Apologies, Blogdosts... have been travelling extensively. Attended the India Today Conclave 2015 in Delhi... and that was pretty exhilarating. What a superb line up of speakers and performers!
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Politically Incorrect
13th March2015
Oh please...
spare us the dramabaazi, Leslee!
Here’s the
bald truth, Leslee Udwin : Your controversial documentary is no “gift” to
India. If anything, it’s a whopping big gift to yourself! Not too many people
had heard of a filmmaker called Leslee
Udwin till ‘India’s Daughter’ blew up in our faces. Yes, we handled the whole
thing badly. Yes, the ban was entirely unnecessary. Yes, Indian media went into
overdrive. But hey – the last one to be complaining should be you, my dear Leslee! Overnight,you,
Leslee Udwin , were all over the news. In India. Across the world. And what you
were claiming through television channels sounded so darn fake, you did
yourself and the documentary you made, enormous disservice. So, will you stop
going on and on about this ‘selfless’ act that saw you, mother of two, spend
two years suffering in a hostile environment,
enduring all manner of desi discomforts , all because you wanted to give India an invaluable present ! That’s rubbish, Leslee. That’s
utter rubbish. ‘India’s Daughter’ was made by you for yourself.Today,your
gamble has paid off. You are famous. Enjoy your moments under the spotlight, by
all means. But please spare us those
tiresome sermons.
Try this
script – it’s pretty uncomplicated and straight forward. You are a commercial
documentary film maker in search of original and interesting subjects. That
does not make you unique in the least. You belong to a large international
tribe. All of you travel the world searching for subjects to sell. No issues. When the horrific Nirbhaya rape took
place in Delhi, you sensed a great opportunity. Yes, of course you were deeply
disturbed. Yes, of course you felt a strong sense of outrage. So did millions
all over Planet Earth. Nobody thought of making a documentary on the subject at
that point – you did! Brilliant! You came up with a great idea . You persevered. You raised the finance. You packed your
bags. And you came to India. That’s what documentary film makers do for a
living. Nothing new in any of this .But here’s the thing. Others may have
thought of making a similar film - but you got it done. Period. More importantly, it was a business risk you
took. Let’s be clear. That’s not a crime either – it’s your bread and butter!
As a professional film maker, you make documentaries for a living. This is one
of them. Baat khatam. And as an ambitious film maker, you naturally wanted to get the biggest bang for your buck. Which
is also, fine. That’s how the business works. You had a budget. You invested
time, energy, money in pursuing a case that had made international headlines in
2012. What stopped someone else from India / Sri Lanka/ Sweden/ Australia /
Outer Mongolia from tackling the same subject? You beat everybody else to it –
good for you! That’s where it should have ended. But didn’t.
Why?
What we are dealing with is a bunch
of really nasty developments. Nothing seems to add up. The documentary, per se,
is not particularly impressive. Most would call it pretty shoddy , even shabby.
But this isn’t about your talent or competence as a film maker, it is about the
access you were given. An access your detractors feel you misused. Several
articles have appeared questioning your motives. Let me jump into this again and
say your motives are pretty obvious – your motives were unashamedly,
unambiguously commercial. Every ambitious filmmaker dreams about landing a
scoop – a world exclusive. Every film maker works for awards and recognition.
Why not be upfront about this, and stop whining? The silly ban has worked for
you big time. In terms of marketing, you couldn’t have asked for more
prestigious platforms than the ones you have got – and smartly exploited. I
mean, come on... valuable endorsements from Meryl Streep? Freida Pinto? Your
documentary has been elevated into a global cause celebre. You can probably
feed off it for a few more years. Till
you stumble upon another tragedy and milk its potential. For the sake of your
art, of course.
Frankly,all
this doesn’t make you sound like a very nice person, Leslee. And that’s a pity.
You are safely out of the country. But some of the puzzled and hurt people
featured in your film, are feeling terribly let down, even betrayed.They
trusted you, Leslee. And you have trampled on their trust. Blame it on hyper
sensitivities, if you wish. Yes, we Indians are thin-skinned. So? And thank you, very much, but we also possess
our own mirrors. The most awful aspect of the mess is how twisted and strident
the debates have become. There have been attempts to make it a racial issue. I
don’t buy that for a minute. There are also those wondering why nobody makes
similar documentaries about ‘ America’s Daughter or ‘Denmark’s Daughter?”
Indignant critics ask, “Aren’t there rapes taking place in foreign countries?
Let me give you statistics!” This is to imply there is a huge international
conspiracy to tarnish India’s image. Again, I don’t agree. Why doesn’t an
Indian documentary maker try and find an equally powerful to film in Finland, for example? Every single country has its quota of
shameful incidents. You, Leslee were fascinated by one such that took place in
India. That’s all.
Should we be
saying , “Thank you, Leslee?” Why not ? Sometimes, an outsider’s viewpoint can
be the required trigger leading to reform and change. Of course, you edited the
ghastly ‘truth’ to suit your objectives. That’s your prerogative. What we do
about you and those truths – is ours.
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Attn :
Meenal,jaideep, sudipta Mumbai
Mirror 12th March2015-03-12
Size 18...? Not a
problem!
The best
thing about the sleeper hit, ‘Dum Laga Ke Haishaa’, is not the heroine’s size, but her terrific, larger than life attitude.
Bhumi Pednekar, playing the unambiguously overweight girl, who gets married off
to a regular chap (Ayushmann Khurana delivering yet another, polished, nuanced performance),
is entirely comfortable in her skin throughout the film. At no point does she
question her body type or apologise for being grossly fat (sorry, there is
simply no need to find a polite, euphemism for that word in this utterly
charming movie’s context). Bhumi plays an educated girl, stuck with an unpadh
whose family forces him to pick her at a mass wedding programme because they
want a daughter-in-law who earns well in a government job. The problem is with
the bride’s formidable girth... and an equally formidable mind. Not one to give
up without a jolly good fight, she tries every trick in the book to get her
newly minted husband to perform his conjugal duty. She even buys an ice cream
pink nightie from the village ‘Novelty ‘ store, gets hold of a ‘hot’ video, sets the mood with appropriately
suggestive music, and when nothing works, finally jumps on top of the crushed
fellow to plant a juicy kiss. Nada. Illey. No can do. Undaunted, our girl
carries on with her life, determined to make her marriage work. Losing weight
for starters, does not occur to her. In fact, weight loss is the last thing on
her mind!
Hurrah!
Millions
of sympathisers must have cheered at
this point. For once, here was a modern woman not obsessing over her extra
kilos. Even if she has heard of Size Zero she really doesn’t care! The fact
that she does not equate self-worth exclusively with her hefty weight, is the
biggest message of the film. We live in
such warped times that all one hears at social events is this extremely annoying conversation which goes: ‘ OMG!
You’ve lost so much weight! Wow! Pilatus? Hot yoga?” Or the even more personal,
“Babes! What’s wrong? Hormones acting up? I can send you my amazing trainer.
Try kick boxing! You’ll lose all these inches in a month!” Most women (and a
few super narcissistic men) walk around
looking pinched, gaunt and seriously miserable. The demand to appear
fashionably starved and impossibly thin is so overwhelming, I often feel like marching
off victims to the nearest bhojanalaya and shouting,“Eat!”
It is not as
if debutant director Sharat Katariya’s film glorifies/ celebrates being fat. All it
says is don’t condemn a human being for just that one issue – weight. Look
beyond the size. And surprise yourself. The pressure to conform to a false and
over-idealised body frame has become an international disease. In India, we
have several ways of camouflaging our prejudice, especially when it comes to
arranged marriages. The minute a potential candidate is described as
“healthy’’, you know the reference is not to the state of the person’s heart/
lungs. It is to girth. “Dum Laga Ke...” says sweetly and subtly, “Get over it
already!” It’s a sub-text we shouldn’t ignore. When the frustrated and still
virginal bridegroom harshly describes his bride as a ‘Saand’ to guy friends, after knocking back a few
stiff whiskies, audiences recoil at the harshness of the description. But they
also sympathise with the young man’s predicament. He cannot consummate his marriage for obvious reasons – the woman all but pushes
him off the marital bed. It is a serious turn off. Poor guy!
This is Bhumi
Pednekar’s film! What a truthful and brave performance. Since, no extra padding
has been used ( or so, I’m guessing ), it certainly made me wonder how many
times in her own life she has been at the receiving end of cruel jibes? It’s
easy to play a ‘fatty’ when you aren’t one. That’s an actor’s job. But here, is
a classic example of inspired casting. Talking to one of our most accomplished
actresses earlier this week, we both agreed that casting is king these days.
The real star behind several off beat movie projects recently is not the
producer/director, but the casting agent! When modest but ambitious movies
recover their investments in a crowded market, it’s good news for the film
industry. And for the hungry-for-quality audiences , of course. It can also be
taken as a serious wake-up call for studios reeling under inflated budgets and
staggering star fees. Six wonderful movies ( like this tiny gem) can be made
for the price of one monster mega film , which may or may not strike gold at
the box office.
There really
is no substitute for a strong, original concept that applauds human vulnerability – in this case, a bride’s
plus size causing the groom’s sexual indifference to her. How this gets
resolved in the end, is in itself quite a story! But I wish the director had
done away with the mandatory gaudy dance routine while the credits rolled. It
wasn’t needed. Worse, it took away from the authenticity of the earlier
narrative.
