An Interview with Naseeruddin Shah

Great job here introducing Naseeruddin Shah.
He once did justice(if that it at all possible) to
the character of Mirza Ghalib and took on
other very difficult roles.
His name often reminds me of a movie called
``Ijaazat`` in which the formula film and commercial
cinema blended together extremely well.

Ras

It always surprises me when people say that a lot has been written on the Partition. I say, hardly anything has been written, given the magnitude of human migration that occurred over such a short span - as far as I know, the largest ever in history. Compare what`s been written, for example, to what`s been written on the Holocaust.

Is anyone aware of any analytic work in this area? Who crossed, how were they different from the ones who didn`t cross, how many lost family members, how many families were divided permanently, are Muslims who crossed over, better-off in economic terms than Muslims who didn`t? Does anyone know?

Anita

Rehan:

Good piece. Took me back to the era of
Shyaam Benegal, Amrish & Om Puri, Smita Patel, Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah. But his dismissal of the biggest holocaust of this century (3 pages of Manto) is a gross exagerration. Manto spotlighted one aspect of holocaust. It was his greatness. But the impact of the great divide was much greater and its reverberations will continue to be felt for a long time.

regards

re rishi
i couldnt agree more. big hullabaloo about a seriously bad movie. havent seen earth, but am not pinning my hopes on it.

Still on the subject of Deepa Mehta -earth -fire -air water. The latter two incidentally films she plans to make.

I read an unimpressive interview of Deepa Mehta and Bapsi Sidwa in Ms. magazine. Apparently Earth is based on Sidwa`s novel ``Cracking India`` which was renamed by her after its initial publication as ``Ice Candy Man.`` (?) When asked if Sidwa minded that the film`s name was going to be neither ``Cracking India`` nor ``Ice Candy Man``, she said she didn`t.(why should she?) Apparently the name satisfies Mehta`s ego and her element- sequels.

Haven`t seen Earth, but agree with Naseer already. Besides he is cuter than Mehta.

Re: all

Anyone seen Earth . Any comments. Myself, not really impressed with Deepa Mehta. Fire was pure pulp. Almost made me wonder what she wants to talk about. If she just wanted to startle and shock the sensibilities of a people who have irrevocably managed to entangle themselves in victorian prudence from their khajurao past, she managed to achieve just that. And with the sena performing its routine song and dance nautangi, the movie was blown totally out of proportion such that people from all walks of life in india ended up discussing lesbianism. And it was really cheeky of her to use ``Sita`` in the earlier versions as the name of the protogonist. It was a pity that even Shabana had to speak half truths when she defended the hindi and english indian version`s ``Nita`` . This in a country where Ashar could not sign his signature on a footwear since it raked controversies of ``Mohammed`` on a ``chappal``.

Atleast with ``Fire``, Ms Mehta emerged only as a cheap gimmick artist.

Rishi

I would make it a point here in order to beg to differ with an idol of mine, Naseer, that Earth, at the very least deserved a hurrah as a good effort.

Maybe the sex scene was appealing to some commercial sense of an undesignated order but atleast it was honest in its conveyance of awkwardnessas surely sex can be awkward.

t..dadijaan and i will be in next week..will see you at the closing night party..?

what, where or who is M`s?

rizvi

rehan`s fat?

mebbe that picture isnt really him...

any other chowkwalas seen the play? temporal? ferozk? PM? anyone?

z.rizvi

RSaxena #44 ``Why am I dragged into all the creative story..``

You were already part of the story-telling (having left scout crying on some bridge, according to an earlier episode, as I recall). I intended no offense, incidentally, in referring somewhat unflatteringly to your physical self which I am sure is perfectly fine. And scout would be I am sure be honored to have an evening out in NYC with you.

Gymno #43(?) So that is where you are, in SFO. Lucky you (I visited that beautiful city once and could easily get used to it).

Zahra 3 (post # 28/29/37) Scout 1 (#32), while Bina waits on the sidelines looking for a chance to jump in. And all this for Rsaxena`s carcass, I believe. And Gymno, who was supposed to be escorting Scout around NYC, is nowhere to be seen. This is surely a dark day for Pakistani manhood and for the ladies too (Zahra to please supply appropriate emoticons).

Urstruly #25 writes ``(as a result of reading the words) epicede, threnody and palinode...they have peed in their pants too, (including myself)``.

Urstruly, you seem to get scared easily. Hope you keep an extra pair of pants handy when you read the chowk.

Like the car horn, the loudspeaker, and the internet discussion groups, cellular phones only prove that technology simply imposes the irritating habits of ill-mannered people on the rest of us. Nor, more importantly, does it impart wisdom. Indeed, as Toynbee pointed out a half-century ago, the greatest threat to mankind is that our technological accomplishments vastly exceed our emotional development. A few months ago, Bill Joy (technical VP, I think, at Sun computers) pointed out possible catastrophic results of advancements taking place in nanotechnologies, biology, and so forth. Whether our grasp will match our reach remains to be seen.

Dear Rehan (sorry I misspelt your name in previous post)

Thanks for the link that describes the play. Sounds like a funny one.

hamidm#101 ``hate is a pure and noble emotion - a human attribute``

So you (the holier-than-thou Pakistani), and Jay (who knows only one thing - Pakistanis are evil) recognize each other as soulmates in hate. Only, please dont insult the human race by thinking the two of you belong to it.

Scout #92 ``Maybe you should write an article about it. I will read it.``

I think I will pass on this invitation. But thanks for confirming the readership of at least one person.