‘A majority of filmmakers cannot truly understand the city because they don’t live here.’
“Delhi is vast and cannot be explored in a single film, but we managed to get some aspects of the city in The Great Shamsuddin Family,” says filmmaker-writer Anusha Rizvi.
“Though you don’t see so much of the city in the film, Delhi comes through the sounds and glimpses outside,” Anusha tells Archana Masih/Rediff in the concluding part of the interview on the warm and witty film that is winning hearts.
Which of the younger actors in the fine cast of The Great Shamsuddin Family surprised you?
Purab Kohli for coming down from London to do this role which is not a central one.
He was great and such a hoot.
I must talk about Joyeeta Dutta (a political science graduate from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi who left a job at McKinsey to act). Hers was not an easy role. It almost borders on caricature because one is trying to put too much into that one character, and she played it intelligently.
I burdened her character a lot more than I should have, but she got the difficult character of Latika and performed superbly.
And Shreya Dhanwanthary. She was perfect as Iram.
Your previous film Peepli [Live]! had a rural theme, while The Great Shamsuddin Family is completely urban and contemporary. Was that a deliberate choice?
It did happen organically because as I said, the core of the idea came from a real person who inhabited an urban space.
I also wanted to make a film about Delhi. Though you don’t see so much of the city in The Great Shamsuddin Family, Delhi comes through the sounds and glimpses outside.
Delhi is so vast and cannot be explored in a single film. But we managed to get some aspects of the city.
The representation of Delhi has been very limiting in cinema, it is either Old Delhi or New Delhi. Delhi is a huge city — far bigger than Mumbai. The filmmakers’ imagination of Delhi is limited because a majority of them cannot truly understand the city as they don’t live here.
Therefore, they think of Delhi in small pieces.
The film is a warm comedy, but still makes you think…
… and that is what good cinema is, isn’t it? As a storyteller, one really hopes that the film reaches people because writing is such a lonely process.
The Great Shamsuddin Family could be any Indian family — Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Parsi, because similar incidents could happen in any family.
And that’s precisely the point of the film. When one is imagining a Muslim household or a family — why is it not being imagined in a contemporary way? Why is it that that women are shown dressed in full jewellery and talking in a fashion which nobody does?
So you wonder as to why this is so? Why is it that every other community can have a contemporary life, but Muslims cannot?
It also brings out the padosi relationship in India — like when the dholak for a wedding celebration is brought from the Punjabi Kapoor uncle next door. This is actually what happens, we get things from our neighbours ever so often…
That’s how we all are. That’s how our regular lives are. This is how we live in India, don’t we? It is also a slice of Delhi living.
The film dropped on JioHotstar without much publicity. Are you hoping that it will grow by word of mouth?
Yeah, absolutely.
JioHotstar has a certain model. They were showing the ads for the film in the matches that were going on. They have a certain target number which they did reach.
For me, it is the word of mouth that really matters. I’m a very bad social media person, and suddenly my X feed is full of mentions. Clearly, many people are talking about it and that will be the real deal.
What was your husband Mahmood Farooqui’s participation in the film?
Mahmood is the producer of the film and the entire project belongs to him. I am hired as a director.
He was involved full time. There is absolutely no way I would have managed to make this film without him. I was unsure whether we were going to make it, but he’s the one who got funding and managed the whole production, post-production, deliveries, etc.
It was a new role for him since he is a writer and performer of the Dastangoi Collective. [Dastangoi is the oral art of Urdu storytelling and has performed many stories including the Mahabharat, Ramayan, Jallianwala Bagh, Dr Ambedkar and many others, the latest being Guru Dutt.]
You acknowledge writers Mukul Kesavan, Manu Joseph, HarperCollins and several others in the film. What was their contribution to the film?
All of them gave me permission to show their books inside Bani’s house. Now even if filmmakers show spines of books or book covers, they require legal permission. I needed the books because the character is a person who would have a lot of books in her house.
Manu got me in touch with HarperCollins who gave me permission to use their books. Biblio also gave me permission for their books.
Amitav Ghosh and Mukul Kesavan gave me permission for their books. They have been really very supportive and dear friends.
Kiran Nadar (founder of the Kiran Nadar Museum) gave me a painting for the house. Ghulam Muhammad Sheikh sahab not only gave me permission to use his paintings, but also made sure that I got the correct dimension, material of the prints. His retrospective was going on at the Kiran Nadar Museum and they gave me permissions to use the paintings.
The Raza Foundation gave me permissions to use paintings by S H Raza.
How did you manage coordination between the senior and younger group of actors on the sets?
During the selection of the senior actresses there were restrictions in terms of the schedule, but thankfully it just went smoothly for everybody.
Faridaji took up the challenge and came accompanied by her son from Mumbai.
Both Dolly ji and Natashaji live in Delhi.
Sheeba Chaddha is an actress whose work I have known since her theatre days. Mahmood had worked with her on Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead many years ago.
What are the projects you are working on? Are you going to be more prolific?
There are two sides to my life. I am also the producer of Dastangoi Collective, which is my baby.
In 2005, we revived this art form and have completed 20 years. The process of reviving this art form has been a difficult, but rewarding journey.
I do the costumes and the sets. Dastangoi has kept me creatively engaged in great detail.
The other part of my life is making movies whenever I can find the money. I’ve written quite a few scripts which have not been made for various reasons.
I was working very intensively on a documentary on Sidhu Moosewala which has not seen the light of day.
Now that The Great Shamsuddin Family is out, I will begin my writing process again.
Unless somebody sends me a really nice script which I can direct, I’ll have to write my own material.