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Writer/director
Jaharlal Sen recently won the award for Best Script at the Greenwich Film Festival
for his directorial debut Sat'day having previously won Best Film at the Leicester
Short Film Festival, held in April this year [2000].
Sat'day,
deals with the British Asian experience of an adolescent boy and shows a rare
and poignant empathy with Dogz the main protagonist trying to live his world
- both British - and Asian.
Now
proudly sponsored by oilzine.com's publishers OLIVE INTERNET - Charlie
(as known to his friends) took some time out between festival hopping to share
his experiences, give his opinions and add some useful advice for all those
planning the UK Independent Filmmaking Process.
What
is the hardest aspect about filmmaking?
Passion
- to keep the passion of a project going - when all around you things are pushing
you down. This is especially so when you know that you have a good project -
and one that you think will work yet there seems to be obstacle after obstacle
- finding funding, restructuring the script, casting etc. The key is to see
these obstacles as something to tackle head on rather than as something that
will deter you.
What
do you enjoy most about the filmmaking process?
The collaborative efforts that take place. It's good to be able to work with
so many different people knowing that each and every one of them is there to
complete a project. When the project is completed and it is a success - you
can see where all that teamwork went. However, this is also true of the opposite
- when the collaborative effort doesn't work - then it can be hell.
What
films and events in your life inspired you most to make films?
Satyajit Ray, the Bengali filmmaker has probably inspired and influenced me
most of all. As well as the narratives that Ray told it was the fact that his
films were so embedded in Bengali/Indian culture that gave me something to hold
onto and explore. In turn this gave me a focus for my own stories - rather than
make films for the sake of it.
What
do you classify as a british-asian film and why?
It's
pretty difficult to define what a british-asian film is because first of all
you have to define what british-asianness means and whether at all there is
such a thing. I say this because when you consider the problems that exist within
the Asian communities which go beyond cultural fusing then you can understand
the difficulties. Saying this perhaps it is the conflict as well as the fusions
that make the notion of british-asianness what it is. So you can say it's about
the good things and the bad, the celebrations, the Melas we enjoy and the other
squabbles that make our daily lives - whether it is on a domestic, social or
global level. With regards to style the idea of british-asianness must stake
its basis in the subcontinent. It's about seeing a worldview that can be said
to be british-asian. It means that the view of our world is different to that
of the west - ours is a view that is made up of both east and west. Additionally
we have to take our source from both contemporary ideas and ancient - in this
case it is the great texts - the Mahabharat and the Ramayana. With its sources
of magic, superstition, gods, mantras, drugs etc which are the realities that
make up our world - not the simple view of reason. Put simply it's a reality
that is more poetic-real and magical-real than just real.
There
does exist a british-asian film - that is a film which has a 'filmic' language,
a grammar that reflects not only the narratives that make up our lives, but
also reflects the psyche that maintains us all. Sure the brtish-asian 'community'
is a disparate group of peoples - but there is, I believe a certain psyche that
runs through us all, whether we take it on or distance ourselves from it, we
can recognise it. In film this is not only reflected through the kinds of stories
that we tell, but also through its style - its aesthetic. Take Bollywood for
example - the stories that flow from this cinema are modern day versions of
the Mahabharat and the Ramayana. Here the reverence for the mother, the battle
between good and evil, the fixation with honour all come into play. Furthermore,
the style reflects the worldview or perspective we hold. Our cultures believe
in magic, believe in the supernatural, believe in miracles. We have a different
perspective to the world than the West. Ours looks at the world through realities
other than the material that surrounds us. This is the reason why song and dance
doesn't look out of place in Bollywood cinema, why melodrama - another form
of an acting style - is 'okay', and why chance and coincidence plays so much
in their tales. British-asian cinema - through the development of its own grammar
has to reflect this worldview. Our cinema is about representation. It tells
us who we are.
How
does it feel to win two separate awards in the only two festivals you have to
date entered?
Obviously
I am pleased, but most of all it's the confidence that comes with it. When you
are striving for a long time to get a lucky break and then manage to come a
small way forward to achieving that, it brings back your belief in yourself
- something that is vitally important.
What
is your next project?
I
am in a writing period at the moment and am putting together various short and
feature length ideas. I am mainly awaiting a confirmation for a new commissioned
short film. The film is titled Shiv's Red after the Hindu God-form Shiva and
is the bitter-sweet-bizarre tale of a magical taxi-driving gambler.
If
you had a budget of £10,000,000 what feature would you most like to shoot?
If I had that kind of money I wouldn't make one feature but a whole bundle of
films. The thing is because I am a British filmmaker my ideas don't particularly
stretch so big as the Hollywood and Bollywood spectacles. Mine are films that
have big ideas behind them but are played out more on a smaller scale. That
kind of money is big style and usually most of it would be spent on BIG special
effects. The worlds I work within don't need them.
Why
have you named your production company Bksheesh Filums?
The name Bksheesh comes about through the idea of a) a backhander - seeming
to be the only way black-british and britsh-asian filmmakers have managed to
make their films to date and b) from the idea of a 'favour for a favour.' Because
of the difficulties in raising monies for either short or feature length filmmaking
much of the way to secure requirements is by bringing together all the crews
resources and making and giving out favours. It's an eastern way of thought.
Where
can we next see your film Sat'day
The film has been entered in numerous festivals - and at present it has been
selected for the BBC British Short Film Festival, Bite the Mango (Bradford)
and the British Asian Festival - Fillum (Luton). It's also been taken on by
the British Council so now it's got an international release.
If
you had a choice of working either in Hollywood or Bollywood - where and why
would you choose?
Out of Hollywood and Bollywood I think now Bombay would be the best place. With
Bollywood coming into vogue on an international level and with the types of
filmmakers being nurtured, Bollywood as a mainstream form of cinema has lots
more to offer than its American counterpart. Imagine you've got cinematic backdrops
like that in 1942 A Love Story, you've got emotional high-drama like that in
Hum Apke Hai Kaun and then you've got contemporary song and dance numbers like
that in Mani Ratnams' Dil Se. Together with stars that are still lovers, fighters,
singers and dancers - the scope that a film can explore is immense. Bollywood
is what it is - a 'masala' - a mixture of everything bound by no rules. That's
what makes it so exciting.
What
opportunities are available for young british-asian filmmakers today?
British-asian
filmmaking has been going for a long time now - ever since Dilip Hiros' written
piece, A Private Enterprise, Ruhul Amins' A Kind of English to today's Shani
Grewals' Guru in Seven. But opportunities have been lax. Since the seventies
black-british and british-asian filmmaking has gone through various stages of
production - political, aesthetic and commercial - sometimes trying to bring
all three in. so that's where the problems arise - financiers have only the
track record of a handful of filmmakers to look at. Out of them only East is
East (some would question whether this is a british-asian film or not) has made
its money. So it's a difficult path to take - this filmmaking lark - for any
newcomers. What is needed is another two East is East's (making money that is)
and then the track will be a little clearer.
Do
you have an 'agenda'?
I
do class myself as a british-asian filmmaker. I stress that as a point because
to say that is to make a political statement. The films I write are films that
explore the british-asian experience - the good, the bad, the ugly. Whether
it's Tjinder Singh's Cool, or the more apna-kitsch-bhangra-beat, Bangladeshi
freedom ballads, Pakistani cooking, Gujarati bhajan's or just the second-generation
football scene - I embrace them all. We are what we are - take it or leave it!
And this is what makes me a british-asian filmmaker rather than a filmmaker
that happens to be british-asian.
Do
you think the british-asian film scene is a phase just like the british-asian
music scene a couple of years ago?
With the 'success' of East is East, and with the inclusion of special sections
in various festivals - Greenwich, Manchester etc - it does seem that british-asian
cinema is kind of in vogue. However, knowing that the number of films available
are still pretty rare, you cannot really say that there is enough impact to
have any force. So you can't really say they are actually in fashion to be out
of fashion. I think when another two East is East's are made then the question
may be more relevant.
What
do you love and hate about Bollywood?
Because
of its steadfast foundation in dominant culture - that is north Indian Brahmin,
and the control that this particular section of Indian society holds - distortions
of the ancient texts have led to various imbalances in Indian society which
have been kept alive to date. As India's most popular cultural art form this
has also been reflected in its cinema - Bollywood - though some would say the
cinema reflects life rather than the opposite. Its stricture to the basic values
of this dominant culture - e.g. the role of women as mother and wife, the division
of caste and class etc are maintained. However, though there have been numerous
attempts to reset these social imbalances - like its American counterpart -
Bollywood too works with very sophisticated and complex strategies which on
the surface appear to be changing but in reality keeps its value system very
much alive. For Hollywood it is primarily American values and the race issue
that is its main concern. It is this cunning that is Bollywood's most negative
trait.
Name
three people you would love to work with and why?
This
is difficult, but the three people I would like to work with would be a) Johnny
Depp - because of his characterisations and his courage in taking on off-beat
characters and pulling them off - with both his Buster Keaton-esque and hero
manner. B) Shekhar Kapur - because of his talent in bringing the European art-house
style into an Indian context and making it a success - Bandit Queen, and for
bringing in the Indian style into the American mainstream - Elizabeth - song
and dance, spectacle and epic tale. C) Emir Kusterika because of his Gypsy-Rom
influences and his mix of magical-realism, absurdism, and great play with style.
Name
your favorite three films?
There
are a lot of films that have laid their mark on me but the three I would say
that are of most importance would be Midnight Cowboy, primarily for its characterisation
in John Voight and Dustin Hoffman and for its play in its formal aesthetic treatment.
Yugoslavian filmmaker Emir Kusterika's Johnny Depp led American Dream, here
it is the Gypsy-Rom inspirations that are most valued; the frantic pace, detail,
and references to the history of cinema itself - homage's to Chaplin for example,
abound. And thirdly it has to be Ramesh Sippy's Sholay - a magical blend of
Hollywood and Bollywood, led through the greatest hero of all cinema Amitabh
Bhachan who plays opposite and aside the periods other leading stars. Sholay
is a masala of Bollywood's sophistication, kitsch, absurdity, romance, heroics
and all-round creative genius. The ultimate fillum.
Jaharlal
Sen can be contacted on charlie@bksheesh.co.uk |
