After enthralling listeners with Filhaal, Akshay Kumar and Nupur Sanon return with the second version of the song. In a chat with mid-day, Sanon says she was able to draw from past experiences to enhance her acting with Kumar for this offering. “My first project was with him. It was a big opportunity for a newcomer like me to debut alongside such a big star. This time around, we had better chemistry. I was in a comfortable space. I would ask questions and learn. From being a fan-girl on set, I was now turning to Akshay sir for advice on my career. I was learning from him by just watching him work on set. He makes me laugh.”

Debuting at a time when producers have incurred losses due to the pandemic has been hard on her as well. “We went into lockdown two months after Filhaal released. There was buzz and people wanted to meet me, but everything was pushed. It was frustrating, but I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I worked on my craft during the lockdown by taking part in workshops with Jeff Goldberg. I would watch Hindi and English films and reenact scenes. Kriti [Sanon, sister] was always around to give me feedback. I worked on body movements, and expressions.”

Nupur says that her debut film has already been locked, but an official announcement is pending.

With Akshay Kumar and Nupur Sanon-starrer Filhaal 2 deferred, B Praak releases audio-only track, Kuch bhi ho jaye, today
Sonia Lulla (MID-DAY; April 9, 2020)

An overwhelming response to B Praak-composed Akshay Kumar-starrer Filhaal encouraged the musician-actor team to announce a second edition of the single, only a few weeks before the country went into lockdown. The project is one among an array put on the backburner in the wake of the pandemic, with the development sending Praak looking out for other means to entertain his fans. Releasing today, his audio-only song, Kuch bhi ho jaye, is precisely that. "With people being stuck at home, artistes [must find] a way to entertain them. We want to give them something new to listen to. This is a sad song, based on deception," says Praak, who has sung and composed the track that has Jaani take writing credits.

When the country inches back to normalcy, the Teri mitti crooner is set to dive head-first into the shoot of Filhaal 2, also featuring Nupur Sanon, before he gives his undivided attention to his film commitments. "In 2021, there are movies like [Kumar-starrer] Bachchan Pandey, in which I have three songs, and Qismat 2, apart from another venture."

Making the most of the opportunities that the industry has to offer to musicians working in Bollywood as well as in the independent music space, Praak shuns suggestions of his lot not getting a free-hand when working on film music. "There is no pressure. I've never been bound [to create a certain kind of track]. Even for Bachchan Pandey, we would simply be told to create a track for a given situation. In fact, often, and especially when working for the Punjabi film industry, the film is tweaked to accommodate the songs that are created for it."

He is certain that the future of Indian film music will mimic that in Hollywood. "There, singers tie-up with companies, but release songs on their own channels. Here too, the future will be [driven by] independent artistes. People have understood the business, and how they must monetise from streaming apps and other platforms." He doesn't disregard the fact that being in Kumar's good books has afforded him a leeway in Bollywood. "Akshay sir has given me my entry in Bollywood. Due to him, I've got a lot of work."

Deepali Singh (DNA; September 1, 2018)

As a school-going child, Meghna Gulzar remembers how her father had learnt to tie her hair in plaits and would do it every morning before she went to school. It’s a little insight into the man, the world knows of, as veteran filmmaker, author and poet, Gulzar. Meghna has tried to encapsulate a bit of her father’s professional and personal life, in the book titled Because He Is.

First published in 2004, the book has now been re-published with additional information and chapters. It is an insightful read into Gulzar’s journey from Dina, Pakistan, where he was born to his migration to India, his entry into films, his friendships, marriage, fatherhood and now, to his experiences as a grandfather to Meghna’s son Samay, and being immersed full-time into writing and poetry. “It’s not an official biography and I can’t call it a memoir,” clarifies Meghna, “I just know people have enjoyed reading it 14 years ago and I hope they enjoy reading it now.” Excerpts from an interview with the filmmaker-author.

What has changed in your father’s life from the time the book was first published in 2004?
In 14 years, a lot has changed or been added to my father’s life, both professionally and personally. He wasn’t a grandfather then, he is one now. In terms of his writing, he was a filmmaker, now he’s a full-time author and poet. So, I think it’s a nice update on many levels.

So much has been written about Gulzar saab. How do you think your perspective as a daughter adds to that?
The book is not talking about him only as a father. It talks of him as a person but from my lens, which is not always anchored at me. I’m sure, as a writer, I have an advantage because there is an intimate and personal relationship between us, but that’s something which can also be a disadvantage because you may not get the objectivity you want. But, this was never meant to be an empirical consolidation of his life and times. I won’t say my insight is better or worse, but it’s definitely more intimate than the others who have written about him.

Your father has had such varied and vast life experiences. What kind of impact has it left on you?
The influence is more because of the parent that he is. Genetically and due to your upbringing, you do pass on similar things because you have a parent-child bond. We happen to be in the same profession, but our sensibilities are similar because we are also father and daughter. I love the simplicity of his work, and that is the only thing I try to imbibe and emulate. He really manages to say very complicated and deep things, very simply. I don’t know how successful I’ve been in my attempts but I will keep trying.

The one thing where you both are really different?
I can talk about difficult emotions professionally. My first film, Filhaal (2002), dealt with the subjects of conception, fertility and surrogacy. Therefore, the dialogues had to be about having sex, taking precaution, what is surrogacy, etc and he wasn’t comfortable with it. He would sidestep it and would want metaphors and I would want to say it as is. Our personalities are also like this. I think I’m a little militant, he is much gentler, a big softie (smiles).

Would you ever like to document his life on celluloid?
No! With books, there is no word or page limit. You can do justice to the life he has lived. You cannot do that in a film. That is the case for a lot of people and stalwarts who have lived really full lives. I feel this way about them. By trying to encapsulate their lives in two-and-a-half hours, it feels that you’re trivialising their being and their existence. Unless, you take a chapter from their life and talk about it. There are so many facets to my father, from moving to India during partition to his entry in films to being an assistant, then a lyricist, dialogue writer, scriptwriter, filmmaker, and all along being an author and a poet. How do you do justice to one chapter and leave everything else out? They are all interrelated to make him the person he is. So no, I would never do it. I won’t let anybody do it either. I don’t think he would like it either. If he does, I’m no one to stop it but I know he wouldn’t.

What was his reaction when he read Because He Is the first time in 2004?
His reactions swing between, ‘Wow, you’re a writer!’ and ‘See, I always told you you’re a writer!’ (laughs).

What about the republished version?
Yes, of course. It would not go into publishing if he did not approve. The foreword was a letter he had written then and now, there’s an afterword. He’s also biased, so it’s really difficult for him to not like something I have done (smiles).

Meghna Gulzar and her lyricist father weigh in on the ethos behind her espionage thriller Raazi, and the creative collaboration between the old and the new guard
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 12, 2018)

Gulzar saab, from Filhaal (which was about surrogacy) to Talvar (the judiciary), and now Junglee Pictures and Dharma Productions’ Raazi, which weighs loyalty to family against loyalty to country, how do you, as a filmmaker, perceive Meghna’s journey?
Gulzar: She’s always been a brave girl who made her choices independently and we respected them because we trusted her strength. She was fond of singing and would paint with me, but opted for filmmaking and surprised me with her choices. When she told me Filhaal was about a surrogate mother, I didn’t understand what she meant, but knew she was in step with the times unlike our films where if a woman was unable to produce a son, ‘hum doosri le aate’. It was a brave step but she was convinced and convinced everyone else. Then, came Talvar, a comment on the judiciary. When your child is taking a step forward, it’s best to hold their hand and let them lead you into the future rather than hold them back.

Raazi is another step forward…
G: Yes, and the right step after Talvar. I don’t think any Indian film has treated Pakistani characters with so much dignity. I was born across the border and I know Raazi will bring forth friendly voices between the countries.

Meghna, did your papa’s stories of Pakistan help shape your characters?
Meghna: He never spoke of his days before the Partition, it’s an emotional scar he’s still trying to heal through his writing. He didn’t even visit Pakistan for the longest time because he didn’t want his memories to be diminished by the present.

G: But not a day has passed when I haven’t spoken to someone there.

M: And there was so much warmth in his interactions with those who came across as part of cultural exchanges and perhaps subliminally I imbibed that because. For me, a Pakistani was never the enemy or an alien. They are us and we are them, it’s geography and politics that divide us. As Kanwaljeet says in the film, “Jeet ka jashn manate hue yeh yaad rakhna ki humne kya khoya hai.” Every victory comes with a human collateral, whether it’s an Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Kashmiri.

G: It’s this that makes the film more than another thriller, takes it beyond borders.

You left Pakistan at age eight and returned after 70 years. How did it feel?
G: It was like moving from one room in my home to another that housed people like Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, a renowned poet in Pakistan and also my mentor. My own writing is published there, including a collection of all my poems. The volume is so huge and heavy that it was difficult to courier even 20-25 copies. So Hasan Zia, a poet himself, who’s like a son to me, took the books to Dubai from where they were dispatched through a friend who travelled to Delhi via Mumbai so he could bring the parcel across. As people, we are the same, bas ghar ke buzurgon ko taqleef hai isliye hum ghar ke bichhde hue sadasya ki tarah bade pyaar se kahin aur milte hain.

M: Yes, when we are in the US, UK or another part of South-Asia, borders cease to exist.

Did shooting in Kashmir enhance the theme of patriotism?
M: I don’t want to highlight this, but it was important to place the narrative in the Valley because today, for many, it’s difficult to say Kashmir and patriot in the same breath. But those who question, or express disbelief need to introspect historically on why people in the Valley feel this way. When we were there, the locals were very welcoming, but also almost apologetic when they asked, “You feel safe here, na? Aapko kisi baat ka dar to nahin?” I don’t think any citizen in any part of the country should be made to feel this way. On our part we were careful to respect the people and the place. If you go in an empowered, entitled way, there will be backlash.

Harinder Sikka had come to you first with his novel, Calling Sehmat. What were your thoughts about the story that Meghna adapted as Raazi?
G: I was committed to other projects then and the love story of Sehmat’s parents’ that he wanted to focus on, seemed juvenile.

M: There are four films in that novel and when I told papa I was adapting it, he couldn’t understand why I’d want to dabble in an action-thriller that had bombs going off. For me the core of the book was Sehmat’s journey and her time in Pakistan. When I sent the first half of the script, which ended with Sehmat realising Abdul is alive, to papa, he responded in less than two hours, saying, “Uff kahan laake chhod diya hai, baki kab bhejoge?” That was a real shot in the arm to me and my co-writer Bhavani Iyer. We immediately got started on cracking the second half.

G: I was stunned, she had found layers we didn’t see. That’s why I say this generation has made better cinema than mine.

Meghna, which is Gulzar saab’s bravest film according to you?
M: Maachis. Since he’s a Sikh himself, the insurgency and 1984 riots were scarring, yet papa made a film which said such strong things in his inimitable soft and objective style. He didn’t glorify the misled youth but simply underlined circumstances which made them feel alienated and take up arms.

Gulzar saab, Meghna has often said that she can’t think of going to any other lyricist for her songs…
G: How can she? Meghna, Shaad (Ali) and Vishal (Bhardwaj) are my children. They wouldn’t be able to bully anyone else the way they do me. Shaad used to ask me for pocket money when he was assisting Mani Ratnam and still gets me to change words like Meghna. Vishal wants the lingo of Meerut; his films are heavy on gaalis.

M: (Laughs) I don’t know how he’s managed it, but papa has written some of his raunchiest songs for Vishal’s films.

G: (Laughs) Yeh bachche badmashi bahut karte hain but they also challenge me.

Writing songs for a film like Raazi must have been difficult…
M: It was but I got all the songs in a day. “Aye watan” happened right here in this room during my first meeting while I was briefing Shankar (Mahadevan), Ehsaan (Noorani) and Loy (Mendonsa). Papa wanted the line incorporated, “Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua Ban Ke Tamanna Meri…”

G: It was a prayer we sang in school, by Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan’s poet, who also wrote “Sare Jahan Se Achcha”. Poetry and literature cannot be divided. It’s one India.

M: “Dilbaro” was written in the studio. The trio had composed a tune and as it played, papa started coming up with the words… “Ungli Pakad Ke Tune, Chalna Sikhaya Tha Na, Dehleez Oonchi Hai Yeh, Paar Kara De.”

G: In this case it was not threshold of the home, yahan sarhad paar karwana tha. This triumvirate is so creative they make your job easy no matter how big the challenge.

Meghna’s next is Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw biopic, another challenge.
G: Every generation walks its own path. And rather than teach, it’s better if we learn from this new generation of brilliant filmmakers.

M: Usually parents talk down to their kids but papa always said that even if you’re 40, when your child is five, you’re just a five-year-old father. And a child who is raised with this sense of equality, grows up to be a confident individual, secure in his own world and the world beyond.

Anshul Trivedi (BOMBAY TIMES; October 11, 2015)

Gulzar, in conversation with his daughter about her upcoming film, Talvar, and equations
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 24, 2015)


After a seven-year break, you have chosen to return with Talvar, a film on the controversial Aarushi Talwar double murder case. Gutsy move...
MEGHNA GULZAR: I took time off to raise my son, Samay, but the mind was churning as I worked on corporate films and documentaries. But the inspiration to get into a real space came from Vishalji (Vishal Bhardwaj). I've following the case since it broke, believed every story put out, it flummoxed me. Yesterday it was one thing, today another, and tomorrow something else. That, I thought, would be exciting to explore.

When the idea of the film came, the trial was on, conclusions had been formed, but the journey towards it was still foggy. So, we decided to focus on the investigation rather than murders. We were clear Talvar wouldn't be a biopic, a placard-bearing bandwagon or a voyeuristic look at a tragic incident. What was left was showing all sides fairly and leaving the audience to make their conclusions.

(Smiles) And as for the move being gutsy, if you are going to leap off a cliff, it's better to leap into the ocean rather than swimming pool.

GULZAR: (Laughs)Well said. I saw her filing cuttings and contributed with my own. It's an intriguing journey, based on the mysterious way the case was handled, raised a personal concern about the law or as TS Eliot puts it, "streets that follow like a tedious argument". But Talvar is not my kind of a subject. I wouldn't have been able to handle it. Even Filhaal was not a subject I'd have thought of on my own. I'm glad Meghna went to Vishal who has dealt with such characters before. He gave her a sharp script. (Smiles) I can only write songs for her.

When my daughter was seven, based on what she was hearing on TV, she asked my husband if a father could kill his daughter. Did your son raise any awkward questions too?
MEGHNA: He's too young, only five-and-a-half. For him Talvar is a film which has Irrfan Khan, Gulzar saab and Vishal mamu. I wouldn't know how to answer such a question. As a daughter, with age and experience on my side, I can process it, but as a mother, it's difficult.

There's still reasonable doubt about whether the parents, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, killed Aarushi but the Sheena Bora case is supposedly black-and-white. I shudder to think what impact this could have on the psyche of our children who have been raised to believe their parents are their protectors and will love them unconditionally.

What do you think would be the mindset of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar who are in jail?
MEGHNA: If I assumed that they were guilty I'd think they would probably be remorseful, suffering and trying to a find way out. If I assumed they were innocent, I can't image worse circumstances for a human being to be in. If we go by the honour killing theory, then it's an admission that she was having an affair with the household help, Hemraj. They have done this to their 14-year-old child and no one would want to be in their place today. It makes me question the arguments against capital punishment. In a case like this it's easier for them to be hanged than die everyday.

Will the Talwars see the film before it opens on October 2?
MEGHNA: I know the family asked to see it, but I left for the Toronto International Film Festival and don't know if they did. I know a member of the family, a journalist whose writings on the case were part of my research, saw it at TIFF, reviewed it, believed it presented a balanced view. I'm sure the family must have got that feedback.

The response at TIFF was pretty overwhelming given that it was a localised case?
MEGHNA: But it's a human case, about the failure of the system. Human beings letting down human beings, and that happens everywhere in the world. That was what resonated with the audience.

After both screenings, at the Q-and-A sessions, the inevitable question I was asked is: "Are the parents still in jail?" That proves the film has engaged the person asking it. At Toronto, the question was asked by a non-Indian, who also wondered where the people who were accused of the murder are today. That threw me off!

Gulazar saab, which has been your most difficult film?
GULZAR: On human relationships it would be Ijaazat, revolving around three good people wanting to do good for each other and all of them suffering in the process. Then, Maachis. If Talvar looks at the way the judiciary works, then Maachis, like my first film, Mere Apne, was on how politics works vis-a-vis youngsters who get involved in violent movements.

Meghna, any work of your father's that put you on the road to becoming a filmmaker?
MEGHNA: For me to process him as a filmmaker is difficult because he's such a great father who left his filmmaker coat outside when he came home. I got familiar with his work when I was about 16, by which time other influences had played their part too. But yes, he put me on the road with lessons in music, dance, painting, ballet and karate. And eventually, I settled for visual communication. I've not discriminated between ads, music videos, documentaries or films. But films are the biggest and the final milestone and I'm gratified I got the opportunity to make them.

Getting back to your question, I wasn't influenced by my father's work because our sensibilities and subjects are different. What I have consciously imbibed are his qualities of brevity and simplicity. He keeps things simple, short. If a scene lends itself to a moment he won't meander but get to it fast.

How much have you changed between Just Married and Talvar?
MEGHNA: There's more patience and gravity that motherhood brings and translates itself in the way I look at and handle things. This subject required to be treated realistically and I found the realism liberating. I had entered the space with Pooranmashi in Dus Kahaniyaan, tasted it again during the documentary Closer on pervasive development disorders. I was veering towards it subconsciously.

GULZAR: Even Filhaal was a mature film. I wouldn't have been able to write that way. Just Married was aai wai, she was tired of being seen as a serious thinker and wanted to break with a chalnewali comedy.

MEGHNA (CUTS IN): Arranged marriages was a relevant issue.

GULZAR: Yes, there was serious substance under the light narrative. She never seemed like junior, now she's my senior. She's made a strong social film. Her film is better than any I have made. My films were never invited to festivals, hers got an international premiere. I'm so proud my child is leading me today.

Any partnership in the offing?
GULZAR: That depends on whether any of my stories inspire her. But I wouldn't want to script it. Let her do it herself or go to Vishal. She makes me write two-three versions of the songs. I'm not ready to do that with a script. But gaane ke liye sher ko bhilli ke paas hi aana padega. I taught her everything except how to climb a tree.

Hopefully, this time the gap wont be seven years?
MEGHNA: Naukri milegi to kar lenge, I love making films.

GULZAR: It makes her more relaxed and Govind is so supportive, taking over the baby sitting and even the cooking. She's lucky, every woman should get a husband like Govind. You should give him full marks in your film, Meghna?

MEGHNA: Oh, I forget to thank him in the credits.

GULZAR: Then we will have to rely on Mirror to thank him. (Laughs) And don't forget to say that Megna forgot.

MUMMY'S DAY OUT

Meghna Gulzar had not wanted to show her mother, Raakhee, her upcoming film, Talvar, with subtitles. So she waited till she got the domestic print to arrange for a screening for mom, dad Gulzar, Salim Khan and Helen. The actress looked happy, directing a reluctant Salim Khan as he posed for a photograph. When he presented his best profile to the camera, she smiled approvingly, "You look like a hero."After that she disappeared inside the theatre to watch the movie her daughter had directed. Gulzar was convinced that after seeing Talvar, she would start looking at their Bosky as a 'senior' too. His daughter was cautious, "Pata chal jayega."