Am looking forward to the new film written by Anjum Rajabali. All for selfish reasons of course. First, the personal reason-The joy of peeping into the minds of the characters. Finding layers. Ah! A complex here, a fear there. Delightful when the screenplay writer is a qualified psychologist, isn’t it? Then, because I teach and somewhere in the middle of the term, a young cinema student will walk with me to the parking lot and say, “The Bergmans were nice, and we enjoyed discussing Ardh Satya, but a new movie, you know, would be nice.”
“Sure,” I say, uncharacteristically confident of having a new film with a superbly written screenplay. Characters with actually enough depth to analyse. Mythic references that I will enjoy. Politics to initiate discourse.
Speaking of which, what’s happening now is not discourse, for nobody is discussing Aarakshan. It is an anxiety. A justified, valid anxiety. Absolutely valid apprehensions, which I understand and respect.
But let’s watch the film first. For the good writing. Am for affirmative action. Always will be. Yes, I am anxious too. But then, I tell myself, there’s no need to tear the curls out. Am not really worried, for I remember the introductory lecture of the screenplay writing course at FTII- 2004. Yes, seven years ago, I was a student in Anjum Rajabali’s class. “Do you know at what time the first film show of the day starts in our country?” he asked us during that first class and then went on to tell us about the 6 AM show in some remote mining town. I learnt that a man who has worked the night long shift in the dangerous conditions, relaxes for a while after work and spends a significant amount from his meagre wages on watching a film.
Anjum Rajabali never forgot that villager or the sacrifice he makes to invest in a story or the trust he has that the writing will ring true. One of the things I learnt from him is that I may never write anything that the miner will watch but I will take care that he not be represented unfairly. It’s the least one can do.
I have made a conscious decision to not write for film. But am aware that I would never have written any fiction if I hadn’t learnt about characters in Anjum Rajabali’s class. My teacher has written another film. He has written Aarakshan and it will be in theatres on Friday, the 12th. I will be watching it with some dear friends who were with me in his class.
Nadi (Dr. Manasee Palshikar) was an MBBS doctor for 10 years when she went back to studying. A course in Women’s Studies at Pune University was followed by learning the art of Screenplay at FTII. Nadi lives in Pune with her husband and daughter.