Vishal Bhardwaj recalls getting stuck in a crossfire between Hindu and Muslim men: ‘We tried to call the cops…’

Vishal recalled the time and said it was a very “vulnerable situation” in the city, which would frequently witness Hindu-Muslim riots. “When the riots started spreading, he (Bashir Badr) left his house in Shastri Nagar fearing for his life. I didn’t see his house getting torched, I went there after that. He was such a great poet, an asset to the city, but his house was burnt.

“He was in a hurry while leaving the house as he heard that a mob was marching towards his place to burn it down. He couldn’t find the diary in which he had written all his latest poems. He left in a hurry and all the poetries he wrote in the last one year were burnt in the house.”

But not all was lost, as Vishal said he remembered all his poetries. When Bashir Badr came back, he was in depression. His son called the filmmaker as the legendary poet wanted to see him.

“He wanted to meet me, I was 19, and one Mr Bhandari, who was 70. He remembered some, I remembered most. So he would ask me, ‘Beta woh ghazal ki kuch sher yaad hai?’ and of course, I remembered everything! He started writing and came out of his depression in 15 days. Mr Bhandari and I remembered 90 percent of the poetries which were burnt. My love for poetry is very good, so I would remember whatever he would make me read or hear.”

The filmmaker then shared another story from when he was in seventh standard, about a gangster, who was friendly with children. Vishal Bhardwaj said he was killed as part of some rivalry, and it was the first time he saw a dead body.

“In Omkara, there is a Tyagi hostel where all of them would live. Our school was next to the hostel. The gangster, who used to love kids, had occupied the warden’s place, so the warden would live in the hostel. The shortcut to our school was from their place, and we would often see them cleaning guns, bullets. He would also ask us, ‘Gun pakad ke dekhega?’ and would hand it over. Once there was a grenade as well! Once when our exams were on, we heard gunshots. After that, when we were walking back using the same shortcut, the place was filled with cops. We went to his courtyard, and he was lying dead. It was the first time I saw a dead body.”

Vishal Bhardwaj then shared a story of another riots, in 1985 in Meerut. The filmmaker recalled how a Muslim family went through a horrific time, of which he was a witness.

“There was a Muslim family in our locality. They had three daughters, a bungalow and a nursery school. My father had passed away, so we were living in a rented place, where the landlord was a sub-inspector, who had ten sons. They wanted to kill the Muslim family, rape their daughters. They found a local gun and started planning that they would enter through the kitchen, open the gas cylinder and fire and burn the place.

“Fortunately, that Muslim gentleman had a gun. The moment they entered; he fired a shot in the air. Every time they would attempt, he would fire in the air. He was a gentleman; he wasn’t killing anyone. This lasted for an hour, after which the cops came, firing guns. I was watching this so then I jumped, scaled the wall and went to another house. I was stuck in a crossfire! We tried to call the cops because what was happening was terrible. I have seen this mob psyche and it is always supported by the system,” he added.

Vishal Bhardwaj has given Indian cinema gems like Omkara, Maqbool, Haider and Kaminey, among others.