Showing posts with label Girish Malik interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Girish Malik interview. Show all posts
Every filmmaker will be always very keen to shoot in Afghanistan-Girish Malik
8:13 AM
Juhi Chakraborty (HINDUSTAN TIMES; August 20, 2021)
Having shot parts of his film Torbaaz (2020) in Afghanistan, filmmaker Girish Malik is gutted with the present situation in the country. “We may not have shot with actors in Afghanistan but we did shoot backgrounds in the country because the story was set there. We shot in the borders of Afghanistan and in Kyrgyzstan and worked with around 500 native Afgani,” shares Malik.
Talking about his experience of working with the locals, he says, “The moment you meet any Afghani person, you form an immediate connect. They love Bollywood and everything about India. I asked a lot of people about their opinion of India and they told me that when they look at India, they we feel safe. Every Afgani’s dream is to visit India.”
The film, which starred Sanjay Dutt, was set in war-torn Afghanistan. The story of the film was about a coach who wants to train refugee camp kids in cricket, despite opposition from a militant leader, who wants to recruit them as suicide bombers. “When you meet the people there or the refugees, they will tell you that this turmoil has been happening for the last 40 years. It is a great suffering that the country has gone through and continues to,” he laments.
Malik wants normalcy to resume soon so that the cinematic relations between the two countries can continue. “No one can deny the raw beauty which the country has. Every filmmaker will be always very keen to shoot there. I just hope that this is not the end of India and Afganistan film relations,” he ends.
Don’t give a damn about people who are out to slot your cinema-Jal director
8:18 AM
Director Girish Malik’s debut film, Jal, has won most critics over.
The filmmaker speaks to Kareena Gianan i about why it took him 15 years
to make the film and on refusing to be slotted in the ‘masala’ or ‘arty’
camps of directors
Kareena Gianani (MID-DAY; April 13, 2014)
When he was a child, director Girish Malik was “a monkey on a tin roof ” in the eyes of his father, jumping from one thing to another. In a family which prided itself on churning out competitive IAS officers by the dozen, Malik was the non-conformist simply by the virtue of indecision. He loved too many things at the same time and was passionate about gymnastics when his father, a teacher with an MA in Mathematics, would have preferred a cricket- loving progeny.
Malik is no less a dreamer today. He walks in to the suburban hotel we decide to meet at, and, within minutes, the conversation steers to twists of faith and about how the smallest of stories can change the world in seconds.
Having said that, Malik is a fan of big things — he likes working with big ideas, sweeping landscapes and layered stories. It seems fitting then, that his directorial debut, Jal, is shot in perhaps the most polychromatic terrain in the country — Rann Of Kutch. The film is about water paucity and the ways in which the lives of a water diviner can cross with a Russian ornithologist.
Malik smiles when asked about why it took him 15 years to get Jal to the theatres. “I shot for the film for three-and-a-half years, but I had been thinking of it for over a decade. I got the original idea after travelling across the length and breadth of this country but I was acting, directing and writing for television then.” After the saas-bahu onslaught on Indian television, Malik decided it was time to hang up his boots. After writing and directing acclaimed shows such as Rishtey, Banegi Apni Baat and Parampara, family dramas, Malik decided, were best left to others. “That’s when I began thinking of Jal seriously, but was again swept in the tide of directing advertising commercials.” Here, for special effect, Malik lowers his voice and, in a baritone, utters the punch line of a medical drug commercial.
“Jal is about issues of water paucity, but I have not set out to preach,” he clarifies, as if he has been asked this frequently. Malik says he believes in cinema which is critical, provoking and (he doesn’t use ‘but’) thoroughly entertaining. It’s not the ‘arty’ versus ‘ masala’ camp for him, and this very decision, he feels, has been a tricky burden to carry.
Last year, Jal toured several international festivals and earned much respect. The highest praise for the film came at the Busan International Film Festival, where it was India’s sole entry. “In spite of the praise, I don’t think we have shaken off preconceived notions about what our cinema ‘should be’. Abroad, some people feel the film is not European enough (why should it be?); in India, some felt it wasn’t for the masses and would do well only internationally. My reply to these cinemagoers is - why do you need so much validation? Why don’t you decide it for yourself?”
Filming Jal, says Malik, was the most exhausting decision of his life yet, but something he is eager to repeat. “I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I’d be emotionally bruised at the end of every day over the past three- and-a-half- years. While I was shooting, I was struggling for funds, and later, publicising and releasing the film proved immensely difficult. I’d be smiling and chatting away with people, but my mind just wouldn’t focus. I am glad it is over, and now I can approach future projects with some important experience I gained over Jal.” Which would be? “Don’t give a damn about people who are out to slot your cinema. Create your own genre and never, ever let them tell you it is not possible,” smiles Malik.
Kareena Gianani (MID-DAY; April 13, 2014)
When he was a child, director Girish Malik was “a monkey on a tin roof ” in the eyes of his father, jumping from one thing to another. In a family which prided itself on churning out competitive IAS officers by the dozen, Malik was the non-conformist simply by the virtue of indecision. He loved too many things at the same time and was passionate about gymnastics when his father, a teacher with an MA in Mathematics, would have preferred a cricket- loving progeny.
Malik is no less a dreamer today. He walks in to the suburban hotel we decide to meet at, and, within minutes, the conversation steers to twists of faith and about how the smallest of stories can change the world in seconds.
Having said that, Malik is a fan of big things — he likes working with big ideas, sweeping landscapes and layered stories. It seems fitting then, that his directorial debut, Jal, is shot in perhaps the most polychromatic terrain in the country — Rann Of Kutch. The film is about water paucity and the ways in which the lives of a water diviner can cross with a Russian ornithologist.
Malik smiles when asked about why it took him 15 years to get Jal to the theatres. “I shot for the film for three-and-a-half years, but I had been thinking of it for over a decade. I got the original idea after travelling across the length and breadth of this country but I was acting, directing and writing for television then.” After the saas-bahu onslaught on Indian television, Malik decided it was time to hang up his boots. After writing and directing acclaimed shows such as Rishtey, Banegi Apni Baat and Parampara, family dramas, Malik decided, were best left to others. “That’s when I began thinking of Jal seriously, but was again swept in the tide of directing advertising commercials.” Here, for special effect, Malik lowers his voice and, in a baritone, utters the punch line of a medical drug commercial.
“Jal is about issues of water paucity, but I have not set out to preach,” he clarifies, as if he has been asked this frequently. Malik says he believes in cinema which is critical, provoking and (he doesn’t use ‘but’) thoroughly entertaining. It’s not the ‘arty’ versus ‘ masala’ camp for him, and this very decision, he feels, has been a tricky burden to carry.
Last year, Jal toured several international festivals and earned much respect. The highest praise for the film came at the Busan International Film Festival, where it was India’s sole entry. “In spite of the praise, I don’t think we have shaken off preconceived notions about what our cinema ‘should be’. Abroad, some people feel the film is not European enough (why should it be?); in India, some felt it wasn’t for the masses and would do well only internationally. My reply to these cinemagoers is - why do you need so much validation? Why don’t you decide it for yourself?”
Filming Jal, says Malik, was the most exhausting decision of his life yet, but something he is eager to repeat. “I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I’d be emotionally bruised at the end of every day over the past three- and-a-half- years. While I was shooting, I was struggling for funds, and later, publicising and releasing the film proved immensely difficult. I’d be smiling and chatting away with people, but my mind just wouldn’t focus. I am glad it is over, and now I can approach future projects with some important experience I gained over Jal.” Which would be? “Don’t give a damn about people who are out to slot your cinema. Create your own genre and never, ever let them tell you it is not possible,” smiles Malik.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)