Itishree Misra (BOMBAY TIMES; December 16, 2019)

On the last day of a recently concluded literature festival, filmmaker, singer, composer Vishal Bhardwaj shared his thoughts on an array of subjects. With acclaimed films like Haider, Maqbool and Omkara to his credit, the recipient of seven National Film Awards in various categories offered some insights into the contextual relation between his work and Shakespeare’s plays. He commented on the factors that drove him to adapt certain works of the Bard with an Indian context.

Vishal elaborated, “I realised that I cannot get the depth in plot lines and character study that Shakespeare achieved. Hence, I thought of recreating his works in the Indian context because a good storyline transcends caste, creed and nationality.” The filmmaker, who was born and educated in Meerut in his formative years, added that seeing a lot of gangsters in the city was crucial to his adaptation of Othello into Omkara, which was filmed in Lucknow. He also underlined the importance of using local dialect in a movie and the portrayal of characters, while criticising Bollywood for sticking to ‘filmy’ language.

Insisting that he wanted to tackle social issues in India with the plot lines that Shakespeare created, the filmmaker also spoke about Kashmir, which was at the core of his film, Haider, starring Shahid Kapoor. “It’s essential to bring the issue of the Kashmir valley into focus. For an issue that is historic, complicated and massive, it’s vastly under-represented in Indian cinema. Most of the work that has been done on this subject has been through an outsider’s perspective. Hence, I wanted to delve into a fresh perspective, the inner perspective of the valley. That’s why I set the story of Haider, based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in the state.”

Talking about his first film, Maqbool, which was adapted from Macbeth, Vishal delved deep into the police officers played by Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah. “In the traditional style, the witches would have probably been shown as aghoris, but mera aur mere co-writer ka yeh idea tha ki jo bhi log hain, woh hamare ird-gird ke hi log hain, so we should make the witches people whom we encounter frequently, and those who are an integral part of our society. So usmein sabse pehle yeh hi aaya ki cops make the best witches, which they prove every day as you all see. Iss tarah Om Puri aur Naseer sahab Maqbool ki witches bane.”

As the evening progressed, Vishal narrated some of his poetic works to the audience, while expressing his nervousness to narrate them in front of Nana Patekar, who was seated with the audience. In reference to his inclination towards poetry, he gave an anecdote from the sets of Haider. Vishal said, “In Haider, there was a dialogue of two-three lines that was supposed to be recited by Irrfan. It was one of the poetic verses derived from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However, Irrfan didn’t quite like the dialogue, and couldn’t connect with it. So, in that moment, I decided to rewrite that whole poetic sequence, which I believe, turned out to be one of the strongest cuts of the movie.”

When the house opened up for questions, the audience asked him to speak about the stylistic variation across his works and how he sees those differences in the context of his repertoire as a filmmaker. Vishal responded, saying, “Ek artiste ka sabse bada darr hota hai ki usko kisi ek cage mein na qaid kar diya jaye, ya ek category mein na daal diya jaye. I try to explore a lot of genres and make a conscientious effort to explore varying subjects. That’s why main consciously try karta hoon ki meri har film ka subject alag ho.”

Nana Patekar, at that point, casually asked Vishal, “Main kab kaam kar sakta hoon tumhare saath? Aur kitne saal mujhe wait karna padega yeh jaanne ke liye ki main bhi thoda sa actor hoon? Zara soch ke jawaab dena, main bahut serious hoon.” Looking embarrassed and delighted simultaneously, Vishal said, “Ismein sochne wali koi baat hi nahi hai. Main aapka fan hoon, aur aapko yeh pata bhi hai, lekin main usko abhi tak prove nahi kar paya hoon. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

The audience also asked Vishal to elaborate on how art could potentially influence the society. The filmmaker replied, “Yeh kaam art ka nahi hain na, yeh kaam toh janta ka hai... Art ka kaam hai aaina dikhana, art ka kaam talwar leke maarna nahi hai. It’s the job of the people to draw a meaning out of art and evaluate their choices. The job of art is to hold a mirror to the society instead of attempting to make the decisions for the audience. That decision-making is based on the fabric of the nation.”

— With inputs from Yashi Agarwal