First film set in a hospital, second on Gandhian philosophy and third on our education system, a stranger to Hindi film universe might feel Raj Kumar Hirani deals in dry documentaries. But as we know it, Hirani’s universe is anything but dry. Laced with humanising drama, his cinema is entertaining and uplifting at the same time. This exceptional yet unassuming filmmaker has both the critics and the box office in sight and no wonder his contemporaries look up to him. When filmmakers love to recycle success quickly, he has taken five years to come up with his next, “PK”. The atmosphere is rife with what the film is all about. Hirani is in no mood to spill the beans yet. What he discusses though is his craft, dropping hints along the way.
“I have been battling my own films and yehi chalta hai attitude. That’s why we have not been able to make the next film in Munnabhai series. I also need money but there is no greed. That’s why I am ready to put in five years to work on the idea behind ‘PK’, which is again an issue which is very close to my heart.” He quips fellow Sindhis might not like this attitude. He learnt his lessons early. “When I was making ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ I was told you got to have a romantic song and I shot ‘Chhan Chhan’ with great difficulty but today the only thing that rankles me about the film is the song. It should not have been there.” Hirani has a set of rules and the first is that the story has to be unique. “It is difficult because for 100 years films are being made in different countries in different languages. You think something and then you realise that it has already been put on screen. It happened with us during the writing of ‘PK’ as well.” Hirani and his friend and collaborator Abhijat Joshi wrote the complete script and then discovered that it was similar to Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”. “We were also talking about how one can change a man by changing his thought. Then we wrote another and this time Abhijat saw something and again we had to make certain changes.”
Is he referring to Umesh Shukla’s “Oh! My God”? Hirani nods. Be it Raju Rastogi in “3 Idiots” or Batuk Maharaj in “Lage Raho Munnabhai”, Hirani has been commenting on blind faith but this time it seems the issue is more central to the story. Hirani agrees and says this has something to do with his upbringing. “My father was completely agnostic. . He used to say give me logic and I will follow all the rituals. When my grandmother passed away and panditji said he had to distribute utensils among family members, he refused. He countered that everybody already had these utensils at home. He said he doesn’t have the money and was supposed to take care of his family and that is what his mother would have expected of him. Then there was a guruji in our locality. Everybody used to go and sit on the floor and he used to languish on a sofa. My father asked him why does he make old Sindhi ladies, most of whom, had knee problems sit on the floor.” Similarly, when he was 10 Hirani started believing that ghosts reside in the dark and open areas. “One night he took me in his second hand car to the countryside, stopped in the middle of nowhere, and started shouting for ghosts. I shuddered but slowly the fear gave way to strength. It reflects in my work.”
On the poster where Aamir Khan flaunts his curvaceous figure, Hirani says there is a difference between nudity and vulgarity. “I don’t find him nude. Many of our heroines look far more nude because of the poses they are made to strike.” The point is PK is an ordinary Indian and Aamir’s chiselled figure is anything but ordinary. “It was the body that he made for ‘Dhoom’ and I got it as a bonus. I agree PK need not be that well built but I didn’t want him with a paunch either,” he argues.
“We have released other posters as well but if somebody asks me which is the final poster I will still pick it as it reflects the crux of the film. It is the key image of the film. And it is not intended to be funny,” adds Hirani leaving the question of whether the bare body is a metaphor for the layers we show off in day to day life to imagination.
The promo reminds of “3 Idiots” because it also introduces a character. “The only similarity is that we have again taken the narrator route to tell the story. The film is in Anushka’s voice. Many times when you have to say a lot in the story, the narrator route helps.”
On casting Aamir again, Hirani says he needed somebody who is baby-faced and innocent. “With age he hasn’t lost that innocence. Anushka is taller than him in the film which is good. I didn’t need conventional pairing.”
Working with actors as diverse as Sanjay Dutt and Aamir must be daunting but Hirani holds the director has to understand each actor and adapt. “If you ask me, I love rehearsals because you can spot flaws and correct them. But if I ask Sanju to go for rehearsal he will laugh. His strength is that he will memorise two page dialogues in five minutes. If he will rehearse his spontaneity will go away. Boman and Aamir need rehearsals.”
Hirani’s stories are fables. They are escapist yet rooted to the values we want to hold on. Even the item song in “Munnabhai MBBS” had a moral logic. “How can you find Mahatma Gandhi today? There is a very thin line actually,” admits Hirani. “It can snap anytime and the scene can fall into slapstick category. Like the way the boys were trying to run away with the ashes of somebody’s father (in “3 Idiots”). In fact many people who read these scenes called them slapstick. Such scenes need to be shot very realistically. You don’t have to make an effort to make the audience laugh. The situation itself will do it.” Then he keeps the background engaging like the burqa covered women lining up for a photo shoot in Shimla (“3 Idiots”). “I saw an actual photograph somewhere and found that funny. If somebody notices it I feel good.”
Talking about his chemistry with Abhijat, Hirani reveals their process. “Once we zero down on the subject, we talk about the subject for a month while doing our respective research. Then we share our experiences and when we find something really interesting we record it in the ‘thought folder’ that we both have in our computers. In about a month the thought folders gather mass. Slowly, a narrative and characters start to emerge. Abhijat is very strong on drama and structuring. I have a humorous bent of mind . But we keep on coming back to the drawing board.”
He gives the credit for the seamless nature of their storytelling to his editing sense, which accompanies him even during the shooting stage. A trained editor, Hirani wanted to join the director’s course at FTII but today he has no regrets. “ I often say kato kato ! I mean if you will not cut now you will have to cut at the editing table. To abhi kaat lo . Even during the shooting I keep on telling the actors. Pause kaato. Ye lamba ho raha hai. I think layman doesn’t understand editing but even many of our filmmakers don’t realise its importance. Once you start seeing sound and picture independent of each other you can change the complete meaning of the film.” He cites the example of badly edited TV award shows. “Once they showed that I am giving the award to somebody and then cut to me clapping as well. Unintentional double role!”
