31 August 2009

One day when I went to meet Mr.Bachchan in his office on a prior appointment he arrived a little late and told me that he got tied up in some work to do with a film called “Cheeni Kum”. I asked him what that film was about and he said that it is a love story between an older man and a young girl. I asked him who the girl was and he said Tabu. I asked him how can be Tabu called young. If the girl should be young she should be very young, not more than 18years old. The seed of Nishabd was sown there.

I didn’t know much about the story of “Cheeni Kum” except for that it was a light hearted entertainer and I was very excited about the possibilities of doing a dark love story between a 60year old man and an 18year old girl and in the course of it to lay bare the fragility of human relationships.

Initially Amitji was apprehensive about whether people will accept him in that kind of a role considering his image, and I convinced him that his stature and stardom would draw attention to a cause which everyone is all the time wanting to be so very quiet about.

I told him Nishabd’s concept would be about that it’s only the body which ages and not the feelings. For all the strength and goodness a man might have towards his commitments and relationships if he ever is put in a situation, there’s only so much he can do to control his feelings.

Being the professional Amitji is and wanting to take up as many challenges as possible and to be able to do something radically opposite to his image combined with his trust on my sensibility and sensitivity to the subject matter he agreed to do the film and Nishabd was born.

Nishabd in my belief is the most innovatively shot film of my career because of the simple reason that nobody ever shot a relationship drama set amongst a simple everyday family in a thriller format. The way I used the camera, most of the time it becomes the audience and make them feel as if they are invisibly living in that house privy to what each of the characters are thinking and doing thereby knowing all their points of views whereas each of the characters know only their individual point of view.

Nishabd I also think is Amitji’s greatest performance of all my films till date. I say this because for me the technicalities of a great performance the way I understand as a director is a result of a sum total of the actor’s personality, his ability to feel an emotion on cue, his sensitivity to things he experiences/experienced around him in his life, and his intelligence in understanding them in a broader perspective and from that to deliver what is precisely needed towards a very clearly focused objective.

To this extent what Amitji managed to do in Nishabd baffles me till today. That’s mainly because he was neither put in situations like Nishabd in his own life nor in any such situations in the umpteen films he has done over the years. Yet his understanding of the nuances and subtleties of what his character would feel in any given moment of the film was stunning to me as a director. Among many, one of my most unforgettable close-ups of his is when he is standing in the portico watching Jiah going away with Aftab.

Right from the beginning the media in its usual way started saying that I am making “Lolita”. Just the thought of a young girl and the older man gave them that idea and no matter how much me and Amitji refuted, it fell on deaf ears. That’s because once the media makes up its mind and commits itself to the public it will stick like a gum to itself, truth be damned.

So the whole mindset prepared was of how much sex will be in it as “Lolita” had plenty of that. Obviously this kind of information especially because of Amitji’s presence in the film caused quite a major turn off for a quite a few people. Also the intent of the film was made to seem like it would try to justify an immoral issue whereas very clearly in the film it was just about a man who erred in the face of the strength of a feeling which he could not control at a certain time. No one can deny that such things happen. So the film’s attempt was to say that if it happens it could happen like this too, meaning as in one such incident.

To be frank even I didn’t realize that there could be some such extreme negative reactions to some of the scenes which were quite innocently put. One such instance is when Jiah plays footsie with Amitji under the table which I thought was very cute and funny. But a woman I know became violently angry saying how dare he plays footsie under the table with a girl right in front of his wife. Obviously she identified herself with Amitji’s wife and put that way I guess she had a point. But the real point is that the scene was just one of many such incidents which led to the problem. Anyway the film never tried to be judgmental. It just told the story of a man who just couldn’t control his feelings towards a girl and how he destroyed himself and his relationships in spite of him not intending to do the same.

When Jiah kisses Amitji I deliberately kept the door open and you see the servant carrying clothes cross in the corridor and both Jiah and Amitji are not even looking at the door to see if anyone might come, indicating that there was no premeditation in either of them. It was just a force of that moment.

The film when released was a commercial failure. Some people got turned off by the concept and people who expected sex going by the media’s speculations had other related issues.

But years later now I keep meeting people every now and then who say Nishabd is one of the finest films they have seen and seem to understand it exactly for the intent why I have made the film in the first place. Is it because now they are seeing it without any baggage of the media or what the promos could have put in their heads at the time of the release, I would never know. As a filmmaker I would not get confused if everyone disliked my film as then I can be clear about what they didn’t like. But the confusion will come only when some people like it and not merely liking it but also seem to understand clearly the intent of why I made the film and also its various nuances and complexities.

All said and done in spite of many other failures I made, Nishabd’s failure truly is the only instance in my career which I don’t understand completely. I myself have seen the film recently and for the first time in my career I have liked a film even more now than when I made the film. So whether the people read it wrong or I read the people wrong on what they felt about the film, I don’t want to be Silent on the film anymore and Shout out that I am truly truly proud of NISHABD.

P.S: Hundreds of people gave me hundreds of opinions both positive and negative on Nishabd.

For a change I would like to ask you guys instead of giving opinions to ask me about something specific on Nishabd both on its content and technicalities.

I am posting a few of my favourite scenes from the film here.

1. A MEMORY - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbOr5i1aMcI
2. THE SEED – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBsNtTFxAT4
3. DOOM’S MOMENT - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfvjTPGum-g
4. MIND MEET - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOI4hRG-l6k
5. FOOTSIE LAUGH - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RO0TGdZABA
6. YES, I LOVE YOU! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUa_FW99Y4M
7. WHAT’S GOING ON? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfH76ceOh_Y
8. GIVING UP’ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lmM_cnY7kk
9. FORGETTING – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTPde2SRa10

Other articles by Ram Gopal Varma:
My reaction to reactions (22 Aug 2009)
The Obama Effect
My reaction to reactions (19 Aug 2009)
Programme F**k ups
My reaction to reactions (16 Aug 2009)
My reaction to reactions (12 Aug 2009)
The real HoRROR (about Agyaat reviewers)
Lock-up lessons
My reaction to reactions
The Psychological aspect of BGM

Note: Thanks to Ram Gopal Varma for giving us special permission to republish his blogs in idlebrain.com (visit rgvzoomin.com to visit Ram Gopal Varma's blog)