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Patrick Swayze, the iconic Hollywood actor, was a global sensation thanks to his performance in the supernatural romance film, Ghost, and the blockbuster success of the action film, Point Break. It is interesting that his next film was the rather sombre yet compelling drama, City of Joy, which was shot in the city of erstwhile Calcutta. Apart from Patrick, the film also starred our very own sensations Shabana Azmi and Om Puri. Talking about working in the film, Shabana, in an interview with Faye D’Souza, said that the major comforting factor was the presence of her frequent collaborator Om Puri in City of Joy. “Patrick was absolutely wonderful, and so was Pauline Collins. The highlight was that Patrick was so taken up by Om Puri, and he had this sort of reverential feeling towards him. In fact, director Roland Joffe had to remind him to not have that expression while acting,” said a rather upbeat Shabana.
Apart from the actors, the city of Calcutta too played a pivotal role in the film. Shabana reminisced how Om Puri and her were both foodies, and they had finished the entire menu of the hotel, and accepted people’s invitations to dine in their houses. “We took tiffin boxes to bring back food for each other while we were visiting their homes.”
While the food scene in Kolkata is a true treasure, it is also one of the busiest and crowded cities in India. Shabana pointed out that for a particular scene, things got crazy when people understood a film shooting was happening and thronged the place. “For such scenes, you will have to take the guerilla route like how we shot Paar in the city with Naseeruddin Shah. The crowds started swelling, and it was impossible to shoot,” said Shabana, who pointed out that she found an unlikely inspiration to find a way out of this issue.
“Back when we were shooting in Ooty for a film with Rajinikanth, something similar happened. We were just surrounded by people, and I didn’t know what to do. Rajinikanth went out, spoke to the crowd in Tamil. He asked them to provide space because he had actors from Mumbai, and it was important to be on the best behaviour,” said Shabana, who is still amazed by how the sea of crowd just moved away for the cars to go ahead. Trying to do something similar to disperse the crowd in Kolkata, Om Puri and Shabana requested them to move because they had guests from the West, and it was important to be on our best behaviour. “All of them nodded their heads, and all they did was to pull in their stomachs to give the space. That’s all they did. We just had to keep cancelling the shoot.”
Shabana, who isn’t new to international productions, pointed out that working in Hollywood was indeed a big thing, but they were also learning from Indian way of filmmaking. “When the rain machine from Los Angeles stopped working, we created rain using hose pipes. When the permission for a particular location wasn’t being given, I spoke to Basu da (CM Jyoti Basu), and it happened. The director was amazed as to why an actor would go out of their way to fix something. We might not be used to perfect planning, but we know jugaad. We are able to bounce back, they can’t,” said the actor, who also revealed that she received an important acting lesson while filming City of Joy.
The actor played Kamla Pal in the film, and she was conflicted about speaking English because she was a slum dweller. “Roland pointed out that the film is in English, and I have to think this is happening in translation. I learnt that we shouldn’t sacrifice comprehension for the sake of authenticity,” said the actor, who was amazed by the eye for detail by team City of Joy. “They keenly observed the rice or vegetables I cooked in front of the camera, because they knew the characters don’t have a refrigerator, and it was important to use the right type to avoid logical mistakes. When a make-up artist was putting on prosthetics for a woman who was supposed to be pregnant, he used an electronic contraption to show the baby kicking inside. Who does these things!” pointed out an incredulous Shabana, who has seen it all.
The legendary performer, who stepped into her 50th year as an actor, was recently seen in the 2023 films Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahaani and Ghoomer. She will next be part of Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lahore 1947, which is set to hit the screens on January 26, 2025.
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