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The beauty and strength of a tree lies in its roots. The deeper it runs,the taller it is,and as it grows,the roots help it stay grounded. In many ways,Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi is like a tree down to earth. And the doctor-turned-actor-turned-filmmaker has come up with cinema that is rooted. With his new film Mohalla Assi,the filmmaker who is known for television series,Chanakya,and award-winning film,Pinjar,is planning to reinvent himself and his cinema.
A literary connoisseur,Dwivedi browsed through the classics to pull out Dr Kashinath Singhs popular Hindi novel,Kashi Ka Assi. In the movie,which is set against the backdrop of the ghats of Varanasi,Sunny Deol plays a Sanskrit teacher and TV actor Sakshi Tanwar his wife,and they live in a mohalla at the Assi ghat. Dwivedi says the film is an experiment,spanning over a decade,from 1988 to 1998,that saw liberalisation and the influx of the dollar.
How globalisation changes a mohalla and uproots its centuries-old culture is the basic premise of the film, says Dwivedi. This film will show Deol in a new light and I am curious to see how it works with the audience, says Dwivedi,although he is still unsure about the films release date. I would love to release it this year but I had no idea that the film would have so much soundwork to it the ghats,the Varanasi backdrop,the old mohalla we have plenty to record. Also,because its a medium budget film,he says he cant risk unhealthy competition by releasing it around the big-budget ones.
In the meantime,its television and more scripts that take up Dwivedis time. Of course,in between are the medical consultations that he offers to fellow actors and filmmakers. Once a doctor,always a doctor, he continues,speaking in chaste Hindi.
Language and culture are his key subjects,for according to Dwivedi,the world is losing one language everyday. We cant stop this cultural erosion but we can salvage whats left, he adds. In the same breath,he explains how its the love for the language,history and traditions that keeps south
Indian cinema alive. Weve disowned Hindi,we are embarrassed to speak in the language. So,its an orphan now, he rues.
Moving on to literature,Dwivedi explains his constant struggle with the Mahabharata. After a series of attempts in various forms,Dwivedi is still attempting to re-create the epic on small screen. A project was announced before Ekta Kapoors Mahabharata,and we worked on it for two years but soon,the market forces came into play. For one,I cant see a 22-year-old playing Kunti, he says.
Dwivedi stuck to his principals and left the project. He began work on The Legend of Kunal,the story of Asokas son,with Big B in mind. But budget constraints put the project on hold. Then came Vedanta,which is based on the Upanishads and Vedas that form the core of
Indian philosophy. You,me and mine the three words that make up our universe have been discussed extensively in the Vedas.
We have made 52 episodes funded by the Chinmaya Mission,and are we are waiting for channel to telecast it, he says.
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