THE ICON INTERVIEW: CAKE TALK
Four weeks ahead of the release of his first feature film Cake, Asim Abbasi squeezes out time on a “super-crazy” day between meetings and cab rides in London, where he is based, to speak to Icon via an online call about why he thinks it is important to do something “different” for cinema. Following are excerpts from the interview:
Q. Are you nervous?
Of course, I’m anxious. But I am also optimistically positive. I can’t predict what happens at the box office but I am optimistic that people will appreciate Cake for the performances, the visual language that we have used and for the storytelling.
Q. Why did you decide to switch from banking to films?
When I was still in high school, there wasn’t so much of a culture to study filmmaking or do anything creative, and the standard thing was studying economics. It was only later when I was living in London that I realised that film was something through which I could explore my creative side.
I got my master’s degree in filmmaking at SOAS University of London where I was exposed to international cinema. It was a totally different kind of environment where I studied psychoanalysis, film theory and a variety of interesting subjects that I never had exposure to earlier. Afterwards, I made a few short films and wrote a couple of features. Following that, I wrote Cake and spent time building a team and finding a financier who believed in the idea of doing something different for cinema.
Q. What kind of films inspire you?
My all-time favourites are Tarkovsky’s Mirror, Bergman’s Persona and Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love.
Q. What is Cake about?
It explores a parent-child relationship, the day-to-day struggles of a family, how they grow up together and then grow apart, how time changes people, how parents grow old and how you make decisions around looking after them and pursuing your own life. It is about the passage of time and how choices and mistakes made in the past affect our present. It is a family film, and everyone has families. They know love and loss and grief.
Banker-turned-filmmaker Asim Abbasi talks to Icon about the making of his debute flick Cake. The film is set to premiere nationwide on March 30
Q. Why did you choose this story for your first feature?
I like to write or direct intimate stories that closely connect with people on an emotional level. I would like Cake to change the audiences in a small, intangible way as they leave the cinema halls.
Q. Is Cake catered to the Pakistani or the international market?
I have tried to give it as wide an appeal as possible but it is primarily targetted at the Pakistani market with an international feel to it. Shot on the outskirts of Hyderabad and Karachi, and a little bit in London, the film doesn’t have bright colours, lip-sync songs, or women dancing around trees, masala or song and dance, because the story does not demand it. I have nothing against commercial cinema but I wanted to tell a story that is true to what life is for a lot of people. There is no melodrama, but the moments of joy and grief will connect with audiences.
Q. How long did it take to bake this Cake?
The film took a little over a year to complete. Hard prep for the film started in October 2016.
Q. Isn’t daring to be different a risky thing to do?
I didn’t want it to be a rehash of what has already been done over and over again. Unless you try something new, only the formula would work, a bit like the chicken-and-egg thing. Any film that does well and is loved by audiences is by default a commercial film.