Husain sees poetry in painting; filming the body language of Madhur Dixit, he sees poetry in motion.
For Husain fantasy has come true.-- my notes
Gaja Gamini is a purely poetic statement'
India's best-known artist, M F Husain, turned 84
last month. The occasion also marked another
milestone in his long and illustrious career -- the
New York premiere of his film Gaja Gamini, which
features Madhuri Dixit.
The film is unusual and unique in many ways. Above all, it is the
culmination of Husain's life-long dream of making a full-length film
that seeks to convey the essence of Indian womanhood.
Both Madhuri Dixit and Husain spoke to Shanti Karuna about the film
during the actual filming and after it was completed.
Genesis of the film
A couple of years ago, when I was in hospital, I thought of making a film on
Madhuri DixitI have been painting her in different ways, trying to depict her
as the essence of Indian womanhood and of the many manifestations of
womanhood.. So, rather than painting her, I thought let me try doing the same
thing in some other medium. I wrote a few lines here and there, and then I
started with a visual script, which is about 80 feet long. It is like a film strip.
There I did the important sequences, painting them one by one.
That was the basis of how I visualised the film. I then started writing the
script, that is, just the story line. But first I fixed two or three metaphors as I
had done in my 1967 film, Through The Eyes Of A Painter, where a
lantern, a lamp, a cow and a shoe were the inanimate objects that I showed
throughout the film -- just music and those images. And I tried to put in those
objects feelings and emotions. I didn't show the shoe being worn by any
person, but just as an object, as form.
The theme that I now wanted was woman as form, as an icon. So I fixed this
metaphor. My mother died when I was a year old. I had never seen her face.
That gave me an idea. I call it, 'Andurpur ki ek aurat, sar pe gatri, gode
me bachcha, aur paun me ghungroo.' (A woman from Andurpur, with a
bundle on her head, a child in her lap and ghungroos on her feet). And then
she walks through space and time.
What the film is about and its message
There is a story, but it is not a linear story -- it moves back and forth, in time
and space -- and Gamini is the link. She plays several roles, which are
reflections or manifestations of womanhood.
There are several episodes. One is in Benares, where some authors like
Premchand and Nirmala, as also two or three other characters meet and talk
of their own experiences. The lover, Kamdeo, comes down and changes into
different forms and we follow them. He becomes a lawyer, a nawab and so
on.
There are five women in this film -- like our legendary Panchkanya -- who
shake up the equanimity of the heavenly Gods. Gamini is the metaphor of a
woman who is shakti and she passes through five different stages without
facing the camera, and nobody knows who she is.
This film combines almost all my experiences in painting. All those forms
which I have been painting for the last 40 years. This is an accumulation of all
those experiences in this film.
The power of woman and her identity is the message of my film. I portray the
individuality of a woman, the way she is passing through time and space on
her own terms. The essence of Indian culture is shakti, the woman. That is
what I am going to reflect in my film. Without really raising any issue. It is a
purely poetic statement, the body language of a woman.
This is in line with what Satyajit Ray had said: it is very easy to make a
commercial film, and it is very easy to make an art film. But the most difficult
thing to do is to make a sensible, popular film. I am working on that because
this is the medium with which we should communicate.
The making of the film
I have not only directed the film but also written the script, though at the time
of actual shooting, we improvised, as in a painting. I also wrote the theme
song and designed the sets and the costumes -- it is almost like a one-man
show. Once again like one of my paintings. But this is a different type of
painting.
I have not gone in for making a film for commercial purposes. This film is
purely a symbolic expression. At the same time I have used all the glamorous
elements like dance and music. But the music that I have used is that of the
famous music director, Bhupen Hazarika, who has won many international
awards. So, through music, all these metaphors that are in the film will be
conveyed to the people, to the common man.
There are also songs in Sanskrit -- Kalidasa's -- and one in Bengali by
Rabindranath Tagore. When you go to see an Italian opera, you may not
know the language but you know the gist of the story. You do not have to
follow each and every line in order not to miss the connection of the story. It
is a purely visual experience.
There won't be the usual song and dance routines that you see in Indian films.
In Gamini there are two lovers -- one is young and the other is elderly.
There is also a painter, a poet and a scientist. All the characters are there --
some from the 17th century, others from five thousand years back like
Kalidasa, and they meet. This film is about the way they try to visualise a
woman. There is no time here. Here, you don't know what is fantasy and
what is reality.
It is a very 'painterly' film in the sense that the
sequences are like paintings. It has not been easy
working with all these stars. To get their dates was a
headache. Actually there are not too many main stars,
except for Madhuri. Shabana Azmi agreed to play
one role.
It is not a full-length feature film of three hours -- one-and-a-half or two
hours at the most.
Right from the very beginning I had wanted to become a film-maker. But I
didn't want to make one of those commercial films. I had always been a very
keen student of cinema. I knew the theory of film-making and had seen the
great films of Kurosawa and Rosselini (I lived with Rosselini in the early
60s). I had met Fellini in Rome. I was in the thick of it all but I couldn't get a
chance to make a film because this medium is expensive and nobody would
finance me.
I did get a chance in between, when Indira Gandhi was there. I made a film
and took full liberty. It was later called Through The Eyes Of A Painter.
But that was not my title. There were several elements in the film such as a
cow, an umbrella, a lantern and a shoe. Now, this has nothing to do with
anything, but I went in for a very bold experiment.
A form or any object like a tree or a man -- you don't have to go and talk to
it. You cannot go and talk to a tree. But a tree has its own language. How it
is raised, where it is and how it related to the point. It is purely a form, a
structure. A structure of different forms. So, in that way, I built a whole film.
Everybody at that time laughed at me saying it was nonsense. When I
showed that shoe or the lantern, I wasn't using it as a symbol of light or of
education or anything. I used the shoe as form -- totally out of the context.
You look at a shoe as a shoe and not because you want to wear it or see
what it is made of.
This is what a visual experience is. Because what we see normally, people
don't see. Because their minds have been conditioned by what they know
about this thing. If they see that thing, they will notice it. Otherwise they just
ignore it. The role of the artist is to make people aware of what form is, just
as musicians make you aware of what sound is. It was the pure structure of
imagery and I used no dialogue. I just used music. There was no purpose but
the pure visual experience. I was not telling a story.
When I finished the film, the government rejected it because it had no
meaning for them. The Government Of India Films Division thought it was a
joke. They said: What is this? It is like a juvenile fantasy. Everyone -- even
my very close friends -- ridiculed it! They said: What nonsense is this? We
should never have let you touch this medium. But inside, I was fully
confident. I knew what I had done. I had totally reopened the norms of
film-making even though I had no previous experience of actual film-making.
I then took one reel of the film and showed it in New York, at the Museum
of Modern Art. And they liked it so much that they wanted it for their
archives. So I told them: Please write to my government. When the
government got the letter, they took notice and sent the film to the Berlin
festival. But first they had rejected it!
So I will not be disappointed if this new film of mine is a commercial flop.
Not at all! I am not expecting that at all. But at the same time, it should not
become totally obscure.
Painting
I have not stopped painting because of the film. Not at all. When I was in
hospital, I did two paintings. In July last year, I had a big exhibition in
Chicago. Then, in October, there was an auction in London: Hundred Years
Of Indian Contemporary Art. Some of my new paintings are dedicated to
Octavio Paz. They have nothing to do with Gamini (One can work on two
or three levels).
Today, I may be the best-known painter, but there are no objective criteria
in art. But for doctors and engineers, they have to acquire knowledge. Here
there is no such thing. This is a profession in which anybody can pick up a
brush and become a big artist! And he is easily accepted. There should be
some check on this because 90 per cent of those who get into it are
non-artists. They are after a fast buck.
There must be some substance. As Salvador Dali used to say: You can
become world famous, but only for 15 minutes. Then you are exposed. You
are discovered. So this is the age of the media. If you go about it with public
relations and all that, then you are known.
I want to bring art to the people. People understand my paintings and like
them, the reason being there is an element of Indianness about them. I tell a
story, which is very Indian. That is what Jamini Roy did and what I have
been trying to do in my paintings in the last 40 years. The essence of Indian
culture is celebration. Benaras is the seat of Indian culture where even death
is celebrated. The art that we see now is no doubt great but my objection is
that -- because of western education -- all the points of its reference are in
the West. I never deviated from any movements (like the avant garde
movement), but I customised them.
In the '60s, I was almost written off. All the painters said that Husain as a
painter was finished. They said: What is this you are painting? Still Indian? At
that time we thought being Indian meant you were intellectually bankrupt. All
the elements of what you call alienation is valid only in the West. They have
gone through two world wars and so this has gone into their psyche. But why
here? Here you have so many millions of people. Even today you can walk
into somebody's house and nobody will ask why you came.
While I was doing this film, I could not spend as much time as before on
painting. But it was worth it. But I have been painting what is related to this
film. The same images. The woman with the gatri that is coming up. I am
putting all my experience into this film, which is the culmination of my lifetime.
This is because cinema is the medium of the 21st century, which incorporates
everything -- if it is used creatively. That is what I am trying to do.
I will not be making any more films. I just wanted to make one. This medium
is very expensive. Madhuri and I have put in everything. We have not taken
any finance from anyone.
Madhuri Dixit's role
I am lucky to find her. When I first had the idea of this
film at the back of my mind, I didn't say anything to
her. At that time she would have been shocked. It
took me nearly a year to bring her around.
I am glad that she has understood what I have in
mind. Still, for a long time, she was not totally convinced. For several
months, I was continuously feeding her and bombarding her with this idea. I
was brainwashing her! I wanted her to be hundred per cent sure. Then only
could she give her best.
She is fed up of working in commercial films. She has reached the peak.
There is no way to go further unless you go on dancing, dancing. She is really
fed up. She says she really wants to work with some serious director but
there are no scripts here. Because the people who invest money want
returns. There is one film that Madhuri told me about -- it was called
Sangeet -- in which she played the role of a blind singer. It is a brilliant film,
but it was a flop commercially.
Madhuri wanted to act in this film of mine which is not a commercial film.
People in the industry warned her that she was taking a big risk. He is not a
film-maker, they told her, he is a painter. But she is defending me. So this is a
fascinating experience, where I get full freedom. It is a film for an
international audience. It will not be on the commercial circuit in theatres.
Husain's fascination for Madhuri Dixit
This film is the culmination of my fascination for Madhuri Dixit! The whole
film is for her. She is also very much involved in the success of this film. We
don't want any return except to make a statement, a cinematic statement.
Madhuri and myself. because I consider her the most dynamic film star of
today -- her body language is out of this world. So that is my mission.
Madhuri Dixit has her say
Excerpted from New India Digest, with the publisher's kind permission.
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