Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Period venture: Ketan Mehta has cast Randeep Hooda as Raja Ravi Varma in his movie ‘Colours of Passion.’

The third film on the artist. All in the space of one year. While Shaji N. Karun was the first to announce his film on the royal artist, Lenin Rajendran was the first off the block with his version on the artistic life of Ravi Varma. But ahead of all of them is Ketan Mehta who is unfazed by the news of the other two films.

“Well, I think he is a great artist who has not got his due. So, perhaps these films, though late, are a kind of tribute to him. Ravi Varma deserves multiple tributes and the more the number of the films, the better,” says the master filmmaker who is engrossed in the shoot of his take on Ravi Varma.

Ketan’s films have always defied categorisation as they cover diverse themes, periods and places. Even his treatment of thematic content has varied from ‘Bhavani Bavai,’ which so aesthetically married a folk tale to a social issue like untouchability, to his last film ‘Mangal Pandey –The Rising,’ which unfolded the story of 1857 through the tale of Mangal Pandey. And now a brush with colours and an artist’s muse.

According to the director, the film traces the artist’s journey in art, his evolution as an artist and his relationship with his muse.

After completing the first schedule of the shoot in Pune, Ketan and his crew are busy shooting in the majestic Kuthiramalika in Thiruvananthapuram and in Kilimanoor, where Ravi Varma was born. Ketan says ‘Colours of Passion,’ produced by Deepa Sahi and Anant Mahendroo, will be ready for release by December.

“I have been working on the subject for the last six to seven years as I have always been a great admirer of the artist. I think he was the pioneer of modern art in India. A modern man who was open to technology and was quick to adapt to photography, printing and so on and ushered in changes that shaped our visual language for years together,” explains Ketan.

Elaborating further Ketan adds: “If we consider Dada Saheb Phalke as the father of Indian Cinema, then Ravi Varma is the grandfather of cinema in India. Not many people know that Dada Saheb was an apprentice of Ravi Varma who worked in his press in Mumbai. It was Ravi Varma who moulded Dada Saheb’s frames and his visual idiom and grammar. His films are proof of Ravi Varma’s seminal influence.”

Ravi Varma is played by Randeep Hooda (whom we last saw in ‘Risk,’ ‘D’ and as an NRI in ‘Monsoon Wedding.’) while Nandana Sen plays his muse. The director who was among the first to tap the potential in actors such as Nasiruddin Shah (‘Bhavani Bhavai,’ ‘Mirch Masala,’ ‘Hero Hiralal’), Aamir Khan (‘Holi,’ ‘The Rising’) and Shah Rukh Khan (‘Maya Memsahib’) says that it is a director’s work to spot that innate talent in an actor.

“People are going to be surprised when they see Randeep. He is doing a great job and I knew he could do it. The role required an actor who could convincingly age on screen as the film covers the 25 tumultuous years of the artist’s life,” says Ketan.

He adds: “I wanted actors who did not have the aura of stars and people who were willing to give me bulk dates. I had seen some of his works and I knew he would deliver. Nandana Sen is also a superb actor who has done fine work in some Hollywood films.

In his determination to take a new look at the artist’s life and work, he has brought in Bulgarians Rali Taltchev and Christo Bakalov as directors of photography. “Their impressive work in Pan Nalin’s ‘Samsara’ motivated me to opt for them. We have been too exposed to Ravi Varma’s iconography and paintings and I wanted someone with a fresh outlook,” says the director who seems to be turning to history to derive inspiration.

“It is not only historic events or people. It could be a story, an image, a moment or a painting that triggers me. After ‘Colours of Passion,’ I plan to make my film on Rani Lakshmi Bai and also work on a science fiction that has been scripted by me. Lakshmi Bai’s film would be part of the trilogy that I plan to make. ‘The Rising’ was the first and the third would be on Bahadur Shah Zafar.”

And who is playing Jhansi Ki Rani? “Well, talks are on with Aiswarya Rai Bachchan. But it has not been decided,” maintains Ketan. But before travelling to Jhansi, Ketan will first move to Vadodara to where Ravi Varma lived for a while and then to Varanasi to complete his film on Ravi Varma.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail