Film Review CHATAK - a REEMA BORAH film

Interview with Mukesh Tiwari

Interview with Mukesh Tiwari

ORIDAM

Neelanjana

HAFLONG - God's own town

Review of SANDHAYARAG - the screenplay

My column in AMAR ASOM

My column in AMAR ASOM

What's wrong with our FILM CRITICS???

Film Review RAAVANA

FILM REVIEW

Tribute to McMohan

Poetry written in Celluloid by FOOTBALL

Journey with Guru Dutt

On last 18th Nov, Abrar Alvi breathed his last almost in a lonely state. Few days back I tried to contact him over phone, but my wish was not fulfilled as he was ill at that time. At that time I have never imagined that he will go away within such a short span of time. Abrar Alvi was a ‘lonely tragic prince in the roll of fame’. He has created the classic ‘SAHIB BIBI AUR GULAM’ but he was never properly honoured for the film, everybody was busy in praising Guru Dutt only as if it was Guru Dutt’s directorial effort – it is a film by Guru Dutt in the name of Abrar Alvi. Sathya Saran has established the fact and established the honour for him which was not shown to him earlier. At last he became able go from this world with proper dignity and reorganization. This write up is a tribute to that the great creator and gratitude to Sathya Saran.
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Suddenly I got the book I was searching for a long time. I was busy with my daughter in a book stall at Panbazar (popular book market of Guwahati) searching a book for her. She gave me three books- Papa, buy these three. One is about A R Rehman, another is on Bimal Roy – edited by Rinki Bhattacharya, published on his birth centenary and the third is Sathya Saran’s Ten years with Guru Dutt – Abrar Alvi’s journey. All are my desired book, but I did not have money for the three. What to do? My daughter advised – buy the Guru Dutt, you purchased Guru Dutt’s dvd, now buy this book.
I have purchased a collection of Guru Dutt’s classics few days back and was plunged in those. At this time this book will be more meaningful for me. “Perhaps Guru Dutt is the only India fil director who made films with personal statement within the parameter of box office. His films not only expresses his ‘genius’ but also proved the creative talents of his team which includes cinematographer V K Murthy, writer Abrar Alvi and music director S D Burman.’
‘Ten years with Guru Dutt – Abrar Alvi’s Journey’- with this book Sathya Saran has sensitively portrayed the friendship, dependencies and work of the director and his writer in a fountain like flowing language.
Sathya Saran was the editor of Femina, now she edits the journal Me. She is not regular in cinema writings. Long back, she wrote a long interview based article for Filmfare on Vijay Anand. That article exposed Vijay Anand’s life - philosophy- art- pain in such a insightful way which we have never experienced earlier. Later I have translated that article into Assamese for Bismoi, of course with her permission.
This book has evoked our interest for several reasons. First – Sathys Saran’s writing on film. After that Vijay Anand’s article I always used to search journals for her film writings. Second reason – Guru Dutt. And the third is – Abrar Alvi. He wrote three great films of Indian Cinema- Pyaasa, Kagaz Ke Phool and Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam. He directed the third also, Guru Dutt directed the two others. Both the films are Guru Dutt’s personal statement. This book will provide us lots of information about those three films- with this hope I started the reading.
But, I found that the book is much more thought provoking, interesting and soulful as I presumed earlier. Indian Express has came out with an interview with Abrar Alvi, where he said that he has lots to tell – but who will listen? The interviewer also concluded his write up repeating the same question. Sathya Saran has accepted that challenge. ‘I was at that time going through a rough patch emotionally, thanks to matters at the workplace turning soul. This I told myself, would distract me, keep me from feeling that my journalistic job was the beginning and the end of the world.’ Perhaps, at that time she gave up the editorship of Femina.
Few miles by train, after that by bus, in every Saturday, Sathya Saran reached Abrar Alvi’s residence and talked with him for long hours. After two years, the book came to a shape.
In this ten year’s description we discover two parallel journey of Abrar Alvi’s rising, he has entered to Guru Dutt’s camp as a driver, then became dialogue writer and then screenplay writer and reached the peak as a director. The other journey depicts Guru Dutt’s creative talent, multi dimensional aspect of his creative mind/soul, mental conflicts, thrust, concept of art, personality and his aspiration. The word Guru Dutt simultaneously echoes few other words also – Pyaasa, Gulabo, Wahida Rehman, Geeta Dutt and V K Murthy. All these works make the perfect picture of Guru Dutt.
Poetry lover Gulabo – in Indian silver screen, we have met lots of whore with golden heart. But Gulabo is in above to all of them. That particular sequence from Pyaasa – where the hero’s wife met Gulabo – has emotionally charged lots of film makers. Sanjay Leela Vansali has created such a sequence with Paro and Chandramukhi in his Devdas, which was a deviation from the original novel by Saratchandra. Sanjay Lela Vansali told in an interview that the creation of that sequence was inspired by Pyaasa. Goutam Ghose also included such a scene in his Yatra, Actually, the film Yatra is completely inspired by Pyaasa. In this book we found all the background story of the making of Gulabo told by Abrar Alvi.
Once, Abrar Alvi came to an intimate level with a whore and became emotionally involved. Her painful life and sense of humanity touched Abrar. He portrayed that girl in Pyaasa with his own interpretation. ‘I carried my relation with Gulabo to the screenplay, even some of her words also, and the rest became easy.’….‘ During the shooting of Mr and Mrs 55 …….. It is a challenge and I must accept it.’
Guru Dutt played the leading male character in Pyaasa. At the beginning he was not suppose to play that role, he thought for some other actor. One of those actors was Dilip Kumar. Dilip Kumar was reluctant to the role for several reasons of his own. Later he accepted the role but did not turn up for shooting. So Guru Dutt had to play the role as he could not arrange other alternative. Later Dilip Kumar expressed that it was his great blunder, a great loss in his acting career.
Guru Dutt’s most ambitious film was Kagaz he Phool. It was in cinemascope format. In this film V K Murthy expressed his creative artistic talent in such a height which is still bright and mystic. His creative genius to expand the limited frame and mastery to create magic of light and shade gave an unique level to cinematography which is still observed by the film lovers with great sense of surprise. Abrar Alvi has elaborated all those aspects in this book. ( we can feel the influence of some shots on Farah Khan in her film Om Shanti Om).
Kagaz ke Phool was a disaster in box office. So, Guru Dutta has entrusted the directorship to Abrar Alvi for his nest production Sahib Bibi aur Gulam. Initially Abrar was not confident to pick up the megaphone of Director. Later he accepted. The film was a hit in box office and even in artistic measure also. But, many people believe that the film was directed by Guru Dutt directed the film himself and published Abrar’s name only. This book has logically established that the director of the film was none other than Abrar Alvi. In the preface Sathya Saran wrote – 'I do wish he (Abrar Alvi) finds happiness again and the book vindicates his stand and places him firnly back in public memory; that future generations, who thrill to the world class cinema Guru Dutt films produced, will know him as the man who was friend, philosopher and guide to Guru Dutt and the writer-director of Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam.
This book has successfully fulfilled her wish. Sathya Saran presented Abrar that reorganization which he never enjoyed in his life.
A phrase ‘pregnant silence’ is generally being used to express the appeal, resonance and feel of an art work. Pregnat silence is – silences which contain messages, either good or sinister. Silence, that is more potent than words. While Abrar Alvi was narrating his life and work to Sathya Saran, I believe, he was not talking all the time. Definitely there was lot of silences in between. It is not complicated to believe that that silence was filled by his respect for Guru Dutt. We can feel that silence in this book too. This feeling has increased the weight and volume of the book.
After completing the reading of the book I have again watched the films – Pyassa, Kagaz ke Phool and Sahib Bibi aur Gulam and discover the writer and the director in a new dimension. This is the greatest award we acquired from the book.

Mera paas Shoshi hein in Assamese

One of my fav poems

LIVE FROM BUSU DIMA FEST

Live outdoor broadcast in radio is so common practice that it doesn’t not leave much scope to feel excitement. But doing such thing from a station like HAFLONG where we have limited technical support and minimum manpower, it really gives us a pleasure of doing it. I had live broadcast experience with one day international cricket matches – where we had a large team to work with, had experience of reporting live from various spots where we had nothing to do except doing the commentary. But doing the same thing with limited technical equipments and with a small number of working talents – most of them are not exposed to such work – is really challenging one. Mrinal Devburman, a veteran broadcaster and ASD of DDG Office NER Guwahati, has initiated this project while he was in official tour to Haflong. He guided the whole team and he had to return to his place just before few hours of the programme. But he was constantly supported us over phone and guided us.
We have started the show and first encouraging message came from Aparna Joshi, Editor of Radio and Music dot com. I showed the sms to all my team present on the spot and they feel encouraged.
All the team members were so excited that they wanted it to be continued till the last item of the programme of BUSHU DIMA fest. But we had to stop at one point and announced that we will come back again next day.

ANTAHEEN - the BEST FILM of 2009

A film director creates a world of his own, within the frame-work or space of a film’s narrative. It is noteworthy that although the camera frame or the cinematic presence remains intact, it is within such frames only the director displays a world of cinematic brilliance by giving birth to a whole new world of make-belief convincingly. Appropriate camera angles, light and shade’s proper methodology, and the idealistic setup created by a camera’s frame: these getaways at times gives rise to a world as wide as a blue sky and at times a microscopic imagery of a rose petal. Finally as a result what we get an experience of cinema which speaks for itself.

A multistoried building, two characters standing on the balcony bereft of words spoken between them, a world of their heart’s unending trauma, which the camera very judiciously captures the vast sky above the characters which aptly describes the character’s state of mind which aspires peace and tranquility within themselves. Similarly, a shot to be remembered is the one where the hero buys roses from a girl on the roadside: the color which forms basis on the hero’s heart is black (because of the existing turmoil), the roses itself are red, so the frame which comes out as a result is left without any gaps, like a microscopic one, where the color red (of the roses) takes precedence over the hero’s state of mind and heart. Such artistic and cinematic brilliance are achieved by an upcoming director Aniruddha Roychoudhury. His first film, ‘Anuranan’ spoke for itself when it came to emotional and expressive quotient, his second venture is, ‘Antaheen’ which enabled Aniruddha to carve a niche for himself in the field of Indian cinema.

There is not a conventional story in Antaheen; it’s a story of love and the extent of love in its myriad ways and the long wait for love. It’s a journey into love. In order to drive home his point the director gives human life to his characters in this film. Antaheen is a film about a journey into the relationship between man-woman, a journey which takes a peek look into the human emotions which are integral part of this journey. Mention must be made here of the challenging task on the part of the director who took recourse to unconventional methods of narration for this film which itself speaks of a film devoid of a fixed story. The director’s efforts her have paid off really well.

The film starts with the director’s narrative discussing a couple. Then follows the name casting where images of a laptop, high-hand cell phone, revolver etc. (depicting a modern life) are displayed, images which plays pivotal role as the story progresses.

Aveek Choudhury (Rahul Bose), a police officer, unmarried, traumatized with the conventional marital settings, has no link-ups with any girl but has an online friend whose he waits eagerly and stares at the laptop where the star appears, and which star radiates his world of loneliness. It is said that the electronic medium often fails to express emotions. But after watching Antaheen, this myth seems to fade away permanently.
“ Raat Jaaga Taara” is Brinda (Radhika Apte), a television journo. Professionally, she meets Aveek, but no relationship blooms between them, interestingly via the internet both come closer and closer to each other. This relationship between Aveek and Brinda is kept alive curiously till the end by the cimematographer, Shyamal Sengupta. Just when the situation approaches for the two to come face to face, suddenly Brinda loses her life to some unidentified goons. Aveek remained clueless that his night star has extinguished forever. Such intensity of emotion touches the audiences love, for a moment, comes to an endless halt.

The film is not limited to these two characters only. Aveek’s uncle (Kalyan Roy), a financial consultant Ranjan and aunty Parmita (Aparna Sen) play a separated couple, but are still friends, both realizing that too much intimacy between them may diminish the passion and love which they possessed for each other. Parmita is a senior executive in a television channel, Brinda’s friend and colleague. She reminiscences her love for photography when she is alone, and also by cleaning up the lens of the camera. Once on Ranjan’s birthday Parmita drops in, they celebrate together, she gifts him a book of poem, spend the night together, and then they part. Parmita decides to relocate to Mumbai in search of a lucrative job, discusses with Ranjan, who advises her to go ahead with her decision though he wants. Parmita to stay back in Kolkata in his mind. Parmita on the other hand, too thinks that if Ranjan would have asked her to stay back. What we get is unspoken words between the two again a wait for them maybe someday they mite hear what their heart desires.

Aveek’s unmarried paternal aunt Moni (Sharmila Thakur) stays with him, who spends her time mainly in embroidery. She never had any affair with anyone. Except for once, when she got a phone call from a wrong number, a male person on the other end speaking to her for sometime. Since then she keeps her long wait for the same phone call which one fine day did stop coming. Again, a long wait for Moni.

Industrialist Mehra’s (Souvik Kundgrami) daughter’s death occurred in an accident but his wife Shalini (played by Mita Vashisht) opines that Mr. Mehra is responsible for their daughter’s death. Again, is a wait by Mehra to get his wife who has treaded her paths way away from her husband.

With the help of these four characters, the director brings to light a world of love and friendship in its myriad emotions and variations, tried to tell something which none did prior. Clubbed into four relationships, in one a couple stays together but are far apart, in one a couple stay part but are close to each other, in another the male is invisible, what we get to hear only is his baritone voice, and in another both the male-female are residents of a make-belief world.

It is indeed tough and challenging to think such an intellectual story, more challenging to write such a narrative and tell it in a simple manner. But all credit goes to the director who tells a different story in his own creative and innovative way.

Brinda goes out one day to investigate a land construction scam in which industrialist Mehra gets himself into. And that day itself, some unidentified goons kills her in their car. Barely few hours prior to that accident, she spoke to Aveek. During the conversation, she realized that Aveek did possess much similiarities with each other. But they could not keep their word. Again, the long wait which symbolizes the entire film is made explicit here.

All the characters have an individual life of their own, each story is unique, but each character is entwined into the story in its individual way. But this is just an external union. The real and more engrossed union is displayed by the director in the emotional quotient of the film. Each character speaks of love and the longing ness and passion associated with that love: all such intercourse makes the director’s narrative sound like a perfect orchestra and gives it life.

Aveek and Brinda’s relationship presents a dual picture, one which both recognizes and are part of it and interestingly, another which none realizes, but in both the emotional quotient is at its peak. Ranjan-Parmita’s love story speaks of one which has won against all odds yet lost the game, an intimacy which is still intact even after separation and a pain which symbolizes a zeal to win each other back in life. The characters have done a marvelous job to this effect. Moni Aunty found her desired relationship in a voice which remained invisible to her eyes. Cold-blooded industrialist Mehra, though engaged in a heartless business still desires to put an end to the cold and sterile relationship with his wife.

Man-woman relationships, their intricacies, their pros & cons, all such delicate issues are aptly entwined by the director in all the four stories of the film, which are not only expressive but at the same time deeply heart-touching. The characters analysis comes to the fore and the narration moves on like an orchestra. , which reaches its peak during Brinda’s death in the movie. As if for a moment, life comes to a stand still but barring all odds life again starts moving. Some events which are not smooth-sailing get reflected in the narration, but credit goes to the writer who manages to keep intact the audience’s attention throughout the film. Added to it, the pain of separation had added to the woes. Love and longing ness- these two ingredients are used in different means to describe man-woman relationships and its intricacies involved by the director.

Described as the director’s own cut (the story), the screenplay writer, Shyamal Sengupta did not resort to three act structure of conventional methods of story telling. The reason why this film doesn’t speak of the intricacies involved in it in the first half. Gradually, the director has aptly and very judiciously made use of all the pre-requisites of narration to give life to the story on celluloid. The use of light and shade according to the scene’s mood, the use of colour, camera’s focus and the movements of the story, judicious use of these make the director’s speech very real. Mention must be made of the background score by Shantanu Moitra which aptly fits at times in between the dialogues and at times in between the scenes.

All the artists in the film have live up to everyone’s expectations and have very well drove home the director’s point home. Costume designing, set designing et all does fit in very appropriately with the director’s narration.

The film does not display one particular story arising out of a theatrical crisis. There is a no direct portrayal of an edge of the seat storyline, no hero to admire, no villain to despise. Neither is there any characteral-situational-narrational arrest in the film. The arrest lies in the character’s individual emotional crisis. The director had indeed proved his prowess over the art of story telling by beautifully strewing a garland with such intricacies in the film. The film sees the coming together of a number of talented artists on screen, though their talent gets reflected through the director’s brilliance. Another significant thing about the director which mesmerizes and stands out in his conviction. A conviction to tell a story by breaking away from the conventional shackles and more importantly in such a successful manner. Aniruddha Choudhury stands out for such conviction in him and has carved a niche for himself.

In every shot the director’s emotional excitement gets displayed and at the same time more seriously during the highly emotional scenes, the director’s portrayal of the human emotions in an unprecedented and epical way, sets the way to term him as an artist in the truest terms of the words.

But inspite of such encouraging and praiseworthy terms, it is to be mentioned here that in between the film, techniques of product endorsement and bathing scene of a female character have to some extent played spoil-sport in such an enriching experience of viewing the film.

Translated from original Assamese by
KADAMBINI THAKUR
kadambini.thakur@gmail.com