While listening to the infectious “Ikk Kudi Jida Naam Mohabbat Ghum Hai” from > Udta Punjab on the loop, I am somehow convinced that poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi, on whose popular poem the song is based, must have met Alia Bhatt before writing the elegiac verses. Otherwise how can the noted Punjabi poet goes on to say ‘umaraje hai marke agg di, par naina di gal samajhdi’ (…and an age that is as much as that of embers, but she understands the conversation of the eyes.) The fact that Batalvi passed away in 1973 doesn’t make a difference for me for he creates such a definitive word portrait of Alia. In film after film, the young girl does something that effortlessly goes through the surface and caresses the soul. After Highway , one thought she has taken the broadway of Bollywood but last week she swept the critics again off their feet with a compelling performance as Bihari girl working in the fields of Punjab.
“I don’t know. I don’t have answers for where I get my understanding from. I am young, I have very limited knowledge may be but I think it has something to do with how I have been brought up. I have an opinion on many things. I think I understand a lot more things than what people imagine me of being capable of,” says Alia taking a dignified swipe at medipersons who once judged her acting calibre by her general knowledge. “Contrary to what many people believe, I have this ability to observe and pick up things. I like picking up things from every day life.” Referring to her complex nameless character in Udta Punjab, Alia says even a person younger than her can understand what it feels like being in such a situation — not having money and security and then being thrown in this situation with goons and drugs. “As a girl I understood what the magnitude is like, and that’s how I approached it.”
But to play it, you need an understanding of life, grass root politics, which girls from Bandra are usually unaware of. “That way I am unusual and like to stay like that,” interrupts Alia giving it to her parents, Soni Razadan and Mahesh Bhatt. “They didn’t discuss the socio-political milieu of the country with me I was invariable around when such discussions took place. All of us are very highly sensitive people. I may not be aware of the details but I know the emotions that people go through.”
Does she take her characters home for homework? “No, not at all. They know only as much as the audience. Unko special treatment nahin milta hai (they don't get special treatment),” she chuckles. “The only person I discuss my character with is my director.”
Alia denies that her choice of roles spurred from her representation as yet another girl from a film family in a section of the media. “Not at all. From the beginning I was not bothered by it because I never believed it. I feel you are known for the film choices you make and not for how intelligent you sound in your interviews and how you dressed up in a fashion show. They do play a role but eventually it is the roles that you play on screen that matter. That is why my film choices are very important to me. It’s a do or die kind of situation for me.”
That’s why, she says, Udta Punjab was an opportunity that she would never let go. “Many were apprehensive about it because it is not a very mainstream heroine kind of role but if you look closely the definition of mainstream heroine is changing today.”
The only thing she was apprehensive about was will people be able to separate Alia, the celebrity and the character she is playing on screen. Yes, she uses the word celebrity for herself. She can as at 23 Alia is not only working with all the big banners, she also sings and has a fashion brand. “This becomes difficult even for some journalists. I have been asked, ‘but we don’t get to see Alia in the film.’ I said but this should happen with every film. You should always see the character. This is the normal way to go.”
Alia’s journey towards embracing emotionally draining characters started with Imtiaz Ali’s > Highway . “ Highway was a very special film for me as I learnt a lot not only about myself but also about my country. Udta Punjab was more physically and emotionally draining because there was nothing about this character that I could relate to. None of reflexes and actions came from me. Everything was an act that we created for the character. There are films where you are asked to laugh like you laugh in everyday life. Here I don’t laugh or cry the way I do in real life. I probably cry the way I cried in Kapoor & Sons . In Highway I could draw from my childhood. Here it was like the howl of an animal. It was very exhausting and I shot for the film for 21 days. When it ended, I was happy that it was over.”
The young girl has a process as well. “I have constant reference points in life. I keep inspiring myself by looking at the work of Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Kareena and Kangana but when I am performing a part on screen all the research happens before I go to the sets. On the sets, I am nowhere but in the character’s head otherwise I will not be able to give a true performance. Audience can point out a fake note, when the actor is not quite there,” she reflects.
Alia knows the problem of drug abuse exists in the society she moves in as well. “But the research opened a world where people on railway platforms are snorting cocaine and injecting heroine. I realised that drugs affect every part of human body. That is why when you try to fight it out you get withdrawal symptoms and there is a certain kind of physical change in the body. The skin becomes pale, eyes get sunken and the body language start resembling a dead person walking. If you look closely, we have tried to capture all that. It is not a sudden shift.”
That is what makes her performance all the more special. Seldom has a Hindi film heroine shed vanity the way Alia does in the film and for a character who is nameless till the end. “Actually, there are many nameless people in the strata of the society that the film depicts. They themselves don’t know their names. Most of the times we create generic names for them like Sonu and Raju and that is actually the irony and sadness of the situation. I am actually playing an invisible girl. That is why I found the part refreshing because no mainstream actress played this part before.”
However, what makes this invisible girl really special is her spirit. Despite relentless attack on her self esteem, she holds on. She rises above the tags of loser and moron to show the way to the male protagonist and the audience. “My biggest takeaway is the fact that she is a fighter. We have so much to be grateful in our lives. We often say if I get that, then I will work or I should be inspired to do something. Here she didn’t have anything. There are so many reasons for her to give up, but she didn’t. I think that is the best part of the character. Fight for the life that you have, fight for your dreams.”
But outside the wistful landscape, the harsh reality is that it is still a man’s world, where a much-loved superstar with a huge female fan following is still insensitive about rape. “I think it is going to change. Ice has started melting. I don’t know for how long this melting process will go on, but it will melt eventually,” Alia sounds visibly optimistic.
On the riotous ‘fuddu scene’ with Shahid Kapoor
The scene strikes you for the remarkable spontaneity of the actors but Alia says she prepared for it alone. “We shot together only for three days. I rehearsed my lines many times because I had to get the dialect right.”
On criticism for not getting the Bihari accent right
“Yes, some critics have said this and I respect their point of view but the film doesn’t say that the girl is speaking Maithili, Awadhi or Bhojpuri. It is the accent of a girl who grew up in Bihar and is now living in Punjab for a few years. It is like the Hindi of a boy who was born in Delhi and is now living in Mumbai for some time.”
