in our minds, says Mahesh, and the only way to bridge them is to listen to the stories of other people. When we do that we allow the other person inside of us.
“It’s like opening your door to a stranger. Once you know his story you discover that he is as vulnerable, as beautiful, as lost as you are. We are going through a cold wintry night, and we have one fire that is holding us together. It would be stupid not to share it. Only if we share it will we be able to deal with the morning after.”
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