Anu Menon has a way with conversational cinema, films where the protagonists talk on and around an emotion. Menon’s London Paris New York, which featured Ali Zafar and Aditi Rao Hydari, was all about love and its journey. This time, the London-based director has explored grief. Waiting is creating a buzz because of its theme and casting. Starring Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin and Suhasini Ratnam, the film is a story of two grieving persons who meet in a hospital and build a bond of empathy, despite a considerable age difference.
Edited excerpts from an interview:
Is grief an emotion that is losing value in Hindi cinema?
Grief for me is not one-dimensional sense of being as there are so many complexities around it like the innate need to find relief and spaces for humour. I personally think grief is dynamic in nature as there are ups and downs in it. How one navigates through those changes and finds the brighter side of life is something I wanted to explore. Waiting is a positive story where I have tried to explore it in detail through the grief of two persons with a generation gap. They find themselves in situation out of their control. Their grief leads them to help each other and find life and humour along the way.
Generally, I do not like the overdose of melodrama or action but, in my view, at times it is required to express a point with a bit of humour. So whatever story I work on, sad or romantic, I love to add self-deprecating or observational humour.
Is Waiting based on your personal experience?
It started from my own personal experience, but it is not entirely based on an event in my life. It has some experience of the time I had spent with my dad at the hospital years ago which left a deep impression on me. I realised what grief is, and it taught me how I can deal with it. In that process a positive feeling came to me which helped me overcome that and then I chose to translate it into a story about two persons in a similar situation and how they help each other. So, writing the film was my way of dealing with my experience but it is not a personal account.
At times, the visual treatment in your films reflects your filmmaking training in Europe?
Maybe. I lived in London, studied there, and was exposed to a different kind of cinematic grammar. It may reflect in my films too but it is not something intentional.
Because Waiting is set in a hospital, we had to find a visual way of telling the story. So we worked hard on the colour palettes to bring out small nuances, took different ways to tell a scene and make most out of every location we had. We shot in such a way that you feel the warmth of the characters making it a personal visual experience.
Both Waiting and London Paris New York are unconventional stories.
I take my inspiration from emotions and ideas which stay for long and I have co-writers who help me stick to objectivity. I try to write stories which are full of hope and explore better possibilities in life in any given situation. In Waiting , I have explored those possibilities, my way. London Paris New York was also made with the same sensibilities, but at that time some conventional tropes were added to suit the supposed audience sensibilities. If we would have made it today, we would have made bolder choices as now there is more creative freedom to filmmakers from producers.
The majority of crew members in the film are women. Was it intentional?
It was merely a co-incidence that almost 80 per cent of crew members were women. It made our work easier as there were no ego clashes among members. We are good at multi-tasking and that I think was the reason for the efficiency level on the sets! The shoot was like a celebration as we used to eat together and had a good time.
What momentum does festival success provide to a film like Waiting ?
Every film has two journeys: creative and commercial, and festivals provide the creative journey to a film. For the success of small films like Waiting , word of mouth is very necessary. When a film is released, it takes time to build that word of mouth, but the acclaim automatically builds when a film travels in festivals as thousands of people see film, reputed media covers it and critics write about it. It gives huge impetus to a film, which does not have a big production house or a star in it and social media helps in letting people know about the film, which makes the commercial release easier.
The film is an ensemble of creative power of Naseeruddin Shah, Suhasini Ratnam and Kalki Koechlin.
Suhasini Ratnam, who is herself a director, was full of energy on the sets. We kept on reminding her that she is an actor here and not a crew member, but she continued with her support in the creative process. Sometimes, she also brought food for us. I addressed Naseeruddin Shah as ‘sir’ out of respect when I first met him as I am not used to addressing anyone with ji or sahab and that is how we remained throughout the shooting. I came to know about his process. When we read out something to him, he internalised it and when it came out it seemed effortless.
He is a very committed actor as most of the scenes were canned in one take and while working with him I learnt how much to work on actors. Kalki was my first choice because she was exactly what I wanted for the character of a fast-paced professional with an urban outlook, somebody who is on the top of everything in life.
I don't like overdose
of melodrama or action but at times it's required to express a point with humour
