A POET'S VISION
Dr. Jai Maharaj
The making of ''Meenaxi: Tale of Three Cities'' was full
of eccentricities what with the father-son duo, M. F.
Husain and Owais Husain, involved. But it was thoroughly
enjoyable for that reason, Owais tells GOWRI RAMNARAYAN.
The Hindu
Friday, March 12, 2004
A CELEBRITY father is not an unmixed blessing, especially
if the son follows the same pursuit. Owais Husain has not
only chosen to be a painter, but has co-written and co-
directed the soon-to-be-released ''Meenaxi: Tale of Three
Cities'' with father M. F. Husain.
''Meenaxi: Tale of Three Cities'' has striking visuals.
The feature has Tabu as the mysterious Meenaxi-Maria in
Hyderabad, Jaisalmer and Prague, and Raghuvir Yadav as
the Nawab-novelist. Bearded and black-coated, the
fictional character Kameshwar (Kunnal Kapoor) is
reminiscent of a younger M. F. Husain. They chase their
hopes and dreams -- of overcoming a writer's block, of
finding perfect love, or achieving identity -- in real-
surreal meetings through lush song and dance forays.
The film has striking visuals, a few achieved almost by
accident. In Jaisalmer for instance, Owais Husain rushed
to the dunes when local goons broke up his state-of-the-
art sets. The camel had run away, a boat from the hotel
had to serve instead. That was how before the light
faded, Tabu was shot beside a red boat on the rolling
sands, throwing her hands up against the setting sun.
The shifting balances between what is real, created and
imagined are a major concern in ''Meenaxi.'' Santosh
Sivan provides camera wizardry in this film of flamboyant
colours and choreography, while A. R. Rahman's East-West
music resonates with the mood of the three cities,
including a Qawwali (Noor-un-ala) written by M. F.
Husain. ''The film is a combination of my classical touch
and (Owais's) contemporary perceptions,'' says the
father.
What does the son say? Here Owais Husain talks about his
feature debut in collaboration with his maverick father.
Excerpts:
As a painter, how do you react to the bustling teamwork
of cinema after the privacy of the atelier?
I had been taken by the medium of the theatre, and then
became serious about photography when I discovered Black
and White Italian neo-realist cinema. Instead of carrying
a painter's sketchbook on my travels, I went 'video
sketching' in Orissa, Rajasthan and Mexico. I am a
figurative painter. Cinema taught me to explore negative
space, to look at other areas besides the figure. I began
to study film stills and photographs of the European
masters.
Yes, I'm obsessed with painting, but after the Guernica
and American Abstract Expressionism, and once the white
canvas is painted, tell me, what next? Cinema is such a
young medium that the whole journey is exciting.
Filmmaking is like taming an animal, you want to control
it by the horns.
Tabu and Kunnal Kapoor.
Belonging to two different generations, could you and
your father see eye to eye when you worked together?
(Laughs) Crazy things happened, disastrous at times. We
do have a comradely relationship but also a volatile one.
I am more familiar with modern literature and lifestyles,
he is at home with older ways of thinking. Not that he is
hidebound -- he is anything but a traditionalist!
Our conflicts had more to do with different kinds of
approach. He may want a character to walk away into a
happy ending, I would insist on some valid justification
for it. We'd argue, sparks would fly ... Somewhere his
reasons would have to do with the traditions of painting
and folklore, whereas I am fascinated by poetry that
leads into metaphor.
My wife Reima, who produced the film, was the peacemaker,
especially because she knows more about cinema
technically than we do. That is how the three of us
developed the character of Meenaxi, the perfume seller, a
desert bloom, with eyes shaped like fish but having to
become an activist fighting for water in Rajasthan. As
Maria in Prague, she is Joan of Arc by night and a
waitress by day.
Why Tabu? What was her reaction to your strange storyline
that is way beyond the pale of both the naturalistic and
the Bollywood moulds?
Who else? After Smita Patil, she is our most serious
actress, very enthusiastic about adapting herself to
different challenges. In some places she did freak out
laughing. She'd let out a 'Whaaat.' But she'd do the
scene, sometimes going further than our expectations. As
Maria, the Czech student of Indology, she was just
fantastic!
Were you creating a kaleidoscope with Tabu images, as
with Madhuri Dixit in ''Gaja Gamini''?
In ''Gaja Gamini'' my father was dealing with rasas, with
mythology, with the image of Shakti. That was a painter's
vision. ''Meenaxi'' tries to be a poet's vision. We have
this woman lost in her own world, she can't spell out her
emotions. In Hyderabad she motivates the writer to start
writing again. In Jaisalmer and Prague we have a love
story. Finally the journey is all about the writer
overcoming his block. Or has he?
Why these three locations, why not Lucknow instead of
Hyderabad, or Vienna instead of Prague?
Jaisalmer is the perfect desert city, all gold, not
garish pink like Jaipur, or stark like Chitor. In
Hyderabad you can find havelis still in a timewarp, it
had more for us to explore than familiar Delhi or
Lucknow. As her hometown, it brought out something
special in Tabu.
Co-writer and co-director Owals Husain with with Reima,
who is the producer of the film.
Prague is the gateway to western culture, architecturally
most Gothic, the first European city my father had
visited in the 1950s. He had revelled in the music and
folk dances at its Spring festival. For me Prague made a
fabulous visual backdrop.
Actually my father, Reima and I got charged up after the
screening of ''Gaja Gamini'' at the Berlinale. The next
thing we knew, on our flight back to India, we decided to
make another film and thrash out the concept of the
cities as the theme. We treated each city like a separate
book in a trilogy.
Your father made a visual book of ''Gaja Gamini'' before
starting to shoot. But ''Meenaxi'' had a fluid script,
with lots of on-the-spot improvisations. And with two
painters in charge, your film must have made strange,
singular demands. How did the team react to them?
Eccentricities were to be expected in making a film like
this, and our team enjoyed it just for that reason. Being
spiritually inclined, A. R. Rahman was able to create
music with the mystery and mystique of the theme that has
as much to do with places as with people. We went through
Prague together, and Turkey too, to explore the Turkish
origins of Hyderabadi culture, just to get the flavour.
I designed the sets, and had the movements, costumes and
lights ready before telling the choreographer that I
didn't want a dance, I wanted to design a song, to
picturise the movements of the characters.
M.F. Hussain.
In Prague Astad Deboo had to figure out how to
accommodate Renaissance paintings, a black angel and the
three graces, in composing a dance sequence. At other
times Reima would somehow manage to satisfy last-minute
demands -- for a unicorn, an angel with feathers, or an
antique hookah!
Can't find a better poet than Santosh Sivan. Sometimes he
did go berserk when I filled up the sets with not two or
three but 50 different elements. But his camera captured
all the textures, feelings and poetry. At the end we
found that there was no need to digitally colour-correct
the film, it had been impeccably shot. Editor Sreekar
Prasad was amazing, -- he'd giggle softly as he cut and
spliced and -- hey presto, you had the rhythms you
wanted!
What kind of audience orbit do you expect for this film?
Even when you paint you do want to reach the largest
number of people, but you can't work with that aim in
mind. In ''Meenaxi'' too we tried to explore the medium.
It's not an over-the-top commercial product, nor is it an
art house film. I think everyone can relate to its
poetry, music, colour and emotions.
More at:
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2004/03/12/stories/2004031201850100.htm
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
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