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About `Swaraj', `Survivor' and some shorba
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Award-winning filmmaker Anwar Jamal relishes talking, be it his film "Swaraj" or the food on offer
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PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA
THE SURVIVOR Anwar Jamal with wife Sarju Singh at The Imperial hotel's Danielle Tavern
He is a sharp observer. At The Imperial's Danielle's Tavern, soft-spoken Anwar Jamal says, "I like the way they have presented salads here. The three layers of salads are according to Ayurvedic principles. They go from light to heavy, just the way it is recommended."
He also thinks faster than he speaks. He wants to say a lot but midway he loses track of his original thought as another bright idea strikes his hyperactive mind. A flashback is always preceded and succeeded by fast forward. Cannot blame Jamal though. After he has been doing things his own way for a couple of decades. And making a good fist of it. After all, how many guys have resisted the temptation of popular applause to court creative delights, how many guys have taken their films to nearly 40 international film festivals, won more than half a dozen awards? And then wait for the movie to be received on the commercial circuit back home?
Swaraj in Noida
Well, Anwar Jamal, he of some salt, largely pepper hair, has done all this and much more. Swaraj, now kissing the silver screen at Noida's PVR Spice this week, may be his passport to more than nodding acquaintance with the discerning, but the man is not full of Swaraj. Credit for that considering often mirror is the most identifiable place in the world of cine dreams.
Jamal though has not been weaving dreams. He has been depicting reality, through "body movement, stillness, the speech of silence". His Swaraj might have been all about four women in search of water, Jamal wants to swim afar with his forthcoming Survivor, a film that promises to give us back the Manisha Koirala we lost to the sea of Bollywood mediocrity. "It is about a father-in-law selling his daughter-in-law. We should be able to wrap up the film within this year." Then there is more to come.
For the moment though, he relishes the ambience and the fare on offer at Tavern. Everything is still, sedate, sober. Helping himself to lime soda Jamal takes a trip down memory lane. As his wife Sarju Singh, keeps him company, Jamal reveals his journey of creative pursuit started from Rampur, a place known in some circles for its music, taleem and food, in others for knives! "My first public performance was in Rampur when I took part in an all-India drama competition. I spent a couple of years there doing some 100 radio programmes."
As paneer tikka and fish cutlets make an appearance on the table, Jamal discloses, "I am a non-vegetarian, though I like vegetarian food too." Fair enough, he soon switches to Tomato Dhaniya Shorba. And relishes the piping hot shorba.
But you can take Jamal to the dining table but you cannot take films away from his heart. And soul. He lapses into the familiar again. "I feel multiplexes are the destiny of parallel cinema. Alternate cinema is not possible without them. Its condition is worse than that of regional cinema." One nudges him to the food again. This time, he helps himself to some kachori and bread pakoras. Then realises that he has spent more time talking than eating. "Look at the way they have set up the rice table. It gives you the look of coming through a doorway. And the central table gives you the feeling of a haveli. All so artistic, so beautiful." Indeed his images speak a language that is real!
On to the main course. And Jamal and his filmmaker wife help themselves to Sprouted Bean Salad to go with Madrasi Murg and Dal Maharani. There is pulao too and butter naan for accompaniment. The man likes the pulao, the lady the dal.
Then the sharp observer in Jamal comes to the fore yet again. "I like rice when every grain is separate." Sarju adds, "He is fussy about his food. He can cook Mughlai meals, including mutton korma very well." Jamal adds, "The colour in korma comes not from the spices but because of the salt."
Fine that is for those rare forays into the kitchen. Otherwise, this son of a teacher spends time talking, shooting, recording movies. A self-confessed fan of Buddhadeb Dasgupta and the Makhmalbafs, Jamal is poised to make the big leap: Time when Swaraj, for all its brilliance, will not be his passing shot to posterity. Time when the cinemagoers shall see Survivor, and he can recount those heady days he spent shooting in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for this film, the days of Naini Tal, those evenings at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Nostalgia might cloud judgement, but rest assured, Jamal shall continue to "communicate like a Buddhist monk". The little kalakand left unfinished notwithstanding!
ZIYA US SALAM
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