Sex and sensuality

Put two of the greatest filmmakers together in one room and it’s inevitable that you don’t get struck by their fierce dispatch of storytelling and then their story’s cruel determinism, a quality that generates so powerful a sense of pathos that it prompts sympathy with even the most unsympathetic of protagonists. Only a minute or two into their conversation, you may find yourself thinking: these are aggressive, even dangerous filmmakers — ones who aren’t afraid of taking risks with their audiences’ sentiments.

Though very different in their range and scope, Vikram and Mahesh Bhatt who were in the capital on a promotional tour for their forthcoming movie Love Games, have certain key elements in common. They both show their share of hyper-conscious protagonist whose lucid reflections revolve remorselessly around feelings and events that will remain forever obscure; situations filled with profound melancholy that will never quite be placed but is such as to make every event, every memory, pregnant with possibly unwelcome explanation, and of course — sex and sensuality. For them these elements are imperative: just married to one woman, a man is declaring his passion for another; or a devoted wife is suddenly inexplicably cold or is making advances towards another man; or in their latest — couple looking out for another couple to fulfil their sexual fantasies. It is here, in the collision of reason with bewilderment, of lucidity with enigma that the Bhatts demand, and get recognition from their audience. Both the Bhatts state that they love making movies and creating plots that would allow them to explore complexities in all its contradictions and conundrum — its intense and bewildering emotions — without ever feeling that they have properly understood it. “After Mr X failed terribly at the box office, I started writing short stories on my Facebook every day. One day I was sitting in a mall in Mumbai, waiting for my daughter. A girl in her 20s came up to me and confessed that she was a huge fan but quickly clarified that she was not a fan of my movies but of my stories. And asked me why I don’t make films like the stories that I write. I replied — ‘Because I don’t think that the audience is ready for it.’ For which she replied that we have been ready for years but the filmmakers are not ready for it,” shares Vikram of his newfound enlightenment about his audiences’ taste.

Nodding at this statement, Mahesh adds, “We live in a time when Indian morality has changed drastically in the last ten years more than it has changed in the last 3,000 years. It is a new India and it is a different world. It would be foolish to say that audiences are not ready. They are ready to witness characters that are passionate, promiscuous, real and conjugal who rarely relive a gnawing sense of alienation but frequently find themselves staring at each other in varying states of wonder and perplexity.”

Women in present day The Bhatt camp is known for capturing women and their vivid shades in a unique way. However, they both get into a state of shock when they see incidents of successful women suffering in abusive relationships. Talking about women in his upcoming movie, Vikram shares, “All the characters in Love Games are based on real people. I have known women like Ramona, played by Patralekha who was rich because she married a rich man and was a gold-digger. She was all about the money but had no class. Gaurav’s character Sam Saxena is based on one of the boys that I have known for a long time. He has been so lonely in life that he prefers to cut himself to feel alive than get treated. And finally, what can I say about Tara’s character I believe we all have known women like her — successful, educated, economically empowered and good-looking but suffering in life because of an unhealthy relationship with a partner. The history is filled with such women. From Zeenat Aman to Rati Agnihotri to the most recent Pratyusha Banerjee; life for them has been an emotional and physical roller coaster. I like to explore these real-life characters and their psychology. My head fills up with ideas that blossom like grass in a field after a rainy night after looking at men and women in complex situations.”

Expressing his shock over Pratyusha’s death, Mahesh too joins in, “In the entertainment industry, I have seen innumerable actresses who have unimaginable wealth at their disposal, in spite of being immensely articulated and having enlightened opinion on things, you call them they will give you best of the quotes on women empowerment, but privately put up with such atrocities which perhaps your domestic help wouldn’t put up to. It’s unimaginable.” Mahesh further shares that he believes that at this time and age, professional success cannot be an equivalent of emotional freedom anywhere in the world. “Pratyusha’s case is indeed a tragedy. There was a time when I used to think economical emancipation would liberate women from the abuse of their intolerant spouses. But sadly, it isn’t the case, even now. In our entertainment world, while there is no denying that there are women who have blazed ahead and are doing things which were inconceivable by our predecessors, there are many who still choose to stay in doomed relationships.”

Echoing his sentiments, Vikram says, “I think somewhere the women, who are battered by their men, their mind is completely boggled by those men. These men are emotional manipulators. They will beat the women today, and then go on their knees the next day They will make the women feel guilty but it’s never the woman’s fault. It is the fear of loneliness that forces actresses to suffer abuse.”

Censor board and grammar The Bhatts are no strangers to run-ins with the Censor Board. “To begin with, the board wasn’t pleased with the number of times the F word was uttered — or the way it was uttered. They told us to remove the word ‘f***ing’ in the film, since it is an ‘adjective’, and allowed the use of ‘f**k’ since it’s a verb. They also told us to use the word ‘b***h’ only once, as opposed to three times which was the original plan. So I don’t know what to say about them. I am a filmmaker, I didn’t know I have to learn or make them understand about English grammar,” rues the filmmaker adding, “The disagreements didn’t end there. They even asked us not to show any drug consumption despite the character being a drug addict! How else will we show a drug addict What is the need for cuts in a film after we’ve asked for an ‘A’ certificate It’s bizarre.”

“Actually, it is in built in our system. Because in Indian cinema there has been an age-old practice wherein we preach: Good people fall in love and bad people have sex!” interrupts Mahesh with a laugh. “It’s been made out as if these kind of men and especially, women have never existed in our history. I was just reading about Amrita Sher-Gil, and it fascinated me to know that even at that era she had an obsession to paint her naked body, and how she struggled to express her raw self, her innate desires, her inclination towards pleasure and how she was forbidden from so many things. And finally how she overcame them. Hence, the more one reads about one’s own history, they will be enthralled to find out about real-life characters. And not get worried about filmmakers expanding their visual territories. We have to embrace our treasured past to go ahead in our future.”

Recalling his earlier days Mahesh says, “Flashback to 1974 and the dawn of my cinematic career... the refusal of the Censor Board to certify my film, Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain that revolved around two gangsters and a prostitute, on the grounds that it is against the holy institution of marriage, opened my eyes to the mass perception that in Indian cinema only bad people have sex, the good ones fall in love. The film was mutilated, mauled and finally saw the light of day. It was a disaster! Now in 2015, we were told by the Examining Committee of the CBFC that they will certify the film (Love Games) only if we agree to 18 cuts. I pointed out to Vikram that nothing has changed in four decades. The power wielders are still locked in a time warp, completely out of sync with reality. So we approached the Tribunal, and our film has now been cleared with just one sound bite muted. I am just fearful of the day when makers may start practicing pre-censorship, fearful of the outcome when they pick up their pen,” concludes Mahesh.