Journalism of Courage
Meenu Gaur,who co-wrote and co-directed Zinda Bhaag,Pakistans Oscar entry after nearly 50 years,on mining Lahore to tell a story of the land and the revival of cinema in Pakistan.
The India premiere of Zinda Bhaag was at the Kolkata International Film Festival last month. What are your release plans here?
I grew up in Kolkata and when the question of bringing the film to India came up,I was clear about showing it at Nandan which has a massive screen. Next,we are showing it at the International Film Festival of Kerala. We showed it at NFDC Film Bazaar,Goa,too,and are in talks with distributors to release it in India. We hope to have a date by the end of this year.
What was the response like at the premiere in Kolkata?
It was a packed house and people kept laughing at the one-liners. I was wondering how a Bengali audience could respond to a Lahori film. Then I realised that the mohalla culture in Lahore and para culture in Kolkata are very similar. One can spot boys whiling away their time,mulling over theories of life at both places. Like Lahore,Kolkata is laid-back and sports-obsessed. I have seen people play night cricket and these matches being relayed on cable TV in Kolkata. When I moved to Lahore,I found that it happens there too.
Tell us about your early cinematic influences.
My family is from UP,but I was born and brought up in Kolkata,where my father worked for a French multi-national company. My family members were film buffs. So I watched a lot of films while growing up. By the time I got admission in Delhis Lady Sriram College,I knew that I wanted to make movies. Thats why I chose to do my Masters in film studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University.
How did the core team come together to make this movie?
While I was doing my PhD in filmmaking at the School of Oriental and African Studies,London,I met Mazhar Zaidi,who was a journalist with the BBC for 13 years. We bonded over our common passion cinema and later got married. We moved to Pakistan for what we thought would be a brief stint when Mazhar got an offer to head the current affairs television channel of Dawn newspaper. Soon,we were in Karachi,we started working on Zinda Bhaag. By then,Mazhar had already been running Matteela Films with Farjad Nabi,who is also a lawyer. Both of them have made much-appreciated documentaries (Nusrat Has Left the Building…But When and Nar Narman). I too made documentaries intermittently.
Since Mazhar has a background in journalism,he is more inclined to documentaries while Farjad and I are interested in fiction. Thats how we came to write and direct the movie together.
How did you all make a shift from documentaries to feature films?
We wanted to tell a story thats quintessentially Lahori. A movie that captures Lahores sense of humour,its use of repartee and clever one-liners called jugaat,as well as its everyday struggle and aspirations. All of us had this discussion on what life in Lahore or Pakistan is like. No film tells you that. They either tell you about terror or conflict. Zinda Bhaag (Run for Life) is about three Lahore boys who want to change their lives. Since finding a legitimate door to that change is impossible,they opt for illegal immigration,which is called dunky in Lahori parlance.
What made you choose Mumbai for post-production work?
The film has taken nearly two-and-a-half years to be made. Pakistani filmmakers mostly do their post-production work in Bangkok as these facilities are not available at home. We chose India because it was closer,cheaper and has a similar culture.
The films music is already available in India and quite popular…
It has a lot of songs Sufi,bhangra and qawwali by Pakistani singers. We wanted to pay a tribute to the film songs of the 70s. In the past,songs would tell the audience what couldnt be said in dialogues. Today,that relationship between the narrative and songs is gone. We were trying to recreate that. All our songs have live acoustics as it used to be then,with real violins,cellos and saxophones.
How did you get Naseeruddin Shah on board?
For the role of Puhlwan,we wanted Naseeruddin Shah. When we suggested this to Mazhar,who is the movies producer,he thought we were being very ambitious. But then,he decided to give it a shot. We found his email address and landline number online. We mailed the script and left a message on the answering machine. Two weeks later,he called Mazhar and said that he really liked the script. They met in Dubai soon after. Later on,he conducted a 10-day workshop with the movies cast
He plays a character from an interior part of Lahore. There,old men apply mehndi to their hair and moustache. Its a sign of being a stylish buddha someone who is still into his looks. He is quite dandy in the film.
Most of your actors are first-timers. How did you select the cast?
Our intention was to tell a story out of the streets of Lahore. We held open auditions in small localities across Lahore. Some 400 boys attended them. They did not know what they were coming for and would dance and sing during the auditions. There is no real film industry in Pakistan. It has collapsed. Some came thinking that the auditions were for television shows,which they were familiar with. The three central characters in the film Khaldi,Tambi and Chitta are young boys we found in these mohallas. The entire supporting cast also came from there. We rehearsed with them so much before the shoot that we did not have to direct them on the sets.
The films crew too is fairly inexperienced.
Nearly 90 per cent of the crew was on their first feature film. What they lacked in terms of expertise,they made up with their passion. They worked for 45 days on a 14-hour shift for very little money. Art direction was handled by students of an art school. However,we had some experts as heads of departments such as Indian cinematographer Satya Rai Nagpaul,who won a National Award for Anhe Ghore Da Daan.
How did you raise funds for the project?
We had some money from international financiers. That was the seed money. Later on,we got lots of help from within Pakistan,mainly from private investors.
Did its selection to the Oscars come as a surprise?
The news came when we were about to release the movie in Pakistan and the US. It came as a wonderful surprise. The film community in Pakistan is very small,but everyone was excited. We thought,finally,there would be some attention to this neglected industry. Its an indie film and has got quite good reviews so far without us having worked on promotions. Coming this far is pretty good,if we go further,then balle balle!
Is this a sign of the film industry in Pakistan looking up?
It has produced six films this year and three of them are indie efforts. Though in India,it may not seem outstanding,it is very good news in Pakistan. The Oscar entry is the culmination of the feeling that cinema is seeing a revival here.
What are your next projects?
Three of us are working on another feature film. Mazhars documentary based on the memories and images of 102-year-old Pakistani photojournalist FE Chaudhry is nearing completion. Farjad and I are making a documentary called Karachi Tasting: The Secret which talks about food,migration and memory. That apart,I will be doing a documentary on Lollywood called The Ghost of Maula Jutt. Its about Maula Jutt,a Punjabi film that released in 1979 and ran for 216 weeks until the Martial Law authorities took it down.
