Memories deep and blue
ZIYA US SALAM
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Mahesh Bhatt is walking down memory lane again. This time, he stops by to tell us something about film actress and friend Parveen Babi through his forthcoming film, "Woh Lamhe".
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Parveen Babi was an open person. There was nothing fake about her. She was honest about her relationship. And what's so private about any human being?
Photo: V.V. Krishnan
MAGIC MOMENTS Mahesh Bhatt tells us all about his forthcoming film "Woh Lamhe" starring Kangana and Shiny Ahuja (seen below in a still from the film).
It is absolution time for the man never too afraid to speak the truth. The pontiff is rendered surplus as veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, he, who has often become a spectator to his own life, invites viewers for a glimpse of a chapter of his life; a chapter named Parveen Babi that many thought had closed more than two decades back. How wrong were they!
The lady was infinitely dear to him - there is much that is good and noble, and much that is unpretentious and ignoble about the relationship that Bhatt is ready to share now. All in the form of a new film, "Woh Lamhe" which continues the chain of autobiographical pictures for the maverick filmmaker, never short of words or the brutal honesty that accompanies his craft.
Words of gratitude
"She was, so I am," he says in disarming frankness, even as he fastens the last button of his blue shirt sitting on the 18th floor of New Delhi's Le Meridian hotel.
"All that I am I owe to her. The first brick of my life was laid by Parveen Babi. Her complete disintegration greatly affected me, but this movie was not planned. It happened to me. It took the tragedy of Parveen Babi's life to shake me. Her death brought out the angst of my inner system. I never got a chance to say goodbye to her. This film is my catharsis."
Shiny Ahuja
Babi died early last year, uncared for, unsung. Alone in death as in life. Her body lay unclaimed for a while before Bhatt decided to perform the last rites.
Says Bhatt, "When I went inside, there were not many people over there. I offered to give the body a dignified burial because I did not want her to go with the stigma of lawaaris laash (unclaimed body). My offer activated the process of everybody clamouring to be a part of the funeral. When I entered the place, the namaz-e-janaza was being performed. I just touched the place and retraced my steps. It was not my intention to be in the spotlight at that moment. I wanted to move into oblivion."
Distance in time has not diminished the emotion. "I don't claim to be dispassionate. I don't even wish to be. With this film I have gone into the memory zones never explored. I have never felt the need to clarify my relationship with her. All that I can say is I shared some of the loveliest moments with her and she is part of some perfume days and champagne evenings for me. That is what this film is also all about."
Incidentally, Babi was one of the leading ladies of the 1970s and early 1980s who competed with Zeenat Aman for the glamour girl slot. Later, quite unhappy with the turn of events in personal life she went away to the U.S. only to return as a schizophrenia patient. And then fade away.
Philosophical touch
Life indeed is no exquisite dream even for the best. And Bhatt too lives in a world of imperfections. Turning a touch philosophical, he says, "One can learn a lot from the simple grain of sand. When it touches the oyster, the oyster feels the pain. Under that pain the oyster turns into a pearl. I have experienced something similar about her death."
Isn't he, however, guilty of using her death to wash his guilty conscience clean? Or worse, of making a personal tragedy public?
"She is a part of my life. I have cannibalised my whole life. I did it with my mother. And `Zakhm' was born. I can only tell my own story. That is what any artiste does. I put this film in the bracket of `Saaransh,' `Arth' and `Zakhm.' It has got lived wisdom and whispers from my heart. Yes, it is part of healing myself by looking at my own wounds. That wound by itself is catharsis for me."
September release
Through with washing his heart clean, Bhatt decides to talk a little bit more about the film starring Kangana and Shiny Ahuja, the "Gangster" pair that scored at the box office earlier this year.
Directed by Mohit Suri, who gave hits like "Zeher" and "Kalyug", this film is likely to touch the screen next month. Says Bhatt, "Life is untidy. Cinema is not. It is not fake. We have not tried to do too much with this film. For that credit goes to Mohit Suri, who himself experienced love at the age of 24 and has been able to internalise every emotion."
Good acting, good-looking guy and girl, able direction, all that is fine. But isn't Bhatt still open to the charge that he is making capital out of the story of a person no longer there to defend herself? Or revisiting some very personal moments in public domain?
"Parveen Babi was an open person. There was nothing fake about her. She was honest about her relationship. And what's so private about any human being? Like everybody else, I am a fumbling, blundering man barely coping with life. She was my principal relationship."
In memory
Nudge him a bit more and he says, "There is no permanence in life. The only permanence is in memory. Even today, she is with me. I just have to close my eyes and she is there in my memory. With this film I am saying goodbye to that memory."
Prepared to say hello to "Woh Lamhe"?
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