Meghna Gulzar, the daughter of poet and lyricist Gulzar, is a poet and filmmaker. Her latest Hindi film Raazi earned critical acclaim. Baradwaj Rangan is an award-winning film critic. The two got to talking during a session titled ‘Gulzar on Gulzar’ at the The Hindu Lit for Life, 2019, in Chennai on January 12. Below are some snippets from the chat . For the full detailed conversation, click play on the podcast .
Meghna, who has published the biography of Gulzar Because He Is... which explores the journey of Gulzar, told Mr. Rangan that she understood the enormity of the adulation her father enjoyed only when she was a teenager. She also says she started seeing Gulzar’s work as a filmmaker only after Macchis .
On her parents’ relationship, Meghna said her father would say they are not separated, but live apart so that their elbows don’t touch each other.
Meghna’s favourite Gulzar lyrics? After deliberation she picked Ae Watan from Raazi.
Meghna said her father was disappointed with Hu Tu Tu since the theatre version was very different from what he imagined. It was editied without his knowledge. “It is unfair. It is his work of art. You wouldn't do it to a painting,” Meghna explains.
In awe over a scene in Meghna’s Filhaal, where the male protagonist says: “We are pregnant,” Mr. Rangan said it was new in Hindi cinema. Meghna’s reply: “That’s how it works when a woman writes dialogues!”
What is Gulzar saab ’s favourite Meghna Gulzar movie? Meghna confesses she never posed that question to her father. ‘I think he is proud of Filhaal. ’
Baradwaj Rangan: You are making a movie on acid-attack survivor and you are casting one of the most beautiful actresses.
Meghna: You won’t be seeing Deepika, you know. You will be seeing a disfigured Deepika. There is an uncanny similarity between the survivor and Deepika.
Meghna says she wants the world to know this is what the violence does to a person.
To a question from the audience about what she would change if she were to release Filhaal now, she said: “Not the content, but better filmmaking, maybe.”
If reality is not entertaining enough, nothing can be recreated to be entertaining in fiction, she said.
