‘Saaransh is like fire’
[Even after 25 years of its release, Saaransh burns the screen with the same intensity. Mahesh Bhatt calls it one from the heart, he analyses how a film made on a budget of Rs 15 lakhs attained the status of an evergreen classic
‘Saaransh is like fire’
Grappling with UGK’s son’s death
I had stumbled upon an autobiographical idiom of my own with the success of Arth. With that I found that a story sourced from my life and the woven into a film has a greater impact because human beings all over the world are grappling with the similar issues. Having explored the troubles , the heartaches and the fire while going through an extra-marital affair, it’s impact on your spouse – I found resounding success in Arth.
After that I discovered in that time when everybody was making fairy tales I had to touch something real and tell it simply in a Bollywood idiom. At that time it so happened my friend and guru U G Krishnamurthy, his young son was detected with terminal cancer. The process of his death unfolded before my eyes, where I saw my mentor deal with it in a very dignified way. I was exposed to the passing away of somebody very close to me, death was not something abstract and far away from me. Once you are yourself are exposed to fierce emotional upheavals it leaves footprints in your consciousness. I grappled with it in story form and found my answers to the issues of death, loss, questions of immortality and re-birth in my own humble way. But since the fire in my belly was so real, the urgency to answer those questions were within me. It was not an artificial thirst gererated to make money, it was a genuine pursuit that gave birth to the narrative of Saaransh. And the rest is . . . history.
But natural, the Maharashtrian backdrop
I lived in Shivaji Park, Dadar, Mumbai. I grew up bang opposite to the park - in fact. The film has been based there. In the film, the exterior of the house is that of my house and the interior was the exact replica of it. I lived my entire childhood among Maharashtrians and I am very comfortable with them. The Marathi culture is a part of my growing up. I have known people like B B Pradhan and his wife Parvati (the lead pair played by Kher and Hattangadi) because they were my neighbours. I had great affection for them. The Bal Mohan School and the Dadar beach is all a part of my consciousness, it came together in the film. am so familiar with that place… actually the place is ME. Geographically the entire film was played out there. The emotions in the film were authentic and so was the decor, they were interlinked.
Director Mohit Suri pointed out recntly how he was staggered by detailing of the film like Rohini touching a passing cow while leaving for the hospital as goons threatened them. I have seen devout people touching cows as holy symbols while growing up and that ritual stayed with me. Those details are what make the film what it is.
Harvesting emotional intensity of ‘young’ cast
I did not want an old man who had exhausted his emotional assets to play B B Pradhan; I wanted, instead, an older man who conveyed the intensity. That was the unique feature of U G Krishnamurthy. Though he was 30 years older than me(I was 30 and he was 64), he had an enormous energy that would put a 20-year-old to shame. A film needs emotional intensity and charge to see it through, you cannot have feeble people in the twilight of their life to playing out something as passionate as Saaransh. I had seen Ben Kingsley in Gandhi, he was a stunning example of what a young actor can make of a role of an elderly individual. So when Anupam walked into my house one day, I was stunned by his spirituality, he had come to me as a struggler.
Rohini had played the role of a Maharashtrian maid in Arth and I was stunned by her capacity of bringing the frangrance of a kaamwali bai to the role. So I knew I could lean on her to be the centre of film and exude that Marathi flavour that was a must for Saaransh.
I had seen Soni in 36 Chowranghee Lane, she was just right to play the alien in that Marathi household that I needed. Physically she was a such a misfit in that home. Madan Jain was like the Marathi boys I had grown up with. The character of Nilu Phule was modelled after Sena goons that terrorised people in that vicinity.
**Punchy lines, fleeting humour **
Dialogues flowered out of my heart, I also had Amit Khanna to help me out. Had it not been for the collaborative effort for this team - it wouldn’t have been. At the centre of it is an impulse to know the phenomenon of life, loss, death and the reason to go on in this withering , corrupt world. How should one live in such world. It is very difficult to say how a line comes up, I think Amit put my thoughts in words as the famous line “Tumhare chehare ki zhurriyon mein mere jeevan ka saaransh hai”. The credit is shared by both of us.
The most moving scene is when B B Pradhan finally tells his wife that life is just you, I and the picture on the wall. He makes her confront the truth and shatters her delusion that she has protected for years. He watches her collapse before his eyes, then gives her a helping hand and for the first time in the film, takes her out for a walk.
Saaransh has a kind of intensity and urgency, I could have sprinkled it with moving lighter moments. Because in the worst of tragedies you also laugh. If I had to make the film again I will keep everything intact but I will give them more moments to smile. Like when old man’s friend comes home and he tries on a suit and she laughs, a pigeon comes into the home - I felt missed that. Life is painful and devastating but life doesn’t lose its humour. Growing up now, I feel that perhaps the film could have had some genuine heartfelt humour, like Pradhan laughing at the with the fan coming on, right at the outset. These moments were needed to cushion a narrative so intense and strong as Saaransh.
I never dare to re-work a classic, it was the product of its time, it came from the hearts of people who had integrity and the thirst to give it all. It got standing ovation then and a standing ovation 25 years later. One would be out of one’s mind to try and redo it. It would be an exercise in stupidity.
Raj Kumar Barjatya took on his dad
When I narrated the script to Raj Kumar Barjatya he heard behind my madness and my passion, the sparkling truth that is ageless. He had the eye and the wisdom to recognise it and support it. Never in my life have I got a producer who has stood by my creative integrity even against the patriarch - Tarachand Barjatya Saheb questioned the climax and he wanted the re-incarnation theory to be endorsed. I was a young man of 33 opposing him saying that this film has this ending or there is no film! I remember, Raj Kumar stood squarely against his father for me and he gave me not only money and manpower, but also protection from my creative vision being mauled by someone as important as his father. I raise a toast to him!
25 and shining
[size=]The best compliment is that Saraansh simply refuses to die with time, it impacted youngsters ith same force as it did seniors in those days when it was made. Saraansh is like fire, it burns every time you touch it. It has in its veins the truth which doesn’t belong to me, Raj Kumar Barjatya or Anupam Kher. We happen to come upon it and we managed to capture it but it belongs to the human race.
Sooni Taraporevala, the writer-director remarked, as you get older, the film gains greater significance. It has a timeless quality because of the truth that affects the human heart.[/size]
