Away from the mire of violence

Unaffected by the star system, director Prakash Jha has gone in for a completely new cast for his latest film ``Rahul''. A stand he justifies to GIRIJA RAJENDRAN.

THERE WAS a time, in the 1950s and the 1960s, when film-makers would, periodically, fall back upon a children's subject as a sure-fire box-office nostrum, since such an approach ensured the patronage of women. But, once the trend changed with the advent of Shyam Benegal's ``Ankur'' in 1973, the fresh-looking cineastes, fed on world cinema, came to be widely viewed as tackling `adults' and `thinking' subjects showcased their awareness of the medium as an art form.

Now, at the turn of the Century Prakash Jha, thinker-director and member of that bright brigade, has successfully gone back to a children's theme to come up with a heart-warming film, `Rahul' which, while earning its share of barbs, has even the hardened critics admitting that it has its moments of sweetness in a mainstream world of mindless celluloid violence. Not that Prakash Jha ever balked at this kind of treatment, if you recall how effective he was in `Mrityudand', a hard-hitting narrative that dealt with the saga of womenfolk rebelling against male chauvinism in a hidebound society. It was following the trail blazed by `Mrityudand' that `A Film by Prakash Jha' came to mean a cinematic experience in shared perceptions. It was Prakash Jha's motion-picture idiom that I set out to explore. The very fact that this time Prakash Jha had such a die-hard showman as Subhash Ghai to `present' his `Rahul' (through Mukta Arts) proved that this cineperson's mood movie has a place even in today's crassly meretricious setting.

I met Prakash Jha on the eve of his latest film's release - to talk about `Rahul' and his other movies, each one of them bearing that definitive stamp of a director in total control of the camera and the language of cinema. ``One expected you to travel further along the same lines, as a producer-director, on the heels of such a powerful screen statement as `Mrityudand'. How come you opted for a children's subject in `Rahul' - the first such theme to be touched by you since you started out with `Hip Hip Hooray'?''

``But why not a theme like `Rahul'?'' Prakash demanded to know. ``Making a film with kids is no child's play, let me tell you. It needs a certain knack to handle kids. The personal happening that started me off on the `Rahul' trip was the fact that my 12-year- old daughter, suddenly one day, made me realise that spending time with our children is much more important than buying them all those expensive gifts - as substitute for our company. Telling my growing little daughter that I loved her was, I found, just not enough, for she came back with: ``So do I baba! But I want you to be with me sometimes.''

That made me discern that children have very keen powers of observation and a rare sense of judgment when things start going wrong between parents. They have their own mode of assimilating developments within the family and reaching conclusions of their own. You could therefore say that `Rahul' is a combination of several real-life incidents. The story, as woven by Anuradha Tiwari and Farhan - both have been writing for TV serials - is told, not from just one angle, but in three dimensions. One, as seen through the eyes of the four-year-old Rahul - played by Yash Pathak. Next, the variant versions of the two parents - Jatin Grewal and Neha - on the underlying reason for going their separate ways, affecting the child no end. It is a narration appealing to the whole family, something not so common on the screen today, you will agree.''

``In the wake of the much-discussed, star-studded `Mrityudand''', (Prakash Jha, after that, directed `Dil Kya Kare' for Ajay Devgan), ``one had expected you, as a producer-director yourself, to go in for a big-budget film. But you opted for a `little movie' in the shape of `Rahul' with freshers like Yash Pathak and Jatin Grewal in the cast, How come?''

``I have no problem handling either an established artiste or a newcomer,'' underlined Prakash. ``But, when you have new faces in a film, certain things, rewardingly, take care of themselves. For instance, there is a certain freshness of expression, a spontaneity of approach and a willingness to learn, among newcomers. Plus the clinching factor that the dates of such performers have not already been taken up by other film-makers for your expressive theme to have to be put, willy-nilly, on the back-burner - just at the point when you are raring to go. Ultimately, whether it is a big star or a newcomer, it is the director who is the captain of the ship. That is to say, all artistes have to follow the director's instructions, they can't function, on their own, in a vacuum. That is why even the biggest star cannot rise above the script or the direction. An added bonus, when you have a fresher, is that you're working with a person who has no pre-conceived notions about how things have to be done. So the director has a number of positive things going for him when fresh faces are introduced in a film.''

``Agreed, but don't you sell a film to the audience much more easily, plus profitably, when you have big names in the cast?''

``May be, yes'' concedes Prakash Jha. ``On the flip side, your budget doesn't go out of hand when you have new faces in the cast. In these days of runaway inflation, imagine, `Rahul' cost me a mere two crores of rupees to seal - against the astronomical budget that a big star-cast would have entailed. In any case, I go by the dictates of the theme rather than adopt the absurd process of picking the stars first and then venturing in search of a subject to suit their personae! All my films - be it my first foray, `Hip Hip Hurray', or `Damul', or `Parineeti', or `Mrityudand' or even `Dil Kya Kare' - have been made in this rational way. That is the reason my artists, at all times, have looked the part, be it Madhuri Dixit in `Mrityudand'; or Kajol in `Dil Kya Kare'; or Om Puri in `Damul'.

Prakash Jha's strength lies in his strong thematic treatment in a narrative filled with `real' people with a believable behavioural pattern. In this context, I wondered if this kind of raw-powered `localising' of theme comes about because Prakash Jha belongs to Bihar. ``Is Bihar your all-India base?'' I sought to know.

``Coming from a certain region is an advantage perhaps,'' argued Prakash. ``But I learnt my cine art and craft admiring makers like Mehboob Khan for his `Mother India' in one stream, Bimal Roy for his `Do Bigha Zamin' in another direction, while looking up to Satyajit Ray, as the ideal, for all his films when I was at the Pune Institute. I don't think that `Mother India' has been equalled with regard to its eye for detail. Through the way he has etched each character, Mehboob brings the cosmos of a vibrantly rural India vividly in front of your eyes in those magical three hours! What a commendable achievement! If you hail from a rural area, it makes you aware of that region's lifestyle, first hand, and you, subconsciously draw from your background whenever the need is there.''

``Getting back to `Rahul', how easy was it to work with little debutant Yash Pathak in the title role?''

``It was quite different from handling adult actors. Yash, is talented, but is a kid. So I put him through a workshop - for Yash to become familiar with the mechanics of film acting, so that he would be mentally ready for the film when it started. That's how Yash is viewed to be endearing in his very first performance. Both the boy and the subject touch a chord in the viewer. I'm very proud of the fact that the film was wrapped up in just six months'', concluded Prakash Jha - one of those rare ones, still, who has not become a slave to the star system that has Bollywood in its thrall.

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