Sunday 17 March 2013

The Global Storyteller- MIRA NAIR at Spring Fever'13

On her journey from ‘Salaam Bombay!’ to ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’



I attended the ongoing Spring Fever at IHC today and it was a delightful experience. Organised by Penguin Books, the Spring Fest has a great line up of eminent personalities for each day. After spectacular sessions by Shobha De and Gulzar on 15th and 16th respectively, today the genius film-maker Meera Nair graced the literary festival. 
It was a perfect setting in the open air amphitheatre with a lovely stage and the library. Mira Nair was there on time and the session started at seven as scheduled. 



She had some really interesting experiences to share. Some made us laugh while others left us awed. Here are some of the interesting things the story teller talked about- 

"I always played the girlfriend's mother or something un-sexy like that"
Before Salaam Bombay, my beginnings really come from theatre, when I was an actor. And the first inspiration for me as a kid growing up in Bhubaneswar was actually Habib Tanvir who brought logical theatre in the most radical way to the school fields of Bhubaneshwar. That made me feel that I could perhaps be a part of the “tamaasha” that he had shown me as a young girl. So that led me to join theatre. I was on stage most of the time. I always played the part of the “girlfriend's mother” or something un-sexy like that. 


" My Antony was Shashi Tharoor! "
I was a part of Shakespeare society in St. Stephens College. I was cast as a very heavy weigh Cleopatra and to carry me on stage there was a bunch of slaves led by Amitav Ghosh in a langoti. Not really a pretty picture! And my Antony was Shashi Tharoor! I better behave, he is a minister!


"I would say, come to India, I will send my elephant to pick you up from the airport"
I made about four documentaries, all in India in the early 80s. It was interesting but I found frustration in not finding an audience. Here in India, there was no room for them. In America they would ask me dumb things like-“I saw running water in your movie. How come you have water running in India?” I would say- come to India, I will send my elephant to pick you up from the airport and they would not really get the joke!


"The kid would dance and sing- I am a disco dancer!"
The idea of Salaam Bombay came from a documentary; I made, ‘India Cabaret’ about strippers. I lived with these girls, Rekha and Rosey. And every day at twelve in the morning this tea-boy used to come and this wonderful role- reversal used to take place where Rekha would say- "Nacho" to the boy and the kid would dance and sing " I am a disco dancer!" and they would drink tea like Nawabs’. That got me to look at a street kid- the tea boy. What was remarkable about kids in each street corner is that, on the surface they have absolutely nothing but inside they have such a will to live!



                          "I polluted the poor guy"
Sooni Taraporevala, writer of the film (Salaam Bombay) and I found a bunch of rag pickers. At first they ran away from us but then we gradually befriended them and for four months just picked rags with them, went to the movies, waited at the weddings. After documenting it and writing down own version, I asked Barry Jones to come and we did a six-week workshop with nineteen children. The main thing we did in the workshop was to create discipline and focus in the children through either dance (weirdly enough, they would choose Madonna songs to dance on) or yoga.
I met Raghubir Yadav, who played Chillam, yesterday after 25 years and he said- "main to saala cigarette bhi nahi peeta tha, main to bolta tha ki bas Mira Nair ne hi mujhe cigarette dia"
I polluted the poor guy. 

"The kids have no self-pity"
I did not want to make an ‘arty-farty’ film. I wanted children to go to Liberty and watch it. These kids have no self-pity. My earliest images were of when I was shooting India Cabaret, being in a taxi in a traffic jam and one hand held on to my open window. I looked down and saw this kid- just the torso on a hand-made platform with wheels. The lights changed and with the velocity of my cab, he moved on and at the end it he just let himself go, did a piravid, held his hand up like a circus player. Even though no one was clapping, but for him that was his performance! 


        "I was the aunty ji Delhi"

I am currently directing the musical of Monsoon Wedding. We have recorded seven songs and have four more to go. We hope to open in May'14. 
My son and I wanted to make a film in his school holidays, in the monsoon. I met Sabrina Dhawan and we both got along like a house on fire! She was like the hipper Delhi and I, the auntyji Delhi.  Once Naseer was cast, I started casting other people around him but many people, who said yes, did not turn up! I had to take many auntyjis’ from my area-Vasant Vihar and anyone who was for free was in monsoon wedding. The actor who was supposed to play the lover of the bride called me one day before shooting and said- Sorry for not being able to come, because he had been asked to compare Amitabh Bachchan's dinner! I called a young actor in London and asked him- Do you have a brother?  Yes, I actually did that! 



This was followed by questions from the audience. Later Mira Nair, signed copies of Salaam Bombay and The Reluctant Fundamentalist for the audience! It was a wonderful evening with the global story teller. Thank you Penguin Books!



Spring Fever is a must attend.  Click here for more information.
Did you attend Spring Fever? Share your experience with me- writerspointblog@yahoo.in


Edited by Prakriti Anand

1 comment:

  1. Loved this one. Mira Nair is a very interesting person. I wish I was in Delhi :(

    ReplyDelete