Natale Tumchyasathi

I bumped into a long lost acquaintance sometime last month in one of the film fests in the city. Bhushan Korgaonkar, who I used to meet on-off through some of our mutual friends is this quiet, composed person who seemed pretty much at ease in his skin during all our previous meetings. That day, he asked me and Shibu to wait outside the auditorium after the film fest since he wanted to catch up with us. After the film fest when we found him waiting outside, after our initial exchange of pleasantries he began digging into his jhola and took out couple of CD covers. And that’s when he told us where he was keeping busy all these days. Over the last 3-4 years, he had been working on making a movie.

Working as a freelancer journalist some years back, Bhushan had written some article on the art of Lavani dances in India. He had become so enamored by the dance form and the fabulous stories of the dancers that he decided that this needs to be captured on camera. For the past few years on a very meager budget of a little more than Rs. 1 lac per head (along with his partner in this movie, Savitri Medhatul), he had been filming a documentary movie on the lives and times of the Lavani dancers in Maharashtra.

For the unknown, Lavani is a genre of music, incorporating a song-and-dance routine popular in Maharashtra. The word Lavani comes from the word Lavanya which means beauty. The Nirguni Lavani (philosophical) and the Shringari Lavani (erotic) are the two types.

Finally his movie was ready, and when I met him he was going through the post-production process for the movie. Titled Natale Tumchyasathi, (translated as ‘Behind the adorned veil’), both the cover photos had the lavani dancers dressed in colorful sarees on the stage during a lavani performance. While one cover had a close up of couple of dancers showing their faces as they were lifting the veil, the other cover photo showed about 6-7 dancers on the stage at a distance, some of them with their heads covered and some of them with the veils off their heads in various dance poses. I preferred the latter, and told him so. My point being that it seemed more active, more crowded and more colorful.

We spent some more time talking and Bhushan narrated some of the troubles he had gone through while making the movie, and we provided all the encouraging words to let him know of what a fabulous attempt he has made. While all of us would love to do something beyond our routine jobs, there are a very few who move on to a different direction while they are on a steady 9-5 job. That he has managed to make a full-fledged documentary and that too on a topic, not so often spoken about was truly a feat, and I offered my services for any help he might need to get his movie out successfully. While he did not need any of my help, I thought I would at least provide word-of-mouth publicity for his movie. The least I could do is that. The movie is scheduled to be released in a few weeks and it is already creating a buzz in the Marathi literary circles. There have been a few news items regarding the movie, and I am pasting the URLs below for the readers to know more –

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/57/20090318200903180306455957e2b03ff/Behind-the-adorned-veil.html

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/dancing-queens/434956/

Little Zizou

Lately I have been noticing quite a few things Parsi. News items regarding the feud in the Parsi Panchayat, and a viewpoint into all things Parsi and how it is displaced in a foreign setting in Bapsi Sidhwa’s book ‘An American Brat’. That included with the last week’s dinner outing at Jimmy Boy Café where I had delicious Chicken Dhansak. So an opportunity to relish some more of this very interesting community came in the form of the new movie ‘Little Zizou’. And I was glad to have made good of the opportunity. As the name suggests, it is little and lazy in its scale and ambition, but it is also definitely extremely likeable.

At the helm of the script for some excellent movies (The Namesake, Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala – all with director Mira Nair), Sooni Taraporewala finally gets into her own act with this little movie. And she has chosen the topic closest to her heart for her first movie - the delightful landscape of the Parsis in Mumbai and their little, vastly unkown eccentricities.

The director's own son Jehan Batliwala playes Xerxes, a 10-year-old football fanatic who dreams that his dead mother will bring Zenedine Zidane to Mumbai. While Zenedine Zidane is the Zizou, Jehan – the Little Zizou is an ardent soccer follower. His brother Artaxerxes or Art (played by Imaad Shah) is a cartoon-sketching teenager who spends his days trying to construct a flight simulator with his other Parsi friends. Both the motherless boys have to make-do with their father Cyrus Khodaji II (played by Sohrab Ardeshir) who is more interested in making money out of power-plays and politics in the Parsi Punchayat. He is a Parsi fundamentalist who believes that any Parsi who marries outside the religion should be ostracized from the community and not be allowed to pray in the community fire temples. This pits him against the younger, moderate and free-thinking Parsi generation led by the liberal-leaning editor-publisher Boman Pressvala (played by Boman Irani, excellent).

The motherless Khodaji boys detest their father so much that they spend most of their happy moments at their dad’s rival Pressvala’s house. The motherless younger Little Zizou gets all affection from Mrs. Pressvala (the pitch-perfect Zenobia Shroff - a brand new revelation), much to the jealousy of Mrs. Pressvala’s younger daughter – Liana (Iyanah Bativala). And Art hangs around at the Pressvala’s because he is in love with their elder daughter Zenobia (Dilshad Patel), but the poor boy has to pay second fiddle to Zenobia’s love interest, the non-Parsi Arjun (John Abraham, returning to his Parsi roots with this Parsi movie. The other Malayali root of John's is still unexplored).

Most of the movie touches on the premise of the clash of the religious fundamentalists v/s the liberals, which frankly is nothing new in any of the religions in India. We have all, at some stage, sided on either half of this debate. The director uses this clash to drive home the point that protectionism is not benefitting anyone and as the world changes, the older & orthodox values change and give way to newer values.

Things go way too complicated when people react to the articles written by Boman Pressvala. And when Maharashtra politics interferes with the Parsi Punchayat politics, things take a nasty turn. In the middle of all this melee, a host of characters walk in and out of the plot making their relevant points where it calls for. The most touching character of all of them being Mrs. Pressvala’s mother, played by the grand-old dame of the Mumbai’s English theatre, Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal, who turns in an absolutely brilliant performance as the slightly batty, but still full of joie de vivre mother.

It is an extremely simple, small scale and lovable movie. Having made her grand debut in the movies ages ago, Sooni Taraporevala could have chosen any topic that would have raked in the moolah for her, but the fact that she chose the topic closest to her heart speaks volumes about her conviction and love for this project. And the passion and enthusiasm shown by the largely Parsi cast in bringing her vision to reality is there for all to see. The movie is filled with warm little moments that are born out of the director's sharp understanding of the Parsi community, and her ability to bring their quirks and charms to the screen. The movie is entirely well cast, and almost all actors have played their parts convincingly well. Boman Irani as usual stands tall amongst all the characters and Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal left a lasting impression on my mind. The two child actors, Iyanah Bativala and Jahan Bativala also turn in noteworthy performances. They do a great job of being believably vulnerable without overacting the goody-two-shoes type of kiddie characters that one most often encounters in Indian cinema. All-in-all the movie is a very recommended, lazy Sunday watch. A little zany, a little crazy, that’s Little Zizou for you.

Ranaji

Anurag Kashyap is out with a new movie today, Friday, the 13th - Gulaal. After 3 brilliant movies - Satya (scripted by AK), Black Friday and Dev D. (we can safely ignore the mindless 'No Smoking'), I am very eager to watch this new movie. The interest is also quite considerably piqued because of a song - Ranaji - from the movie. Now don't get me wrong, it is not the mujra in the song that has captured my attention. The lyrics of the song, are most interesting. And of course, the haunting voice of Rekha Bharadwaj who has Namak from Omkara and Genda Phool from Delhi-6 to her credit. She certainly seems to be thoroughly enjoying the proceedings and one can rest assured that there would be whistles and catcalls in the auditorium when the song plays on screen. Some of the lyrics of the song go thus:

Rana Ji Mhare Gusse Mein Aaye,
Aiso Bal Khaye,
Agiya Barsae,
Ghabrae Mharo Chain;
Jaise door des ke tower me ghus jaaye re aeroplane

Jaise sare aam iraaq me jaake jam gaye uncle Sam

Sajini ko dear bole, Tharre ko beer bole
Mange hai english boli, Mange hai english choli
mange hai english jaipur, english bikaner
Jaise bisleri ki..
Jaise bisleri ki bottle pike bangaye english man

Jaise har ek baat pe democracy me lagai lagao ban

Jaise bina baat afgaanistaan ka baj gaya bhaiyya band

Composed and written by Piyush Mishra (who is in fact the composer and lyricist for the entire album), this is yet another quirky number making an appearance in an AK film , after 'Emosanal Atyachaar'. There are references to quite a few real life issues in the song (all in light humor though), and one just hopes that there are no controversies around it in days to come and it is accepted with as much interest and enthusiasm as 'Emosanal Atyachaar'. The number is as whacky as it gets. In a lighter vein, it manages to make a serious statement about today's socio-economic condition of the world. It makes references to such diverse topics like 9/11, Uncle Sam, Saddam Hussein, Afghanistan, mineral water, democracy etc. How inappropriate for a mujra number, yet how appropriate for today's times!

Political lyricism thus finally makes a strong occurrence in Hindi filmdom. And it is indeed well sung by Rekha Bharadwaj's intrinsically folksy tones. Ranaji definitely sends out vibes of an ethnic collage of events and stirs it up well with amiable folksy music that can set the desired pace for this blood-curdling political warfare saga.

P.S.: Read Anurag's blog post on the story behind the creation of the movie Gulaal here.