Interview Deepa Mehta: Before Midnight In an exclusive interview with Khabar, the acclaimed director of Fire, Earth, and Water talks about her approach to filmmaking, past struggles, and working with Salman Rushdie on the adaptation of Midnight’s Children. By ALKA ROY Ann Borden Photo: Screenwriter, editor and director, Deepa Mehta, on-one with Mehta, where she talks about her past who calls India and Canada her two homes, has already work and her latest venture—the film adaptation of made an indelible mark in the world of cinema. Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Her films, especially the Elements trilogy—Fire ABOUT MIDNIGHT (1996), Earth (1998) and Water (2005), have evoked strong Why Salman Rushdie and why Midnight’s responses. She has been celebrated for her films as well Children? as criticized by some, particularly when they are set Salman is one of the most iconic and interesting against the backdrop of traditional and social con- writers of the twentieth or twenty-first century. straints. But undeterred, Mehta continues to tell the I find his books, especially Midnight’s Children, stories she wants to tell. very cinematic. There seems to be a central question, a challenge, Your films are visually rich and the dialogue is confronting her main characters: How will you use sparse. But the protagonist of Midnight’s Children, Sal- your imagination to not only survive but break free? Wheth- eem, let’s just say, likes to talk. How do you plan to er it is through magic realism or poetry or the film’s reconcile that? setting or through other characters, her protagonists This is not a sort of film that’s the visual represen- struggle, take chances, explore passion and love, and tation of the book. The screenplay takes on another life. ultimately find a way to assert their individuality. Some of the best adaptations are screenplays that keep Mehta was nominated for the Best Foreign Lan- the essence but are not visual representations of the guage Film Oscar for Water in 2005 and won the Genie book—like David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago. Award, given for the best of Canadian cinema, for Bol- How involved were you in developing the script? lywood/Hollywood (2002). Her other film credits include Salman wrote it, but we sat down together and Sam and Me (1991), which won an Honorable Mention at said, okay, these are the themes that we will pay atten- Cannes, Camilla (1994), The Republic of Love (2003) and tion to. And these are the ones we love very much but Heaven on Earth/Videsh (2008). She has also directed a have to sacrifice because they cannot fit in the two- few episodes of George Lucas’s Emmy-award winning hour format. TV series, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. What was it like to work with Rushdie on During the last week of February, Mehta was in At- the script? lanta to deliver the Sheth Lecture on Indian Studies at Excellent. I was nervous in the beginning. Though Emory University. Here is an excerpt from a candid one- I know him really well, I didn’t know how to tell the >> Interview author of a book that we can’t keep a particular scene that’s awful but as long as it was controversial, it would because everybody knows that scene. It’s almost like be popular. That doesn’t happen. heresy. But it was fascinating. We sat down across his THE STORIES desk in New York, he took out his notes and I took out Heaven on Earth/Videsh, with Preity Zinta, is about mine. And they were almost identical. So I said, okay, a Punjabi bride who comes to Canada and is faced this is going to be fine. with domestic violence. Your trilogy deals with other Do you have the cast finalized? issues that the Indian society doesn’t seem to want to We know we will work with Shabana Azmi, Nandi- talk about. Is that why you are attracted to these sub- ta Das, Seema Biswas, Irrfan Khan, Om Puri and Shriya jects? Sharan. The complete cast announcement will be made It’s the story that attracts me. I don’t say, okay, in July. what’s the next thing that we have a collective amnesia CONTROVERSIES, CONTROVERSIES about. My films have been explorations of things that I Both you and Rushdie have faced controversies don’t know too much about. Water came out because I and attacks, especially from the fundamentalists. Did was intrigued by the state of institutionalization of that create an understanding between you that widows. With Earth, partition was something my father brought you together on this project? went through. It’s the desire to know more about cer- I don’t know what it’s like for Salman, but for me, tain subjects. what I have been through was like a trial—a trial by fire, And Heaven on Earth? in fact. After Water, with fundamentalists trashing our Heaven on Earth happened because I met an incred- sets, I went through a phase where I felt alienated from ible man in Toronto who does such good work with do- my country. But then about two years after my experi- mestic violence in the Punjabi community. We wanted ence with Water, my love for my country was reinforced. to do the film because we felt that it was an interesting In fact, now I look at India without the rose-colored way of showing that the women are not alone. glasses, without the tinge of nostalgia. I see it for what You also made a documentary on domestic vio- it is. When you can love something—whether a person lence. or a place or an idea— with all its fallacies, all its weak- The documentary, in fact, led to the film. The film is nesses, somehow that love becomes more real. also based on Girish Karnad’s Nagamandala. With your experiences and threats against artists That’s Karnad’s play. You also adapted Carol like Rushdie, M.F. Husain and now even stars like Shields’s Republic of Love; Earth was based on Bapsi Shahrukh Khan, do you think that the artists in India Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man, and now it’s Rushdie’s Mid- need to organize more formally against attacks from night’s Children. Is there something about adaptations fundamentalists? that really appeals to you? When somebody like Shahrukh Khan gets his post- If book adaptations have prepared me, then articles ers burnt, you say, oh my God, what can we mere mor- have prepared me, then there is my life itself that has tals do? They did try with the (Safdar) Hashmi Trust. prepared me. And because of that, now I feel quasi-con- And individuals do come to support. Mahesh Bhatt has fident about being able to tackle something as mam- always been vocal—Dilip Kumar, even, (and) Shabana moth as Midnight’s Children. Azmi and Javed Akhtar. But this affects everyone’s bread You said that stories attract you. The saying and butter in so many ways, and there are so many dif- goes that we tell stories to better understand our- ferent allegiances, this is not seen as a priority. selves. True? With the success of Water, looking back, would Absolutely true. I would never be able to say that you say that controversies have helped you more than the reason I make films is to help the world become a they’ve hurt you? better place or because I have a message to deliver. I These sorts of controversies are not helpful be- mean, that’s so arrogant. I am just trying to understand cause they kill your spirit. To a large degree it really in- myself. furiates me because it’s so undermining of one’s work. Your films usually have female protagonists. But To say that controversies mean success would mean your next two films,Midnight’s Children and Komagata that anybody could write or Maru, both have male protagonists. Just a coincidence make a film or a conscious shift? Earth is based on Bapsi’s book, so it inherited the protagonist Lenny-baby, who is a young girl. Water is an original screenplay. The film was about widows, I couldn’t have a boy in the lead. Midnight’s Children’s pro- tagonist, for a large part of the film, is like a child. I find that that gaze, that sort of gaze of precociousness, inse- curity, innocence, can really encompass a lot. Interview THE APPROacH formed so much of what I do. And Ritwik Ghatak. If Even when your films deal with very difficult is- there is lyricism and humanity in Ray, Ghatak has poli- sues, the visual feel of the film is rich, almost gentle. tics and an edge. Also, Guru Dutt’s poetry and un- Is that a conscious choice? abashed romanticism, which I am a real sucker for. After I finish writing a script, I put it away. The Contemporary directors? next time I pick it up, I have my director’s hat on. It’s Farhan Akhtar. There is something original about very important that I stop being a writer. That’s when his imagination. I liked (Neeraj Pandey’s) A Wednesday. the script begins to have a color to it. And Mani Ratnam for his lyricism. Like? Women directors? With Earth it was the color of blood, terracotta and Mira Nair. Also, Aparna Sen. 36 Chowringhee Lane green. If you look at Earth, there is no blue anywhere in was brilliant.