“I believe in non-esoteric titles. It has created false images — like my first film (‘Khosla Ka Ghosla') was considered to be a tele-serial. My second (‘Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye') was thought to be a regional feature film. But to me there is a certain honesty about these titles…I don't analyse too much and I carry this innocence to ‘Love Sex Aur Dhoka' (LSD). It is as straight as you get.”
Very much like his films, there is a hint of sarcasm in whatever Dibakar Banerjee says. Both his films have won National awards, but Dibakar is more excited about the victory of “Oye Lucky…” because the film won the award for the best film providing wholesome entertainment.
“I feel humbled, even a little apologetic, because for years this category is reserved for much bigger films with plenty of mass appeal. It gives the much needed fillip to the team which works under lots of constraints but always runs the risk of being ignored. It used to be a kind of thankless job. I am not asking for sympathy, for nobody has pushed us into making this kind of cinema, but an award of this stature pushes us to work doubly hard.”
He has reasons to believe that the jury appreciated the deeper meaning of his enchanting story of a thief, but again, Dibakar has an experience to share. “At IFFI a gentleman came to me and said in all seriousness that he loves my films because they allow him to leave the brain home!”
New grammar
The best part about Dibakar is that though he is a product of multiplex cinema, he is not bound by the predictabilities that come with this emerging genre. If “Khosla Ka Ghosla” celebrated the spirit of the middle class, “Oye Lucky…” dissected the hypocrisy of that very class where a respected doctor betrays a thief.
And with LSD, releasing this week, he is treading into a territory where Bollywood angels fear to tread. He has got the word sex in the title. “The film is about voyeurism but in itself is not voyeuristic. It talks about the diminishing line between what is public and what is private. These days our films tell us how to make love, the gossip columns constitute our discussions and youngsters write to agony aunts to solve their personal problems.”
This time Dibakar has used a relatively new grammar to strike his point home. He is relying on digital aesthetics to create fresh atmospherics in theatres. “It is the found footage format, where the recording of a CCTV camera, a spy cam and the digital video of a film institute student are used to tell a story. With the rough, gruff, grainy look we have tried to create an illusion of amateurish digital cinema. For this we have used all kinds of cameras, ranging from spy cams — which come in the form of ladies' lipsticks — to the regular film camera.”
To make it look authentic, Dibakar has played with conventional shot and editing patterns. “When you are showing a scene from a fixed CCTV, you can't have the usual panning or over-the-shoulder shots, as the view is limited. It is even more limited with a spy cam. If the audience stick for the first ten minutes then they will get used to it.”
He warns, “That is also the reason, if somebody goes to watch it thinking it has some hot scenes, he would be sorely disappointed, because there is no attempt to titillate. However, the overall integrity of the film demands an A certificate and that is what we have asked.”
Still, the Censor Board could have problems. “The recent decisions of the Board suggest that it is now open to different experiments. If they ask for certain cuts I am ready, because I am interested in showing the film to the audience and not some particular scenes.”
Dibakar has a realistic idea of his kind of cinema. “It is still just a small alternative — an additional flavour — to Bollywood extravaganzas. It is commercially viable, that is why we are getting funds to have more of it, but even when it gives its best results the revenue it generates is only a fraction of the industry's income.”
Dibakar was an established ad filmmaker before he turned to a much bigger canvas. He still uses ad films to fund his realistic dreams. His Coca Cola ad film with Imran Khan and Kalki with “Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho” playing in the background has found favour with young audiences.
“I am a big Madan Mohan fan. It is my way to tell the young audience about the maestro's timeless appeal. In fact I love doing it. In ‘Oye Lucky…' I slipped in Surinder Kaur's haunting ‘Akhiyan' in one of the scenes.”
Dibakar feels the biggest handicap in the industry today is lack of original scriptwriters. “A lot of people come with stories, but very few are able to develop them into scripts and screenplays. The problem is they rely on an inspired idiom. There is no problem in borrowing, but the essential core of experience should be yours.”
He feels English too is an issue, and regional language writers are not promoted as they were in the '50s and '60s. “The person writing the script can't write the dialogues. That is why the characters sound studied and artificial. Angrezi seekhi nahin, Hindi bhool gaye ....”
