One of the many remarkable things about Aamir Khan’s wife Kiran Rao’s directorial debut in Dhobi Ghat is the way it uses the city of Mumbai as a central character. So evocative and palpable are the sights, sounds and smells of the city that filmmaker Hansal Mehta, who had moved out of Mumbai because of its noise and competitiveness, has actually moved back into the city.
Says Hansal, “I think Bombay is a city with a multiplicity of complex layers. Class, wealth, poverty, dreams, aspirations, heartbreak, failure, love, hate, crime, politics, division, unity and diversity all exist while seamlessly crossing paths and merging into one another. There are many characters and stories waiting to be told. For me, Bombay is one of the world’s most flawed yet interesting central characters. All my good films have dealt with Bombay... One of my favourite Bombay films is Muzaffar Ali's Gaman... And now Kiran Rao's Dhobi Ghat.”
Mumbai…the hub of dreams, the fulcrum of ambitions. It has been the focus of attention in movies of all hues. In the 1950s, Johnny Walker immortalised the city with the song Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan zara hat ke zara bach ke yeh hai Bombay meri jaan in Raj Khosla’s CID. Nearly 50 years later, when the topography and terror quotient, not to mention the city’s name itself, had changed beyond recognition, Nishikant Kamat titled his film on the unnerving aftermath of the 2006 train blasts as Mumbai Meri Jaan. Kamat, like Ram Gopal Varma before him, has located his films in the heart of Mumbai. Kamat’s Marathi film Dombivli Fast was planted entirely in the local trains of Mumbai. Said Kamat, “I’ve been a part of Mumbai’s cosmopolitanism since childhood. I understand the cultural contradictions and dynamics that infuse Mumbai with its furious flavour and energy. I couldn’t think of starting my career as a filmmaker outside my comfort zone.”
Neil Nitin Mukesh, who shot Pradeep Sarkar’s Lafangey Parindey on the streets of Mumbai, says the film gave him a chance to rediscover his city. “Since I live in South Mumbai, I’m mostly cut off from the rest of Mumbai. We shot Lafangey Parindey in the most crowded areas of Mumbai, often post-midnight. It gave me a chance to discover the city like never before, and it was fun.”
Neil sounds like a character out of the late L.A Abbas’s Bambai Raat Ki Bahon Mein, the city-adventure saga featuring Persis Khambatta. The film was one of the earliest attempts to explore the night-life in Mumbai.
Aamir Khan says being in Bandra he had never been to Muhammad Ali Road and Chowpatty before he shot there for his wife’s film. Mumbai does that to you. It creates several cities within the city. It’s up to the movies to project a microcosmic view of Mumbai. To get the city’s inner workings on celluloid, filmmakers often spend time in areas that are alien to them. Sudhir Mishra actually took Shabana Azmi and Om Puri to the slums of Dharavi for a film of that name. They stayed in the slums, got to know the locals first-hand, just like Danny Boyle and crew did many decades later for Slumdog Millionaire and Chandan Arora did for Striker, which was shot in the slums of
Malvani.
No wonder Sudhir proudly says, “My Dharavi was a precursor to Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.”
Now, Sudhir shoots his films outside Mumbai, mostly in Delhi. The capital has lately become a popular venue for Bollywood locations. Habib Faisal, who wrote 2010’s hit rom-com Band Baaja Baraat and directed the critically-acclaimed Do Dooni Chaar, both located in the heart of Delhi, feels the influx of Delhi-based films is a sign of the expansion of the entertainment industry beyond the ‘concept’ of Bollywood. “I understand the rhythms language and flavour of Delhi. But tomorrow if I get a chance to make a Mumbai-based film like Shaad Ali’s Saathiya, I won’t hesitate.”
In the 1970s, the breezy comedies of Basu Chatterjee like Rajnigandha and Choti si Baat were shot on the streets and in the trains and buses of Mumbai. This was then known as romancing the middle class. Years later, Ram Gopal Varma shot the gritty and real Satya on the blood-soaked streets of Mumbai. By then Mumbai had become a sinister and dangerous place, as far as our filmmakers are concerned.
Sanjay Gupta, who produced the edgy real-time real-life Mumbai thriller Shootout At Lokhandwala says he likes the way ‘Bombay’ was portrayed before it became ‘Mumbai’.
Says Gupta, “To me, the ultimate portrayal of the city was in Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. In recent times, I like Nishikant Kamat’s Mumbai Meri Jaan. I think these films have touched and showcased just the tip of the iceberg. Mumbai has so much to give. I am waiting for the film on Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City.”
While Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is all set to adapt Suketu Mehta’s novel Maximum City to the screen, Paul Schrader will film X-Treme City for producer Anubhav Sinha. There are striking similarities in the two projects. Both are stinging takes on present-day Mumbai, its splendour and stench as seen in the same line of vision. The directors Danny Boyle and Paul Schrader have already visited Mumbai several times and also met Aamir and Shah Rukh, who have reportedly agreed to be part of the respective films.
Irrfan Kamal, whose Thanks, Maa captured the poignant odyssey of a little boy through the city looking for an infant’s mother, feels Mumbai is invariably the city of dreams. “Everyone comes to the city with dreams in their eyes. I genuinely feel there’s always so much more of Mumbai to put on screen. As a filmmaker I can never get enough of Mumbai. Or give enough back to the city.”
