Shakespeare is an unhappy man. His spirit is itching to get back to mother Earth . He died too early . He was born in the wrong era. Great minds are often jealous but their jealousy gets a little diluted when a man of incomparable genius lives in their vicinity. This in fact is the true test of any man's greatness. If he accepts the other man's brilliance too easily he is not great. If he refuses to do so he is a fool. If however he concedes what is due to another man after careful deliberation and after prudent reluctance not to mention opposition..he is truly great.
Bashir Babbar is one such man. A man who faced innumerable odds in life , but overcame them to create masterpieces.Works which would force the greatest literary minds of today and would have persuaded the greatest literary minds of the yesteryears and centuries to reevaluate their own worth in the field.
A master of storytelling.A philosopher ,a visionary , a poet .In short a genius. His writings smell of adventure .His works have taken human imagination to new levels.Never devoid of realism and finesse he takes us to a world we never knew existed.
Bashir Babbar's genius has come to light because of one man's equally herculean achievement , that of creating a marvellous motion picture out of a shoe string budget and ordinary set & locations- Mr. Kanti Shah. To many he is a ghost. A man whose photograph has not yet been available on the net, in spite of his legend.
If you google Kanti Shah ,there will be a million hits but one of them would lead you to his photograph or even a portrait. Some artists they say relish the sweet silence of anonymity. There are few vicious men who have tried to hoodwink the world into believing that this anonymity is a result of infamy and the consequent repercussions . But let me assure you, a man of the stature of Mr. Shah couldn't care less for social norms, sanity and retribution. He is the human embodiment of superhuman spirit and unrelenting character. A man who would have given Gandhiji a run for his money had he been alive and active during the freedom struggle. But he has done something more than that. He has undertaken and to some extent been able to liberate the millions of enslaved Indians from the chains of mediocre Cinema and art by giving them deliciously garnished helpings of the most exquisite piece of cinema which they would have ever seen or would ever hope to see, save for the future movies coming from the man himself and his creative team. Oh! Wilde, Shakespeare and the whole gang would have paid with their lives to get a person such as Kanti Shah to direct their plays. But time and tide wait for none. It had to be with Bashir Babbar the genius ( quite an understatement for him) that Kanti Shah would create magic. Sublime , pure and unmatchable movies .
The term method actor does not have any exact meaning . But any man who wishes to decipher the term's practical significance should view Babbar's scripts and Kanti's movies. These movies couldn't have been made had method acting as an art not been developed by the actors who worked in them. All of them are director's actors. None of them vain of his or her abilities. Modest to a fault. These ,respected reader, are the finest specimens of performing artists who relinquished (quite willingly)
their pride,prudence,propriety and intelligence for a cause much greater than their own great selves: A Kanti Shah movie written by Bashir Babbar.
Ulysses faced huge opposition.Joyce was ostracised. Wilde ended his life in destitution because of the moral upheaval he caused. Kanti Shah and Babbar shall however not meet with such tragic fates. Because now the audience , the readers and the entire set of art connoisseurs are a reformed lot. Liberal ideas, secularism,homosexuality are all norms now. No more burning texts for blasphemy. The masterstroke however is that any chance of opposition has been sniffed out by a brilliant use of the language by Babbar who has used the popular sentiments as well as unpopular sentiments to his advantage and created a treatise which would silence it's most vociferous critics by it's subtle and effective meaning and form.
All great works of art and literature have had to face stern odds before they could claim their rightful place in this world. I feel one movie made by Kanti Shah can claim it's rightful place in the world just because of the intensity and ingenuity exhibited by it's creators . Yes it is Gunda.
Imagine shooting a movie on 4 locations. Having to drastically re-vamp them to give credibility to the background and scenes. Imagine a cast of legendary actors, who have to be tamed and controlled to avoid emotions running out of control. These were only a few of the difficulties which Shah and Babbar had to face while making Gunda.
The movie itself is a masterpiece. King Lear, Hard Times, Crime and Punishment...and other such works can take a backseat, for here comes a piece of art which is practically flawless. The creators of this movie aren't deluded individuals who take fictitious ideals for inspiration. They are men who's ideas and inspirations are rooted in the harsh realities of life. Their poetry isn't a perfect reflect non-existent beauty, but is a realistic interpretation of practical distortions.No floral dialogues and over the top romantic plots. No metaphysical treatment of carnal amusements. Gunda is a movie for the most mature and enlightened connoisseurs of cinema.
A movie which leaves nothing to chance. It is a carefully and minutely detailed movie . Every expression in every scene on the face of every actor (no matter how small his role may have been) is the result of diligent rehearsal and planning. Each dialogue is a thought in itself. A though deep like the ocean .
Like all great works this movie deals with the dilemmas of everyday life. The characters in this script are ordinary men faced with ordinary troubles of an ordinary life. We have a porter rather Coolie, working on the airport where no plane ever lands. We have the pitiable gangsters who can't get over their fabulous names and hence to celebrate them kill and molest any lecherous female who comes their way. God knows how heavy their burden must have been for them to give that heart wrenching introduction in the beginning of the movie. I've seen the weak hearted crying their hearts out when Juliet kills herself , but no grief is comparable to that of those individuals who can't hold back their tears when Bulla bereaves his dead sister--Munni O meri Munni......to tujhe Lambu Atta ne lamba kar diya? Maachis ki tili ko khamba kar diya?
Why should we delve so deep when even the names of the characters suggest that this is no ordinary movie. Kafka immortalised the use of alphabets for names by introducing K in The Trial for us. Babbar gives us : Bulla, Chutiya,Lambu Atta,Ibu Hatela, Raju Chikna, Kala Shetty, Bachu Bhaggona..NO i can't say any more....it is a emotional exercise for me.
The delicate fashion in which heinous crimes against the human body have been dealt with is truly suggestive of Mr. Shah's genius. Even the most vulgar dialogues are surrounded by an air of piety and holiness. I mean, dealing with murder,rape,molestation , double meaning jokes without ever stooping down to actual vulgarity is a commendable feat.
Of late I've seen movies where the female actors have been forced to expose. Here is a movie where no women exposes but for a very high and noble cause. There is not the slightest sign of cheap and revolting exposure here. Chutiya, a man looking to commit crimes against female chastity plays his role so delicately that one forgets the gravity of the offence he is about to commit on screen. Ibu Hatela's dialogues have been so written that even the most sacred excerpts from our Holy Books would feel a little short on virtue . I am sure one day his lines from the movie would comprise the morning prayer in all schools: Mera Naam hai Ibu hatela....khayega kela?
A work of art is to a large extent dependent upon it's Hero . Our man in this case is an actor whose name and reputation need no introduction. The conviction with which he plays his role is splendid. Although not given the most deep and thought provoking dialogues in the movie he manages to put life into the lines given to him. I mean look at this : "Ab tu Ibu Hatela nahi Ibu katela kahlayega" the simplicity of this expression is also followed by a beauty of thought which Mithun aka Shankar infuses into the dialogue.
The movie however carries on in the Shakespearean tradition of delivering the most valuable messages through the antagonists of the work.
The best example of this are the opening lines from Chutiya. "Mera naam hai chutiya ......khadi karta hoon main khatiya.....Bulli kahan hai teri ungli.....Bulla bhai.......pakdo pakdo kahan hai chuttiya bolo bolo kahan hai bulla"
Lambu Atta and Chuttiya both are the philosophical mouthpieces of Babbar's stoic view of life and death . This is represented in the Death Scene of Lambu Atta. The scene shows how bravely and almost happily do the men of character meet their fate . In this case Lambu Atta bids farewell to the world while singing the nostalgia trigerring number " Gore Gore gal gal gore gore....." .
I saw many girls taking out their handkerchiefs to wipe off the tears when he died, this despite his being the man who rapes Bulla's innocent sister who had but one vice..of wearing outrageously short skirts in the presence of a volatile man like Lambu Atta.
Not many eyes could remain dry when Shankar's father is strangled by Inspector Kale. He does so by picking the man up with his right hand by the throat, this when the father was thrice his weight and twice his height in the movie. What character and grit.
In terms of social observation the movie is just immaculate. The angst of a Coolie working on the airport, the frustrations of the henchmen who have been asked to wear red colored uniforms by the villain. The dejected female lover of Shankar and her trials and tribulations in terms of trying to appease her estranged lover and raising a little baby who she didn't give birth to. The effeminate Chuttiya and his struggle with his limitations. The egoistical Bulla and his demise due to pride. The hapless leopard who represents the sad plight of all those wild animals who have been kept as pets by honourable people across the world (believe it or not my neighbour set free his pet rhinoceros and snow leopard after watching the movie) , the faithful monkey and his heroics at the end of the movie.
In terms of art direction too the movie is quite a work of art (pun intended) . The hanging beds in a brothel, the male lavatory sign in Bulla's residence. The graveyard behind Ibu Hatela's house whose existence failed to dawn upon him until it was his turn to die. The Dockyard and Airport where the dialogues and monologues by the characters make for biblical revelations about life and sins.
Taking another cue from Shakespeare , Babbar and Shah point out the presence of spirits and souls in the scene where a 100 taxis are driven in by less than 5 drivers. Or may be the scene where a train of policemen with guns in their holsters fail to stop a Goon from stabbing a minister to death (not that he did not deserve to die).
It will take ages for me to write this to my satisfaction but one age is all I have. It is true friends that immortal epics like this will never get a commentary worth even a 100th of their own literary value.
