Who wrote the original screenplay of “Shatranj ke Khiladi”? Suresh Kohli
I wonder why people who know what they want from their actors are not
in a position or do not write
their own scripts.
Scripting success A still from “Shatranj Ke Khiladi”
On Satyajit Ray’s 86th birth anniversary, an evening long programme with hook-up to studios across the country asked individuals to narrate their experiences with the legendary filmmaker.
The claims of Javed Siddique, a script and dialogue writer from Mumbai, had Suresh Jindal, the producer of Shatranj ke Khiladi, writhing with fury. In the programme, Javed claimed to be the original dialogue writer of the film. Jin
dal asserts that this is an appropriation of Ray’s own work, because Siddique “just transliterated Ray’s original dialogue.” Jindal adds, “When Ray had agreed to do the film, he had made it clear at the very outset that he will not start shooting until he is fully satisfied with the script, and that he will write the dialogue himself.”
The charge
What has further infuriated Jindal, who still has both Ray’s original handwritten letters to the effect and also the original script of the film with handwritten corrections, is Javed Siddique’s claim that he narrated his script in front of 20 leading Urdu writers for approval. “This implies that Ray agreed to a public reading of his script, which is an insult to the late filmmaker 30 years after the film was made. Not just with Ray, but in the film industry the world over, no worthy producer or director hawks his script for public approval or scrutiny,” argues Jindal.
He further challenges Siddique to furnish “the date, place or at least the names of some of the experts present at the meeting. At least some of them must have been from the industry as both Manikda and I had personal equations with the likes of K.A. Abbas and Inder Raj Anand.”
To further set the record right, Suresh Jindal points out that originally Shama Zaidi had been contracted for the job but when it was not approved, “she brought Javed, who was working at a small Urdu paper in Bombay and had no previous industry experience, to help in the matter. It was no more than a transliteration of the dialogue written by Ray himself. His claim that he first wrote the dialogue that was then translated into Urdu is nothing more than an exercise at self-eulogising. I still have the original script with most of the dialogue in English, believes Jindal ”
Javed’s claims will appear ridiculous to anyone familiar with Ray’s working style. In an interview with the present writer Ray clearly outlined, “A script can best be written or utilised by the director himself otherwise the results may not be to his satisfaction. I wonder why people who know what they want from their actors are not in a position or do not write their own scripts.”
Satyajit Ray.
Ray elaborated, “The quality of good wordy films does not consist of words alone but in the way the words are combined with significant action, details of behaviour, etc.” He added, “I know whether the words sound right, whether this type of character uses this type of words and this type of expression or not. No one can come to me and say this is not the way this character speaks in real life and I have got my words wrong. So many years of filmmaking have taught me, above anything else, not to make a fetish of anything. I enjoy working with non-actors but I also enjoy putting professionals and non-professionals together .”
So Javed’s claim that he is the exclusive dialogue writer rings totally false. That Ray always preferred to write his own dialogue is obvious from the above conversation. What further nails Javed Siddique’s false claims are the following lines from Ray’s letter to Suresh Jindal, “As for the dialogue, I’ll write those in English, and I will need someone to translate and, if necessary, to elaborate on them – in conjunction with me. If the Bengali-knowing Urdu writer is really good, then I could write in Bengali. Of course, I’ll try to get a working knowledge of Urdu before I actually start shooting.”
(The views expressed in these columns are of the author.)
Printer friendly
page Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
