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The non-formula film-maker
One may call him a film-maker who makes unconventional films serving the parallel cinema in India, but director Sudhir Mishra hates being pigeon-holed into a single category. “I would call myself a non-formula film-maker who likes an audience but is not willing to be subservient to them. I would say that I am an unconventional film-maker whose films stem from his own life and from the world around him. I can only make films that I can make and I have been very fortunate that I have been allowed to do the films that I have.” He was recently in Karachi for the screening of his film, Hazaron Khwaishain Aisi, at the KaraFilm Festival 2005 in Karachi.
According to Mishra, when he started making films which didn’t fall into the commercial bracket, film-makers like him were automatically bracketed in the art-film mould or parallel cinema. Such films got a limited release but he managed to break free from all that. “When I made Dharavi in 1991 about the largest slum in Asia consisting mostly of immigrants in search of a better life, the film got released in a big way maybe because of Shabana Azmi and Om Puri or whatever. But since then there has been no looking back for me since Iss Raat Ki Subha Nahin to Chameli to Calcutta Mail, the latter being my only flop even though it had Anil Kapoor, Manisha Koirala and Rani Mukherjee. And now comes Hazaron Khwaishain Aisi. It’s a mystery for a lot people that how a film like this got made in India because of the political connotations and the fact that it is in English, Bujhpuri, Telegu and Urdu. The actors are also not known and still it got released and stayed in the cinema for 10/12 weeks. That means there is an audience who wants to see other kinds of films besides Bunty aur Bubbly.”
Hazaron Khwaishain Aisi certainly did that for Sudhir Mishra not only in India but Pakistan as well when he recently showcased his award winner at the KaraFilm Festival. Expressing his views on his experience of Kara and his impression as a first-time visitor to Pakistan, he says, “It’s definitely been a very good experience. In fact, I had a choice to go to America where my film was being shown in New York but I opted for Pakistan and sent my assistant there instead.”
Coming back to Hazaron Khwaishain Aisi, he says it is a love story set against the backdrop of a politically decaying India during the late 1960s to ‘70s. It is a film about the class struggle in Bihar that became the Naxalite movement.
Since the film is inspired by a revolution, the question put forth to Sudhir is if he is also a revolutionary by nature and how much does he believe in those people? “There were some people at that point of time who went on an adventure. They did not agree with the country’s system that they inherited. They wanted to change the environment and felt that the feudal system was vulgar. I feel they were fighting for themselves as it was an aesthetic issue for them. But whatever you call it — aesthetic or political — for me both are the same. I just liked the sentiment, the passion of those people and if the revolution failed or succeeded due to their own mistakes or someone else’s is not my concern. I am not a card-carrying communist and I despise Stalinism and the one party rule. I don’t want to live in Stalin’s Russia or Mao’s China.”
‘I can’t make a film on the social issue of the day because if that was the case then the moment the issue is solved the film is over. For me a film has to have a continuous thought process,’ says Sudhir Mishra
Does he believe in giving a message through his films? “Film is not a medium that gives a message. It is something which provokes questions. In life there are individual answers for everyone so you cannot give some formulaic answer for reference. Sometimes I like to make films which provoke a question and start some kind of discussion, telling you that you are not living in the best of all possible worlds. Films are also about how we try and realize our potential. Sometimes we fail and sometimes we succeed. I can’t make a film on the social issue of the day because if that was the case then the moment the issue is solved the film is over. For me a film has to have a continuous thought process.”
Hazaron Khwaishain Aisi is also a love story of Siddharth (Kay Kay Memon), Geeta (Chitrangada) and Vikram’s (Shiny Ahuja) selfless love towards Geeta who treats him as a mere friend. Does that make Mishra a believer in Vikram’s selfless love and did he feel this concoction of love and politics would gel together to make a film? “Love is a moving force that motivates one in life. It is not just a chemical reaction at the age of 18. And then there is the kind of love that is shown in the film. It couldn’t have a political culmination as I couldn’t lie and say everything was nice and dandy, or make a very pessimistic film where everybody dies and nothing is left at the end. So I was looking at what the culmination should be of such a film. The angle one could take up was an emotional one, something personal. It became the story of a boy who loved a girl all through his life but really didn’t come in her way and the girl, in a certain way, always ends up using him. In the end, he gets the girl when he needs her the most but at the price of a terrible personal loss. So in a way it’s a sad story.”
Women have always been the main protagonist in Mishra’s films around whom the story revolves. Why the obsession with women characters? “I wouldn’t call it obsession. I have introduced a lot of young people. With the male ego you are always trapped in a mardangi ka issue which is not there in a woman. Women are not afraid to be weak, to admit wrong or afraid to go through a gamut of emotions. There is a greater capacity in women to reflect many facets of life so I find it more interesting to go into that with a woman. Also, the actresses are more beautiful than the male actors (laughs).”
During his 18 years of film-making, Mishra has often used commercially successful actors such as Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee and Manisha Koirala (Calcutta Mail) or Kareena Kapoor (Chameli). But according to him, there is no difference in working with commercial or non-commercial actors. “The stars that I have worked with starred in my film as actors. Whether it was Anil Kapoor, Kareena, Manisha, Rani, Chitrangada, Tara Desh Pandey, Shahbana Azmi (Dharavi) or Deepti Naval (Main Zinda Hoon), I didn’t feel any difference working with them. Nobody interfered in my way of working because they were simply there as actors. If they had come as stars then it would have been difficult for them to work with me.”
There is a lot more to come from this non-formula film-maker who has big plans for the future. “I am planning a film Nawab, The Nautch Girl And The John Company which is a big project and needs a lot of money. My immediate project is a film titled Bohot Niklay Mere Armaan with Shiny Ahuja and Vidya Balan which I will direct and Prakash Jha will produce. Set in the 1950s, it is the story of an idealistic film-maker who finds it difficult to make the kind of films he wants to, an actress who is always in the gossip columns and a male movie star caught between the two,” says Sudhir Mishra with a smile.
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