THE ALL-ROUNDER

Then of course,there are some things that movies dont tell you. Like the fact that Bhardwaj is a stickler for punctuality. He wants to meet us at an ungodly 9 a.m. on a weekday Mumbai morning for which he is on the dot. He is also courteous and offers us a lift from suburban Lokhandwala to town,hoping to wrap up the interview en route. And this is no surprise since the director is known for his multi-tasking skills. And while the car moves through rush-hour traffic,Bhardwaj sings out loud Dhan Te Nan,the signature song of his latest,Kaminey as we make ourselves comfortable in his Qualis. Theres no mistaking that he revels in being the man of the moment. I never knew I would be able to make good films, he starts off,only to add with a chuckle,I know that sounds a bit much,doesnt it? Ok,let me say,I never thought Ill be able to make better than usual films. Im happy it has turned out the way it has because Im having a good time doing what I do.

Hes definitely having a blast at the movies where as a director,he has charted out an enviable graph. From the sublime Maqbool to the refreshing The Blue Umbrella,from the wicked fun Makdee to the deeply dramatic Omkara,Bhardwajs movies are part lyrical and part literary. His films have given us characters like Nimmi and Langda Tyagi and some catchy songs like Beedi right next to the soulful Naina Thag Lenge.

Surprisingly,Vishals greatest ambition in life was to be a cricketer. He even played cricket for the under-19 team for his state,Uttar Pradesh. His fascination with cinema started in his hometown Meerut where he would watch Manmohan Desais masala movies like Amar Akbar Anthony and Naseeb through a miasma of cigarette smoke in dilapidated single-screen theatres. However,it was music that first beckoned him. His father,Ram Bhardwaj,a well-known poet and lyricist,encouraged his musical leanings. He recounts his summer vacation days in Mumbai when his father would take him along to movie previews. I saw the trial screening of Jaaneman with Dev Anand. I saw Damaad with Amol Palekar. I saw Aitbaar in Dimple preview theatre,Bandra where Smita Patil was in attendance, he says.

With musical dreams in his sight,Bhardwaj moved to Delhi where he started out by playing the harmonium for local ghazal singers at food festivals in Pragati Maidan. Soon he was composing music for documentaries and Doordarshan shows. Next up was a job with CBS Gramophone Records where Bhardwaj took a sneaky transfer to Mumbai on a salary of Rs 2,700. I came with an agenda to get work in films and was prepared for a long struggle, he reminisces.

The struggle was over when Gulzar offered him the music of Jungle Book. Incidentally,Bhardwaj had met Gulzar during his Delhi days at a mithai shop. Actually I had shrewdly planned this meeting also. I was in the studio when I heard that Gulzar saab is coming to work on Amjad Ali Khan saabs documentary. Gulzar saab called the studio to ask for directions as he had lost his way in the foggy night. I happened to take the call and told him to wait at the mithai shop and went to get him, he recounts with a smile.
That was the beginning of a productive partnership with Vishal going on to compose beautiful music for Gulzars Maachis and Hu Tu Tu. Till date,Gulzars word is the last for the filmmaker. If he says he likes my film,bas,thats it.

After that,I dont need to know whether or not anyone else liked it, he says. It was Gulzar who nudged him to turn to direction with Makdee. No surprises then that it was on Gulzars insistence that he decided to make Kaminey after Omkara. I thought he will hate the script but he loved it and told me,Make this,its a sure shot hit, he says with a smile.
In Kaminey,Bhardwaj toplines with seven creditssinger,music director,script-screenplay,dialogues,background score,director and lyrics. For trivia enthusiasts,Bhardwaj has penned the lyrics of Fatak.

Kaminey is Bhardwajs most commercial project till date. Its a caper replete with all the clichés of a Bollywood potboiler that have been turned on their heads. Kaminey is about judwa bhai. Its about one brother taking the seedha raasta and the other who opts for the ghalat raasta. They hate each other. The bad guys are out to get them. Its all about how both of them get played by 15 characters. You name the cliché and its there yet every cliché has been given an unusual twist, he says.

Shooting Kaminey was an arduous task. The 48-year-old director terms it the most humiliating shoot of his life. The sheer area of the film shot in 80 real locations all over Mumbai and the scope the story unfolds in 24 hours on a rainy day spelt hell for Bhardwajs team. Till last count,20 assistant directors and six line producers had quit the film. It was a maddening shoot. I dont know what prompted me to set the film in the rains or to shoot in places like rundown train bogies and rail tracks. Every day,there were 10 tankers on the set to create rain and the Kaminey water had to fall in a particular manner thousand times a day. Its no wonder all these people quit. They couldnt take the pressure. I was screaming all the time. In my entire life,Ive never humiliated myself so much, he says.

Yeah well,he must have done something right during the shoot for fellow filmmaker Anurag Kashyap to put this status message on his Facebook account: Kaminey badi hee Kamineeee Film hai. Jab se dekha,jaley jaa raha hoon8230;
Thats high praise indeed for someone who started with a handicap of no formal training or even assisting experience. Bhardwaj credits Krzysztof Kieslowskis The Decalogue as his sole source of cinema education. Kieslowskis power of cinema stunned me. From the Polish great,I learnt that a filmmaker can be literary in cinema and not be apologetic for what you do, he says.

His Omkara actor Ajay Devgan says,Since he writes his own scripts,Bhardwaj sees the film in his head. On the field,Bhardwaj likes to stand next to the camera to see the actors do their job. He doesnt even glance at the monitor. Cinema is all about the moment of truth. The work of the director is to catch the false note. I like to see that happen with my naked eye, Bhardwaj says.

This fascination has led him to work with both the artistically finest Pankaj Kapur,Naseeruddin Shah,Tabu,Om Puri,Irrfan Khan,Shabana Azmi to the commercially stylish Saif Ali Khan,Kareena Kapoor,Ajay Devgan,Shahid Kapoor,Priyanka Chopra. Whenever he sets out to cast,he is reminded of Naseers words of caution that all directors who began small,when they start working with the big stars,get lost in the stardom and are unable to make a true film. Thats the reason why Bhardwaj is always game for out of the box cast options. So if in Omkara we got the gifted Deepak Dobriyal as Rajjo then in Kaminey we will see Taare Zameen Par writer Amole Gupte as the main villain,Bhope Bhau. Gupte was snapped up because of his long hair and beard. Amole has an interesting,unseen face in this age bracket, says Bhardwaj. In the same film,for the role of the drug lord,Tashi,Bhardwaj called his old friend Tenzing Nima from Mussoorie who works as a travel and tour operator.

Post Kaminey,Bhardwaj gets busy as a producer for his associate,Abhishek Chaubeys Naseerudin Shah-Vidya Balan-Arshad Warsi starrer Ishqiya. On the directing front,there is a project with Hrithik Roshan that is bubbling. He would also like to humiliate myself once again by attempting a sequel of Kaminey called Maha Kaminey. Im tempted to explore future escapades of these characters. They have a comic book feel to them which isnt easy to ignore, he says.
Well be waiting,then.