NEWS FLASH

Aiming high

Devesh Sharma
Posted online: Friday, December 05, 2003 at 0000 hours IST

Somantro Ghosal, Mireya Sempar, Amir Shahab Razavian are three filmmakers who hail from different corners of the world, yet their aims and struggle remain the same — to make themselves heard in the in the vast labyrinth of independent cinema. Presenting excerpts from engaging interviews with the trio who were in the city recently on the occasion of MAMI festival.

Somantro Ghosal
“Zakir Hussain’s fingers hold tradition in their clasp”
Ask Somontro Ghosal why he chose Zakir Hussain as the subject of his documentary: The Speaking Hand and he answers, “because of his charismatic persona. While listening to his records, you only get to catch a glimpse of the magic he creates during a show. I have travelled with him round the world during the course of his Planet Drum project and adulation greeted him wherever he went. He has truly become India’s music ambassador. When you meet him in person, he comes across a highly articulate, cultured, witty person, but yet you fail to see the spark that marks him out as a genius. That only come to light when his hand touches the tabla, from that moment on, he mesmerises you with his art and takes you to an ethereal high with his music.”

Part of Zakir’s versatility lies in the fact that he toured abroad from a very young age and got acquainted with diverse musical forms. Assesses Ghosal,”It was a good thing for him that fate allowed him to come into contact not only with Jazz, Blues and Rock at an impresenhible age but also with well known practioneers of the said forms. That made it possible for him to take a world view of his art. It broadened his vision and more importantly, it taught him the value of maintaining a good screen presence. That has worked wonders for him, especially in terms of fan following.”

Ghosal also feels that along with his father, Ustaad Allah Rakha Khan, Zakir has been instrumental in making the tabla popular with the masses in its own right. “Before Zakir and to some extent Ustad Allahrakha’s time, it was the musician who was revered and his instrument remained blinded in the maestro’s aura. With the presence of these two greats on the scene, more and more people began to learn the tabla. Masses flocked to their concerts and came away loving the instrument. Also, while it can’t be said that these two elevated the tabla from being something that is played in the background to centrestage, they nevertheless carried forward its new-found popularity.”

One thing that had always irked Ghosal is that the lives of our legendary musicians have never been chronicled properly. “Strangely,in a country that has produced some of the world’s greatest musicians, it never occurred to people to properly record their life history. Some of the documentaries made on yester-year musicians are really terrible. Generations in future will not be able to see them in flesh but atleast a few beautiful glimpses should be preserved for posterity. I may not have made the greatest documentary in history but in my own small way have furthered the cause of India’s musical tradition.” Strangely, Ghosal never wanted to be a documentary filmmaker but aimed to become a feature filmmaker instead. “I became an adman with just this aim in mind though that dream has yet to materialise. Anyway, if I hadn’t pursued this career, I wouldn’t have come in touch with Zakir. I was commissioned to direct one of the earliest Wah Taj! advertisements and somehow, from the first meeting on, we clicked.”

The only complain that Ghosal has about Zakir is that he was virtually unputdownable. “He did agree to do the documentary but being ultra busy, was very hard to track down. Otherwise he was an easy subject. He is comfortable in front of the camera and has a good screen presence. Being an ad filmmaker, I had to remain true to the concept of cinematic time. But now, I really had time on my hands and ended up making a three-hour plus film. I’m afraid that doesn’t go down well with the audience, especially Indian audience, so I pruned it down to 104 minutes. Paradoxically, after watching the shorter version, people abroad yearned to see the complete version. Currently I’m in the process of bringing out the DVD version.”

After winning several awards and accolades, Ghosal has only one grouse,”people in India don’t go to a regular theatre to watch a documentary. A filmmaker ultimately aims to woo an audience and it feels sad that in India the general public ignores such genres as short films and documentaries. Someday, I hope, they too should find a paying audience.”

Mireya Sempar
“I don’t think I’ll ever get bored with India”
Though hailing from Iceland, Mireya Sampar is really warmth personified, perhaps it has something to do with her Catalonian roots. “Oh no,” she laughs, “though we may live in a world filled with ice, Icelanders are among the most warm-hearted people you’ll find on this earth. Yes, my father does hail from Spain and Spanish people are known for their vivacity and charm. Thus you can say that he does have a hand in making me what I am, though I must add that my mother is equally witty.”

She’s currently in India with a package of Icelandic film which she hopes to showcase during the MAMI festival. “The films that I have brought with me are a mix of commercial and critical successes. There is mostly an under-current of humour in Icelandic films. They talk about the ongoing problems facing the society, facing the individual families — you can say that they offer a social critique of the current Icelandic society.” Like other European filmmakers, Mireya, too is incensed by the intrusion of American films in Icelandic cinema halls. “Given a choice, the average Icelander would rather watch a flashy Hollywood film than a native Icelandic one,” she fumes. “My grouse against Hollywood is that it has totally surrounded itself with gloss — it’s heart has been replaced by special effects.”

Mireya does’t spare Hindi films either for aping the Hollywood formula. “Look at the Indian films belonging to the era of the 50s and 60s.They were so beautiful! Despite being made under all sort of economic restraints, they went on to enjoy universal acclaim. Today, Bollywood budgets are spiralling but where is the audience — let alone foreigners, even Indians avoid seeing their own films nowadays.” It seems a bit strange that a person hailing from such a far-off place as Iceland would be interested in Indian film but, as Mireya herself candidly asserts, it takes all kinds to make the world. “Call it destiny,” she grins. “Some years ago, a friend of mine invited me over to see an ‘exotic’ Indian film. As I was free that evening, I accepted.” Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the film but it was one of your average Bollywood film — with lots of melodrama and dancing around trees, I loved it!

From then on began an oddessey that began with visits to bootleg video shops and ended with a visit to India in the late 90s.”I’m an abstract artist and was fortunate enough to bring my exhibition to Kolkata in 1999. I was able to see many Indian films in local theatres and enjoyed them tremendously. I began collecting DVD’s, VCD’s and videos and today my house is littered with memorabilia concerning Indian cinema,” she laughs. Mireya’s India obsession isn’t confined solely to films but includes travelling to far-flung places as well, “This is my fourth visit to India. I have travelled all over the North and North-East and my only complain is that I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I would have wished in each of the places that I had visited. I would like to come here again, again and again. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored with India.

Amir Shahab Razavian
“Unlike Indian films, Iranian films are made on more realistic lines”
The perception of most Indians about Iran is that it is an oil-rich, war-strewn Islamic state and they will be surprised to know that it is currently the hotbed of talented filmmakers as well. Amir Shahab Razavian is one such young filmmaker who is making the world sit up and take notice of the cinema of his native land. “Unlike Indian films, films in Iran are made on more realistic lines. Also, most of our films are co-productions with other countries. You will be surprised to know that countries as diverse as France and Japan have taken an interest in making films with us.” Amir’s first feature, Journey Of The Gray Men was pathbreaking in the sense that instead of young actors, it, as its title suggests, had three veteran Iranian actors as its protagonists.

Explains Amir,”since 1997, I have contemplated making road movies about old men who work for a puppet theatre. Journey Of The Gray Men is a story about lost love and a journey that traces memories and records. When I was a child, my father used to tell me that he wanted to visit his old friends who lived in Birjand, a village adjacent to a desert. The kindness of people in the village he met during his exile period after the 1953 coup was deeply imprinted in his memory. I grew up and realized my father’s unwavering wish. Around 1995, my father finally decided to go and spend a holiday in Birjand. It took us two days to reach a tiny village where a friend of my father was supposed to live. However, no one whom my father knew from the old times was still alive in the village. My father was greatly disappointed, but a man who used to run a bar remembered him. Upon our arrival in Birjand, we could not find my father’s friends. All of them had already passed away. My father looked about in vain, and ended up spending days, feeling sad. It was then I decided to write a a script about old men. When we were about to begin shooting, my father developed an illness. However, he insisted on going on location and participated in the shooting, combating the illness. He published his book around this time, so I asked him to play an old writer who travels from town to town, selling his book in the film. During the final editing, he passed away. I had to cut many scenes, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it with the scenes my father acted in. It was so painful just to clip several frames. For this reason, Journey Of The Gray Men largely remains my personal work”, his voice trails off as he reminisces.

His second film, which he has brought to India and which was shown at the film festival in Kolkata is Tehran 7 a.m., a bitter-sweet film about life’s complexities. Amir enthusiastically explains his concept, “At a junction a group of people are waiting for the red light in the morning. A young policeman, who is in charge of changing the traffic lights, prolongs the time of the red light in order to see his beloved: an actress. After a while, he expresses his love to her, but there is a wide distance separating them. This refusal pushes the young policeman to commit suicide, but he is opportunely rescued. There are two more storylines interwoven in the narration — the difficulties faced by a motorist due to a troublesome old man and the tormented love relationship between an Afghan welder and a runaway girl.”

With a twinkle in his eyes, Amir explains that the difference between their romances and ours is that the hero is not even allowed to touch the heroine in Iranian films while there is much energetic running between the trees in their Indian counterparts. Perhaps this is a pointer towards their continuing popularity. Raj Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan are the ever-popular icons though Amir’s personal favourites are Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. He muses, “Ray’s and Sen’s films give the feel of lyrical poetry. I’m sorry to say that they don’t have a mass following in Iran. I only came to know of them because I’m a student of cinema. Amir studied animation at Art University, Tehran, which remains his first love. Since his debut film Compulsion (8mm) in 1980, he has directed 25 films including Another One (1982) which won the Best Short Film award in 2nd Fajr Festival, Tehran.

Iran and India have cultural ties going back several centuries and Amir would love to have them renewed. “My wish is to make a film which has good Indian artistes like Aamir Khan along with Iranian actors. I would like to shoot it on location both in India and Iran”, he muses. “Then, Indian filmmakers shoot abroad a lot. Perhaps they would like to visit my country — they won’t find it lacking in exotic locations or a decent infrastructure.”