Category: Cinema@100

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Cinema@100

‘There is more sleaze in Parliament than in Bollywood’

Author, lawyer and former diplomat Bhaichand Patel speaks on his fasination for Bollywood, acting in films and cinema’s leading ladies.
by Humra Quraishi

Bhaichand_PatelBhaichand Patel is a Fiji national who lives in New Delhi. This former lawyer-turned-UN diplomat is today better known as an author and editor. He has edited two books – Chasing the Good Life – On Being Single and Bollywood’s Top Twenty; Superstars of Indian Cinema. He had previously written a non-fiction book, Happy Hours, The Penguin Book of Cocktails and recently launched his very first novel, Mothers, Lovers and Other Strangers, which is set in Mumbai and Bollywood.

These are excerpts from an email interview:

Your home has photographs of some of the leading heroines of yesteryears. Also, a year back, you edited a volume on Bollywood. Very recently you launched your debut novel, Mothers, Lovers and Other Strangers which has Bollywood in the background. Why this fascination for the film industry?

I grew up in a small town on an island in the middle of nowhere, Fiji. The only recreation available to us as children were sports and the movies. At one time, I saw three or four films a week, both Bollywood and Hollywood. I fell in love with Madhubala at the onset of puberty. Movies have always fascinated me. I am somewhat of an authority on Hindi films made in the 1940s and 1950s. My previous book was on twenty top stars of Bollywood, beginning with KL Saigal and ending with Kareena Kapoor.

Who are your closest friends in the film industry?

I am close to the Samarth family. While I did not know Nutan, I knew her mother Shobhana Samarth and her sister, Tanuja, is a close friend. I have known Kajol from the time she was sitting in a corner doing her homework. I was touched that she (Kajol) came all the way to Delhi for a few hours to launch my last book.

Shyam Benegal, Kumar Sahani, Mani Kaul and Saaed Mirza are filmmakers of my age group. We used to hang out together in our younger days. I knew Salim Khan, father of Salman Kajol, Bhaichand Patel, Minu TalwarKhan, when he was a struggling young actor, fresh from Indore. Later he became a successful script writer as part of the Salim-Javed team.

I have many journalist friends in Mumbai who write on Bollywood. When I practiced law in Bombay we had people like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Meena Kumari as our clients.

If you are offered a film role today, say the role of a father, would you take it?

I am so desperate to act, I am willing to dress in women’s clothes and do a belly dance if a filmmaker asks me to do that to get a role. It won’t happen. I can’t act to save my life! The role of the heroine’s father would be a godsend, especially if I get to cuddle her!

There is a dark side to the film industry. Comment.

Some of the nicest people I know work in the film industry. It is the only industry where your caste, religion or background does not matter. If you have talent as an actor, director, musician, or technician you will succeed. As an actor in a lead role it helps to have good looks. But looks alone won’t take you far. If you are not talented, no amount of strong connections will help you.

Bollywood's top 20Of course there is a dark side. There is sleaze in Bollywood, like everywhere else. I don’t think there is more sleaze in Bollywood than in our Parliament. There is, of course, the infamous casting couch where actors, male and female, have to sleep with someone to get a role. But most actors don’t indulge in that.

While the superstars are paid crores of rupees, the vast majority in the industry are paid a pittance, sometimes not at all. It is not easy to succeed in Bollywood with so much competition from so much talent. My novel, Mothers, Lovers and Other Strangers, draws on the darker side of Bollywood.

What are your thoughts on actor Jiah Khan’s suicide and Suraj Pancholi’s involvement in the issue?

Jiah’s tragic death is a good example of the pitfalls of the industry. She was lucky in that she got the lead role in her very first film. That too, opposite Amitabh Bachchan! Afterwards, it was downhill all the way for the poor girl. There are hundreds out there like her, hanging on for a chance to get a break and they never get it. They are sometimes too ashamed to return to the small towns they came from. They often end up in pathetic situations. Sometimes it ends even more tragically, as was the case with Jiah. We only look at the leading lady in the front, and forget about the boys and girls behind her in the chorus. Sometimes I wonder what kind of lives they live, how much they earn.

I think it is unfair to blame Suraj Pancholi for what happened to Jiah. He was nowhere near her when she killed herself. Of course they broke up and she must have been emotionally upset. It happens all the time in relationships. Did Suraj have any inkling that she would commit suicide? Did he instigate her to commit suicide? Why blame him for something she did on her own free will? If she could not cope with a broken relationship why blame him?

(Pictures courtesy Bhaichand Patel, victoriamixon.com, www.exoticindiaart.com)

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Cinema@100

Much more than just a streaker

Brash, bold and beautiful Protima Bedi was passionate about dance and never cared what the world thought of her lifestyle.
by Humra  Quraishi

A talented dancer and a woman bold enough to run naked across Juhu beach, Protima Bedi always remained a bit of a mystery to all, despite her open and frank nature. Known more her various link-ups and her torrid marriage to actor Kabir Bedi, the subsequent divorce and the tragic suicide of her son, Siddharth, Protima was a livewire. Her tragic death in 1998, when she was one of 108 people killed in a landslide in UP, sent shock waves across the country. She was 50 when she died.

Much before I could have the chance to actually interview Protima Bedi, I had been seeing her at various events in the capital city.

protima_bedi_There were things about her that never changed with each subsequent sighting: she was never alone, but she would always be accompanied by a male friend, who invariably happened to be from the Who’s Who of the city.  She always wore simple cotton clothes, very often the white cotton two-piece saris with coloured borders, from Kerala. The sari would be draped rather low, exposing her midriff.

There would be a direct emphasis on her breasts through the cholis she wore, which were invariably low-necked, her ample bosom more than making its presence felt. She wouldn’t wear much makeup, preferring to stick to her big bindi and maybe some lipstick on her thick lips. Her pout was her best feature and she used it often – oh yes, she knew people were always ogling her. Her gait was confident, and even in a sari, she would ooze sensuality. There was something very different about her.

I met Protima and spoke to her at length when she was here in Delhi to dance before the newly-constituted Association of British Scholars (ABS). She was collecting funds for her dance school, Nrityagram, that she had set up in Karnataka.

She was ill at ease fielding questions on the then reigning political figure of Karnataka, Ramakrishna Hegde, whose name was linked with hers in those days. On being asked about romantic or sexual links with him, she retorted, “It that was true (that she was having an affair with Hegde), I wouldn’t be begging for money for my dance school. Right now I feel like a beggar, asking for donations of Rs 100 or Rs 10,000. But there’s no giving up. No way.”

Her dance school had reportedly got a lot of funds from the Department of Culture. When I asked about this, she said, “Of course we got funds from them but we need more. I’m taking our traditional dance to the rural areas, where it belongs. Why should dance be limited to the urban elite in air-conditioned halls? Today we have more than 200 village children coming to learn different forms of our traditional dance and we have 18 residential students, too. It’s a dance village that I’m trying to run.”

I wondered why, with all her high-profile ‘contacts’, she was finding it so difficult to get funding. “Which men? Which contacts? I’m so involved in my dance village that I have no time protimabedito think of anything else. Right from early morning I am so busy with my daily chores. We do all the work ourselves, cleaning, cooking, washing, teaching. I am determined to continue doing what I’m doing. I mean, this struggle. I have to keep this dance school alive. I am a very strong-willed woman and even if I have to starve, I will not give up.”

Starve? For what?

“Obviously for food! What were you implying?” she shot back.

Then she started explaining that traditional dance forms must be taught to women, and that it’s time women of this country were given their due freedom in every sense of the term. “How can I rest in peace when so many injustices are going on? Look at the way our women are being suppressed. Look at the crap going on in the name of culture!”

I pointed out to her the contradiction in her own behavior – talking of culture and rural India and yet willingly dancing for an urban elite forum like the ABS. She hit back, “I’m doing it for funds! For my dancers, my dance village, my passion! I am one of those women who never gives up.”

 (Pictures courtesy bollywood.bhaskar.com, www.triveni.org, forum.santabanta.com)

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Cinema@100

“I stick out like a sore thumb”

Where is Meenakshi Seshadri today? This old interview with the dancer-actress makes us want to see her on screen again.
by Humra Quraishi

I had met Meenakshi Seshadri in 1990 in New Delhi, when she was here for an Odissi dance performance hosted by the Indian Cultural Society. What I still remember about her was her demeanour – she was poised, a bit self-conscious, and at times, a little nervous.

meenakshi-sheshadriShe was an accomplished dancer, a competent actress, and – not many know of this – a former Miss India (crowned in 1980). Her last Hindi film was the Sunny Deol starrer Ghatak in 1996, but to this day, she is remembered the most for her portrayal of the character Damini in the film by the same name. A couple of years later, she married a banker and settled in Texas, USA.

When I met her in 1990, she had sat flanked by two women. She referred to both of them as her gurus. “One is my mother, who taught me Bharatnatyam, and the other is my Kathak guru,” she had said, introducing them to me.

Throughout that interview, whatever the nature of the query, she would try and bring the conversation back to dance. She said things like, “For me, Odissi is synonymous with the Indian woman,” and spoken of her ambitious dance project, “It might sound too ambitious, but I would love to combine all four dance forms – Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi and Odissi. I have been told that it’s not possible for an individual to perform all the four styles together, but I want to prove that it’s possible.” She continued, “Also, I want to be the master of dance and choreography and acting and music. I am sharing all this openly because I believe that if you put down your goals and share them, they become concrete plans.”

Excerpts from the interview:

If you plan to do all this with various dance forms, then wouldn’t you have quit films and acting?
I can’t leave acting at this stage. I have done a lot of running around trees and now I have started getting serious roles. Also, films have never really come in the way of my dance.

How can a dedicated artiste, who talks of pure classical dance forms, concentrate in the commercial filmi setup?

I know the film industry is very, very commercial. I also know that pure classical dance forms cannot survive in the film world, because films are a khichdi of various things reaching out to a big audience. But my dance is not affected by films. For me, my dance and my films are two totally separate spheres.

 

A mother’s role, in connection with an upcoming actress daughter, is in the news for being controversial. Your mother is also constantly with you?

I feel a mother plays a very constructive and an important role. My mother is my friend, my guru and she handles everything for me.

Doesn’t her constant presence hamper your privacy? Meenakshi Sheshadri

If you have a weakness, only then you crib (about privacy)!

So it means you have no weakness?
I don’t know my weakness.

Surely you have one or not more weaknesses?

Actually, some friends do tell me my weaknesses.

What are they?

If I’m smart, I wouldn’t tell them to you. And I am smart, so I wouldn’t talk about them but try and improve on them.

When we watch films of the past and compare them to today’s films, don’t you feel that our present-day actresses cut a sorry figure?

Not really. Today we have good talent, but we lack good writers and good directors.

What is your opinion on the rising levels of rivalries, jealousies, cut-throat completion amongst film stars?

In showbiz, you can’t be very normal.

What about you?

In all this, I stick out like a sore thumb because I am different.

Meenakshi Sheshadri opened her dream dance school in 2008, in Dallas, where she lives with her husband Harish Mysore and her two children. 

(Pictures courtesy www.merepix.com, www.pinkvilla.com, www.listal.com)

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Cinema@100

When Partition broke up his life

Nida Fazli, Urdu poet and lyricist, speaks on why he made Bombay his home despite his family moving to Pakistan.
by Humra Quraishi

When I’m feeling utterly hopeless about life, I say these lines by poet Nida Fazli to myself –
‘Just keep on living /
Just keep on living like this /
Say nothing /

When you get up in the morning /
Take a head count of the family /
Slouch in the chair and read the paper /

There was a famine there /
And a war raged somewhere else /
Be thankful that you are safe/

Switch on the radio and listen to the new pop songs /
When you leave the house /
Paste a smile on your face/

Pack handshakes in your hands /
Keep a few meaningless phrases on your lips /
Be passed through different hands like a coin/

Say nothing /
A white -collar /
Social respect /

A few drinks everyday/
What else do you need /
Just keep on like this /
Say nothing …’

Nida Fazli And as I say these lines to myself, I recollect the two occasions I had the chance to meet the legendary poet and film lyricist in New Delhi. I had long conversations with him about his poetic journey to how he started writing lyrics for Hindi films.

I had had no idea that his journey had begun on a rather tragic note.

Around the time of the Partition of India and Pakistan, he had been engaged to be married. The Partition played havoc with this plan, when his own family and that of his fiancee migrated to the newly-carved country, Pakistan. “I did not move from Hindustan,” Nida told me. “I did not want to. So I was left back all alone.” He confessed to facing very trying times after this, having to brave several testing incidents for a long time. He moved to Bombay for work in 1964, and after an initial period of struggle, his talents as a poet began to be noticed in the film industry. His big break, however, came when filmmaker Kamal Amrohi hired him to finish the songs on his much-delayed magnum opus, Pakeezah. Fazli was brought in as a replacement for Jaan Nisar Akhtar, who had died before finishing two songs.

But Bombay brought the much-needed calm in his life. So how did he get from Uttar Pradesh to Bombay? “I was okay with moving to Bombay and I have always felt absolutely at home there,” he explaind. I found out, during the course of our conversation, that we came from the same qasba in UP, and as talk veered to our ancestral homes and the lives we used to live,

I was struck by how comfortable he was not speaking about films and the glitzy world of cinema, which had obviously not had enough of him yet – this year he was conferred the Padma nida fazli Shri by the Indian Government – despite him retaining his poet’s identity and not getting it mixed up with that of a film lyricist’s.

After a long chat, it was time to say khuda hafiz. But I still had one unanswered question. After his failed attempt at marriage, when his fiancee moved to another country, how did he settle in his personal life?

“Well, I found a companion in Bombay,” he smiled. “I married her and I have settled in this city for ever.”

“It is said that in Mumbai these days, even the big names in Bollywood who are Muslims are finding it difficult to buy or rent an apartment. Did you face any such situation?” I asked.

“No, I haven’t,” he said at once. “But this could be because my partner is a non-Muslim.”

 

Watch the ghazal ‘Hoshwalon ko khabar kya’ from Sarfarosh, penned by Nida Fazli:

 

(Pictures courtesy mishrasurya.blogspot.com, www.greaterkashmir.com)

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Cinema@100

Justjoo jiski thi…

Shahrayar, the lyricist of Umrao Jaan was, at heart, a lonely and pained man who could have been a star.
by Humra Quraishi

I vividly recall meeting the late Aligarh-based poet and academic Shahryar (his complete name was Akhlaq Mohammad Khan Shahrayar) here in New Delhi in 2004. This was the first time I had met him. We’d met around the outer lawns of the India International Centre. Incidentally, his family also belonged to my ancestral qasba Aonla. Also, he knew my Aligarh-based younger sister, Habiba.

Shahrayar had shot to fame as the lyricist who penned the soulful, deeply philosophical songs of the 1981 hit, Umrao Jaan. Combined with Rekha’s mujras on the big screen and umraojaanKhayyam’s unmatched musical score, Shahrayar’s words continue to strike a chord with listeners even today.

The man himself, though, was as deep as the poetry he penned. It is possible, even when being celebrated by everyone around, to feel lonely and depressed. And if fate intervenes and plays tricks, one begins to feel victimised by life’s ways.

Shahrayar was one such person.

When I was introduced to him as ‘Habiba’s sister’, he was completely taken aback. My sister and I don’t look like each other at all. “You? Habiba’s sister?” he exclaimed.

“Yes, I am. She’s my younger sister.”

“But you look so different! She covers her head and you…” With that, he looked rather disapprovingly at my hair and the sleeveless shirt I was wearing. “You two are real sisters?”

“Yes, we are real sisters,” I replied.

“From the same father?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Same father?”

“Yes. At least, that’s what amma told us.”

ShahrayarHe guffawed at my answer. The man had a great sense of humour himself, though he had suffered a lot of emotional pain in his life before undergoing a messy separation from his wife after 23 years of marriage. Was it this same pain that stirred the depths in him when he wrote his haunting verses and lyrics? Throughout our conversation, he spoke about tanhaee (loneliness) and the emotional vacuum he was going through. He also kept referring to “Allah’s ways.”

A few years ago, I was to attend a mushaira in which Shahrayar was participating, and I was to interview him after it was over. Sadly, I could not make it to the event because I fell ill. After it was over, he called me. After I had apologised for not being able to attend and interview him, he laughed and said, “It’s okay. Allah’s ways.”

He must have been a deeply lonely man, unable to adjust to his single status, finally conceding defeat to a life that had admittedly been hard on him. He continued our conversation on the phone for a long time, dwelling at length on what being alone means and how life can be unfair. He also hinted darkly at the obstacles life threw his way, which may have stopped him from becoming a celebrated legend. “Whenever I felt that I was going ahead in life, Allah seemed to pull me down,” he sighed. “But those are His ways, who can question them? But one thing is certain – the minute you move forward, the minute you are about to taste success, hurdles are thrown in your way. I have seen this happen in my life.”

He continued talking about the difficulties he was facing as a single man at his age. I was struck anew by the pain the man was carrying in his heart, how bitter he was about life, but how brave he was trying to be about it.

Watch ‘Yeh kya jagah hai doston…’ from Umrao Jaan (1981) penned by Shahrayar:

 

(Pictures courtesy www.iefilmi.eu, thehindu.com) 

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Cinema@100

‘Bollywood cannot contain the complexities between India and Pakistan’

In conversation with Mahesh Bhatt, on building bridges with Pakistan and talking peace and art with the neighbours up North.
by Humra Quraishi

He is perpetually in the news, and most recently, he has been embroiled in a controversy over his film Arth (starring Shabana Azmi and Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and his decision to give Pakistani actor-director Shaan the rights to remake the film in Urdu. But this isn’t the first time Mahesh Bhatt has shown an affinity with Pakistan – he is probably Bollywood’s only producer to have given several Pakistani artistes a break in Hindi films.

mahesh-bhattI met him just after the end of the Kargil War, and tensions between India and Pakistan were at an all-time high. And it was around this time that a handful of artistes from India, most notably Mahesh Bhatt, came to be known as Pak sympathisers, because they relentlessly espoused the cause of an artistic collaboration between India and Pakistan, be it in films or music. I interviewed him in 2009. This is the piece that was published post this interview.

‘Even in these surcharged times, a small group of enthusiasts travelled from here to across the border, to try and bridge gaps, and get people-to-people contact going. And film-maker Mahesh Bhatt was one amongst them, and spoke out on his return from Pakistan.

I heard him talk at the IIC but there seemed little time for an elaborate interview as he had to catch the next flight to Mumbai; so I did the next best thing: a telephonic interview with him. These are the excerpts from the interview:

Do you feel that these people-to-people contact travels do actually help in lessening the ongoing strain between the Governments of the two countries, India and Pakistan?

We underestimate the contribution of a few sane people…of their relentless commitment to the peace process. Also, the history of any nation is always carved by a handful of people.

What’s been actually happening in Pakistan? Can you tell us your own observations whilst you were there?

Pakistan is going through birth pangs. The old is not dead and the new is not born. It is going through a painful process, but anything that is painful is creative…its urban population has this thirst for the rule of law and there is that spirit which is vibrant. I saw it in that ‘long march’…

In your opinion, why is there a growing anti-Pakistan stand here in India, not just at the political level but even amongst the bureaucracy?mahesh-bhatt-read

That is because a hate industry is on, the hate mongers are interested in creating an enemy and there is active politics on both sides. It is sad, because the problems are similar in both countries; yet so much of hatred is being generated by a full-fledged hate industry.

Have you been worried about being questioned by the IB (Intelligence Bureau) or any other intelligence network, because of your frequent visits to Pakistan and your friends and contacts there?

No, I’m not scared… after all, I’m born in this country created by Nehru, Gandhi and Maulana Azad. To see peace prevail here and in this subcontinent is my birthright. This is what Gandhiji believed in…No, I don’t fear at all and I would never buckle down.

Do you feel that SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) has been a flop show in this context of the growing tensions in the subcontinent?

Yes; for it hasn’t delivered anything, and hasn’t lived up to what it was created for.

In your opinion, what’s to be the fate of this subcontinent? Are the Governments of the countries of this region (including ours) swayed by the US policies and its dictates? Will the situation get more complex?

We have to seek a regional response to our problems and we will be doomed if we rush to Washington. We will be doomed if such a day comes when we rush to Washington for seeking an approval for this or that. Right now, there’s some sort of a high and low going on (with respect to Washington).

Do you think that Kashmir is the only cause of friction between India and Pakistan or do the problems run deeper?

You cannot look away from the Kashmir issue and a solution has to be found. The problem has to be seen, and you cannot pretend that there’s no problem.

Are you planning to make a film on the situation in this subcontinent?

No, because I don’t think that Bollywood can contain the complexities in the relationship that exists as of today between India and Pakistan

(Pictures courtesy www.hindustantimes.com,  www.starbuzzonline.com, movies.ndtv.com)

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