or long, Hindi filmmakers and the media have complained about the lack of original stories and writers who can pen screenplays and dialogues with equal felicity. This year’s National Awards for the best original screenplay and dialogues have reminded us that we have not one but two amongst us.
Juhi Chaturvedi and Himanshu Sharma have established how regional flavour can become universal, how colloquial dialogues need not be cheap and how female heroes can score at the box office. Piku and Tanu Weds Manu Returns are not just entertainers; they capture the churning that is going on in the Indian society.
Interestingly, both Chaturvedi and Sharma come from Lucknow and give credit to the city for their command over their craft.
Chaturvedi, who earlier won hearts with Vicky Donor , said, “In places like Lucknow, the environment is such that there is time for storytelling. There is time for stories to happen. Metros are too busy. Kahani garhne ka time kiske paas hai [who has the time to make-up stories?]. If you look at writers per se, Javed Akthar and Gulzar also came from small towns. It is a great time for writers because the audience can now separate a bad film from a good one. It is in some way posing expectations on producers, directors and actors. Everybody has to come out of their comfort zones and look for newer conversations and subjects, themes that push the boundaries. This recognition for us is a great boost for writers coming from small towns and those who are willing to experiment. Technically, we are savvy now, actors are willing to take risks so it’s time for content to take over.” She says that when the screenplay and dialogues come from the same person, that writing “has seamlessness and an organic flow.”
Sharma says 2015 saw many good scripts. “For a Salman Khan film, Bajrangi Bhaijaan managed to say a lot about the intolerance in society. A director like Imtiaz Ali is taking risks to say something new. Tamasha, for all its faults, mirrors today’s urban male. Today, the audience can accept a bad film but it is not ready to watch a pretentious film.” When Sharma was growing up, the writers were mostly using Chopras and Kapoors as surnames for protagonists.
“I used to wonder, when would somebody will tell the stories of Sharmas, Tiwaris and Yadavs of this part of India?” Sharma’s of the strong opinion that the movement of youngsters from the northern belt to different parts of the world has led filmmakers and production companies to see business sense in their stories. “It is the nostalgia of their roots that is attracting these people to invest their time in these films.”
Both Chaturvedi and Sharma have written strong parts for supporting actors. Whether it is the Datto’s brother in Tanu Weds Manu Returns or the character of Kaaki in Piku , they add layers to the narrative. “I believe supporting actors should support the story and not the stars and if you listen closely I have given a different dialect to each character,” says Sharma. In the same vein, Chaturvedi says she bequeaths sophistication to all her characters: “Be it the driver or the maid, they have a voice.”
Chaturvedi says through her screenplay she likes to provide a glimpse of somebody’s life inside out. “I don’t believe in formulaic concepts like here the film is getting too tight let’s introduce a song. I don’t like the idea of writing a climax.”
Perhaps, that’s why it becomes difficult for her to sell her idea. “People often say yeh sab to theek hai par film main kuchh ho nahin raha (this all is ok, but nothing’s happening in the film). You need an intuitive director like Shoojit Sircar to understand the nuances and not let it become melodramatic. A lot of stuff in Piku could have become potty humour had it not been dealt with carefully.”
She then alludes to the scene where man Friday Budhan says ‘ shh shh ’ to help Bhaskor (Amitabh Bachchan) relieve himself. “Amitji looked at my face as if wondering how I could think like this. But I don’t stop myself because I have seen such things in life.” But from where did she get the ‘ motion se hi emotion hai ’ gem? “Isn’t it the truth of life?” she asks with a smile.
For Sharma, the opening was tricky. “If we showed how Tanu and Manu got bored of each other through a flashback it would become dreary for the audience. I told Aanand sir [Rai] if the audience buys the farcical opening in the mental asylum they will get the tone of the film. It looks silly but at the core, it talks about an everyday reality where many husbands and wives don’t know why they are separating. Second was the scene which showed the relationship between a rickshawallah and Tanu. The idea was to show the social divide in our society. We wanted to get it absolutely right. When the father asks, ‘ rickshawallah bhi koi dost hota?’ [Who befriends a rickshawwallah?], he represents a generation which will never get it.” Sharma says, every generation has its truth. “Live-in relationships were considered taboo a decade back. Today, it is normal.”
Some write-ups complained about the lack of Piku’s friends in the film. “Her life is such that there is no time for friends. Everything, including her sex life, is business like. She is waiting for her dream man but in the meantime, she gives in to the demands of the body. And it is not filmy. It is happening around us.”
This, says Sharma, puts men in an uneasy space. “They want to be progressive but are still bound by tradition somewhere. This reflects in characters like Raja (Jimmy Shergill). I have seen men in Lucknow who want to be good, who don’t want to be called a male chauvinist, but still feel insecure when their wives dance in male company after having a drink.”
On the social complexity of Tanu Weds Manu Returns , Sharma says this is a country where “Louis Vuitton and saawan ke solah somwar are coexisting.” He alludes to a time when global sensibilities coexist with traditional mindsets. There is a section of women who are asking for absolute freedom and then there is another which is still struggling to get even basic education.
“Tanu and Datto represent this divide and my favourite line from the film is when Datto says she can earn as well as rear her family.” Chaturvedi says it is this financial independence that is reflecting in films and advertisements. “This is an EMI generation where men also know they can’t bulldoze their way.”
Chaturvedi calls writers lazy and perhaps that explains her refusal to look beyond Sircar. “I am again writing a film for him because I feel another director will not give me as much space as he does.” Sharma, on the other hand, wants his characters to be more liberated when it comes to physical proximity, something Rai doesn’t allow.
“In his universe it is not even required. So I am writing a film for him and waiting for my own film to take off.”
Juhi Chaturvedi
likes to provide
a glimpse of somebody’s life inside out
