Last time when I went to the office of Rajesh Singh (producer of Anwar) they yelled at me “yahan Manish Jha ka naam mat lijiye nahi to maar khaiyega”.The tempearure was soaring outside…n this came out as an increment of another degree..I was surprised..hey what’s wrong with u man….but I controlled myself n calculated what must have gone wrong with these guys….Rajesh Singh had come all the way from lucknow to finance some “different” stories….but even certified directors couldn’t recover his money…so obviously, there is an agony towards the director….I don’t know what turned the producer on whenever Manish would have narrated the story to him….I have not seen the film….all I know about the film is that the idea for the film has came from a short story “phagun ki aatmakatha” written by noted writer Priyamvad…. When Priyamvad got to know this, he claimed n get paid….I tried but couldn’t find the original story.
Noted writer director Sagar Sarhadi has made a film..”chausar“. It is also based on a short story “bandook” written by Ram Janam Pathak… it’s wonderful story which depicts the struggle of a man for a job of security guard . For the job of security guard he must has an arms license….to keep gun…this license turn to a nightmare for the guy….I have read the story n excited when got to know that sagar sarhadi has made a film on the story….I met the director.in his andheri office…a totally obliged filmmaker invited me on a trial show of the film at eros….i went n really shattered while watching the movie…I was watching a shit adaptation of a cult story…..my mind simply stuck.. is this the man who has written the milestones like kabhie kabhie,silsila, chandni diwaana ,kaho na pyaar hai n directed an excellent movie “Bazaar“….I told the director that even a blind man will not buy this film….he argued and responded with an anger in his face…this type of film is not made in the last 15-20 years…Though the movie starts well…opening scene has got some hold when the ritual of saat phere is in progress n suddenly the bride’s father notices that the groom is limping…he screams n cancels the marriage…cut to we c that the grooms younger brother is taking saat phera’s with the bride…the heart breaking song plays in the background…. “agle janam mujhe bitiya na kijoo..bitiya jo kijau to bitiyaa ke bhag na dijau..
Another prominent examples of adaptations are Prakash jha’s “Damul” n “Parinati“. Damul was based on Shaiwal’s story n Parinati was based on Vijaydaan detha’s story….I still think that Damul is the best film of Jha…yet Parinati’s destiny was so poignant n pathetic that u don’t need any other conflict in the story…. an elder couple used to kill people for their treasuries….In this blind race they couldn’t identify their son n kills him also….This conflict is very rarely told in Hindi cinema….
These r the films lesser known to the audience which borrowed their idea from literature…n failed to convince the audience…I simply couldn’t understand why they made the films so boring that nobody is interested in watching the film…my personal view is that these stories should be told in a cinematic way…they easily get stories but forgot the story telling n treatment…for me dere is only one bright idea in a film n u have to expand it with a story..they made the stories a waste. But ya there always lies a silver line n a few writers broke all the rules n created a different “story telling”…They were once considered as the best writers ….m trying to introduce some of dem in few lines…..
One of the reasons of why I liked “Mr.& Mrs. Iyer” is it’s wonderful picturisation of the song ” gustakhi ankhiyan kinne ja ladiya” .The song starts just after the exit of the old muslim couple..(Bhishma shahni & Surekha seekri).cut to “gustakhi ankhiyan” & the amazing shots…the bottles of beer lying in the shores….the driver brushing his teeth…n the long queue of vehicles… n the ultimate shot of the women who comes n offers tea to his husband repairing his truck….n the line in the background.. “kis surat nu main cha khaawa” (how can I have tea in such a situation)…..the peerless voice of Ustad sultan khan…unforgettable
The character of Muslim old man played brilliantly by none other than Bhishma saahni who happened to b the first president of IPTA(Indian people’s theatre association) n is the author of the book “Tamas“.Later in the eighties Govind Nihalani made a tv serial based on the book n was a huge hit. What I liked in the novel (n fortunately in the serial also) that while reading the book one can easily smell out a riot in the next page but
towards the end of the book rites were nowhere…definitely there were some incidents but more than the riots …there exists the “pain” of the riots…what Aparna tried to do is the same..a film on communal riots but never showed a killing…! I followed Aparna n went to “36 chowranghee lane”…again she succeded to capture the cosmopolitan Calcutta…oops ..the emptiness of ” jeniffer”…!
Another movie was “Teesri kasam” directed by Basu Bhattacharya based on the story “mare gaye gulpham“written by Phaniswarnath renu …An avid story teller, Renu was also an activist…Renu had written some masterpieces..like “Maila Anchal” & “Parti Parikatha“….Tv serial Maila Aanchal was based on his book… those were d days when Tv was not known as an idiot box… More than the content n subject, the best thing of Renu was his visualization n dialogues…While reading his book I always felt as if I m watching a film….the common man’s dialogue.like one in teesri kasam…”jaane kya hai is mahua ghatwarin ki katha me ki dono bail kaan lagaakr sunne lagte hai”…. ..The importance of mahua ghatwaran story in “Tesri kasam” was not used as a tool to create a bonding between hiraman n hirabai… rather the writer wanted us to feel the ambience of the place ..here Renu’s strength lies…telling story of people ..for the people…
Hiraman is a naive but not stupid… When the other gaadiwan asks .kahan jaa rahe ho, Hiraman replies “chattapur pachira” n then tells Heerabai that these people always interrupts.. don’t have other business to do….. are humko kahin bhi jaana hai..tumko jahan jaana hai jao…For me the best story of renu is Thes(hurt.)…. I can’t forget the writers introduction about the protagonist Sirchan “Sirchan moonhjor hai kaamchor nahi” sirchan is blunt,outspoken…. but always an artist.
The three novels which I think can depict the changing scenario of Indian villages in the post independence era were… Godaan, Raag Darbaari and Maila aanchal….. …”Raag Darbaari” was also made into a TV Serial…directed by Krishna Raghav …an FTII alumuni…
Now another writer was Kamleshwar. Gulzar’s “Aandhi” n “Mausam” were based on his novel’s. “Kaali aandhi” n “Agaami Ateet” respectively. Kamleshwar has also written “chandrakanta.”
Manohar shyam joshi was the another writer who penned the dialougues of “Hey Ram” and an Innovative writer of TV series ” humlog“, “buniyaad” & “kakkaji kahin” ……his book “kuru kuru swaaha” is one of the best black humour written in Indian literature… then there is a Udayprakash (who according to sudhir mishra is a most underrated writer) has written wonderful stories.. Mazhar kamran (man who shot satya, kaun, masti, jhankaar beats & tarkieb) is making a film on one of the stories of Udayprakash… Mohandas (not another munnabhai) …….a depressing but raw story of a man named Mohandas who gets a govt. job but got puzzled when he is told that Mohandas has already joined the duty …. the story revolves round the struggles of the man to prove himself that he is the real Mohandas… this film needs to see the day of light….the character were most alike to Tirpat singh, MLA Durga pandey n abhay singh (Mrityudand)….Mohandas faces all of them n fails in the end…
I’ve never been able to find out the reason why all the literary giants couldn’t succeed to become great screenwriters. If you go through the history of Hindi cinema, the best directors always worked with the writers who had some literature backgroud...courtesy---this is in series of article bydipankar giri http://passionforcinema.com/category/projekt-iview/
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