Tribute on celluloid
SARASWATHY NAGARAJAN
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Jabbar Patel's film on Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar will be released in nine languages in January.
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PHOTO: S. GOPAKUMAR
ENCORE: Mammootty in a scene from `Ambedkar,'
As Jabbar Patel recounts the events that led to the making of the film `Ambedkar,' his enthusiasm is palpable. So is his dedication to ensure that his celluloid biopic on the Dalit leader is seen all over India.
`Ambedkar,' which won three national awards when it was released five years back, has been dubbed in nine languages (Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu) to coincide with the 50th death anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and it will be released all over India in January. But it will not be dubbed in Malayalam.
"Mammootty, who plays Ambedkar in the film, is very keen that we release the original in Kerala. He told us that since viewers in Kerala have heard him speak Malayalam, it would be more interesting if they listen to him speak another language," says Jabbar who was in Thiruvananthapuram for the screening of his documentary on Kumar Gandharav, in connection with the International Film Festival of Kerala.
With child-like glee, he asks you: "Don't you want to know how I managed to find Mammootty?"
After a worldwide search for an actor to play Ambedkar, Jabbar finally found him in a film magazine. "Prior to that I had been to the United Kingdom and the United States hoping to find a Cuban or South American actor. I even considered Robert de Niro. But Niro has a strong American accent while Ambedkar had a British accent and so that idea was dropped," he recalls. It was then that an actor's profile in a film magazine caught his attention.
"I took it to C-DAC in Pune and worked on the photograph. We removed the moustache and the dark glasses and we made four photographs of the actor as Ambedkar - as a young man, then two of him as a middle aged man and then at the age of 66. The resemblance was uncanny," says Jabbar. The actor was Mammootty and Jabbar recounts with delight how they convinced the star why he was the right person to play Dr. Ambedkar in the film. "Vikram Gaekwad, the make-up man, and I went to Chennai for a trial shot. Mammootty reluctantly agreed to shave off his moustache. Then Vikram put a little make-up on him and the transformation was complete! Once he saw our pictures, he was convinced that he could do justice to the role."
All praise for Mammootty
And the actor threw himself into the role to breathe life into his character. Jabbar is all praise for Mammootty. "An actor can do many things to enact a character - speech, body language and personality can be changed. But it is difficult to act as someone who is revered like God by so many in India. But Mammootty transformed himself into the character of the charismatic leader," says Jabbar.
Jabbar Patel.
While recreating the scene when Ambedkar became a Buddhist along with lakhs of his followers, Jabbar had requested people to come dressed in white. "Vaman Godbole, who was one of the organisers of the event in 1956, was there for the shoot and he was in tears when he saw Mammootty. He asked me `Can I touch him?' The actor was flabbergasted by the reaction he evoked among the people. There were about two lakh people there. Many of those who had accepted diksha in 1956 had come with their children and grandchildren to accept diksha from Mammootty as Ambedkar. For them, the line dividing reality and cinema had blurred," recollects Jabbar.
For theatreperson Jabbar, who had directed several critically acclaimed Marathi and Hindi films such as `Jait Re Jait,' `Umbartha,' `Simhasan,' `Ek Hota Vidushak,' and `Musafir,' `Ambedkar' remains a milestone.
But the paediatrician turned filmmaker is not one to rest on his laurels.
He says that he has now been requested by the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to make a film on social reformer Jyotiba Phule and he is in the midst of research on Phule. With the same enthusiasm and perseverance that led to the making of `Ambedkar,' Jabbar is now caught up in the excitement of making a film on Mahatma Phule.
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