Cracking the code

As “Baby” steps into theatres this week, director Neeraj Pandey, Akshay Kumar and Anupam Kher talk about the espionage thriller.

January 22, 2015 08:15 pm | Updated 08:15 pm IST

Neeraj Pandey, Akshay Kumar and director Anupam Kher

Neeraj Pandey, Akshay Kumar and director Anupam Kher

With the newspapers full of reports on how a security blanket is being weaved around the Capital in the run up to President Barack Obama’s visit on Republic Day, the terror threat has become tangible all over again. These are the days when the intelligence agencies become that goalkeeper who is judged by what he missed and not what all he saved. In this scenario comes “Baby”, director Neeraj Pandey’s espionage thriller. With “A Wednesday”, he emerged as one of the few mainstream filmmakers who cared to look for nuances in the terror narrative. Anupam Kher, who has been a common feature in Pandey’s films, says, “‘A Wednesday’ presented the hopefulness of the common man of what he would like to do in real life if he faces a terror threat. It provided the feeling that I could have done this. In ‘Baby’ he shows what needs to be done through the skilled agents. In fact, he has given a choice, a way ahead to the government of the day that if you have an agency with all the hacking software we could catch terrorists before they attack.”

Somebody who draws regularly from newspaper stories, Pandey is essentially a thriller writer and his novel “Ghalib Danger” underlines his talent. “As has been the case with my earlier films, the seed came from a newspaper story that I read some years back. After completing the novel, we decided to chase it and turn it into a screenplay. As far as relevance goes, the plot was relevant at that time and research has shown what the film indicates is going to happen in the next one and half or two years.”

Even if his stories exist on a larger than life terrain, Pandey’s films have an intrinsic realism and certain apprehension that rings an ominous bell. “My job is just to tell the story and not expect what A, B and C will take out of it. As storytellers you always manipulate, there is no denying that. You do want the audience to sway with a particular emotion that you want to generate at a point of time. As far as narration goes it is the job of a storyteller, otherwise, you won’t be able to withstand it for two hours. But having said that I don’t design take outs. I leave it by and large to the audience.”

The promos are populated with villains in skull caps suggesting that the counterpoint is slanting towards a particular religion. Is it by design? “I feel people can be wrong but a religion or a nation can’t be wrong. And we are cognisant of it. We have three Pakistani actors in the film. There is no Pakistan bashing and there is no jingoism towards a particular country or religion. The core DNA of the film is fighting against terrorism and that is exactly what is happening in the geopolitics of our nation.”

Pandey says, “The form of terror keeps evolving all the time. And when I say evolve it is in derogatory sense. However, it is not that we have to play catch up. The film underlines the importance of intelligence inputs.” Kher chips in, “Today, you just have to be a follower of somebody on Twitter and you can become a jihadi. If you are on Facebook you don’t need to go anywhere to get indoctrinated. We have to be ahead of these people to track them down. Whether we like it or not we are going to live with terrorism. But you don’t have to always kill someone to stop an act of terror,” says Kher, who is playing a techie in the film.

Often such films steer clear of the moral dilemmas that special agents might have. Recently, Clint Eastwood was criticised for keeping the politics of war out of “American Sniper”. “I have not seen the film but I make out from the promos is it is a personal story of a sniper. Our film is quite the opposite because it doesn’t talk about the personal lives of these agents at all barring a sequence here and there. It has more to do with the tenacity, the junoon of the characters. How passionate they are about their so-called job, which make them put the nation first. Everything else, their families, their personal lives, recedes to background. And the fact that they work selflessly, totally namelessly and don’t hanker for any acknowledgement from the country makes for some fantastic characterisation,” reasons Pandey.

Often such agents talk about laying life for the country but here it is different. “They say, ‘We are going to live for the country. They don’t want to die for the country. That’s the change in attitude of these people. In their existence they want to do more for their nation.” “We wanted all of it to be very subtle and true. There is no jingoism. There are matter-of-fact statements even if the tone gets slightly over the top.”

But you can’t be matter-of-fact when you have Akshay Kumar in the lead role. The two joined forces in “Special 26” and we know the only part that came in the way of taut storytelling was the romantic angle and songs. Pandey differs with the analysis. “One can’t customise a film according to critics or a section of audience. The fact of the matter is ‘Special 26’ was essentially a fun film. I wanted to have music in the film. In my opinion there was a need for a few romantic scenes and it was not out of the need to reach out to Akshay’s core audience. We had a bound script which had song markings in the script but there are certain people who would like to analyse it this way. That is my reading. It is more of their assumption that Akshay’s presence was forcing us to resort to song. We don’t have any song here despite the fact that it is an expensive film and T-series is one of the producers. There are only two lines playing out in the background and there is music video to promote the film. However, I agree people at times do want customisation,” Pandey signs off.

***

The right angle

On the apprehension that the new dispensation might lead to a rightist slant in storytelling, Anupam Kher says he hasn’t seen any government meddling in the creative process. “It has been 25 years since Kashmiri pandits left Kashmir valley and I haven’t seen a single serious film on the exodus.”

From “Heyy Babyy” to “Baby”

Known for his mass entertainers targeted at lowest common denominator “Baby” is Akshay Kumar’s way to show some maturity. “Both have their charm. Critics might not like it but mass entertainers also involve hard work. Here the realistic action is a welcome change from jumping from 17 floor for no rhyme or reason.” With full faith in Neeraj, Akshay says he just followed the orders. “I didn’t want to come in the way of the realism of the film. The character is almost cold blooded and we haven’t delved into his emotional side because then the romantic track comes in the way and it interrupts the gripping story. As for the moral angle, the film stands against freelance radicals who have no nationality or understanding of the religion.”

Last year he brought out the dilemma of a superstar – whether to go for national award winning films or stick to crass commercial cinema – in his production “Shaukeens” in a comic fashion. “The idea was to bring out a serious issue in a lighter tone. A lot of it addressed my thought process but I was not playing myself. I don’t drink, you know,” jests Akshay with his trademark straight face.

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