Mumbai, November 21: HE’S the man who gave us the Wah, Taj! tea campaign. Sumantra Ghosal (47), also the co-producer and cameraman of Ram Madhvani’s Let’s Talk, has gone back to his favourite subject—Zakir Hussain—once again. His film on the tabla maestro, The Speaking Hand, will be screened at the 6th Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) film festival, on November 23, at IMAX Wadala.
Ghosal says the idea to make the film came while he was shooting the tea commercial. ‘‘I felt it was a good idea to capture Zakir for future generations who may not have heard him live. I wanted to make a film on him now, not when he is in his tottering old age.’’
The endeavour was to make an artistic documentary on Hussain and in that way tap the untold stories of Indian musicians and artists. ‘‘I realised that there is hardly anything on the life, art and genius of Indian classical artists and musicians. The only documentary evidence of their performances is with the Films Division of India and that are not too good. My film is a beginning in that direction.’’
The Speaking Hand is partly Hussain’s biography, but it also focuses on the Ustad’s relationship with his instrument which according to Ghosal, ‘‘is an extension of him’’.
Incidentally, Ghosal had made this documentary on Hussain in the early 1990s, but it didn’t find favour with many because, in his own words, ‘‘It was hard on patience.’’ The reason was its length—over three-and-a-half hours long. Ghosal decided to shorten it to 104 minutes and finally managed to take the film to the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.
Hussain, says Ghosal, was ‘‘fantastically helpful, and it was only because of him that we got the permission to shoot his concerts with other greats like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and Pandit Jasraj.’’
Currently preparing to take the film to Pakistan, Ghosal is also brainstorming on another film. His only condition: ‘‘I have to be truly inspired.’’ |
