After the phenomenal success of The Lunchbox , we were waiting to know what’s cooking in Ritesh Batra’ pot. Well, the new dish is ready to be served next week and Batra is excited to know the response of Indian audience. An adaptation of Julian Barnes’ “The Sense Of An Ending”, it stars Jim Broadbent as Tony Webster, an old man confronted by his past. “I read the book in 2011 when it won the Booker. A few years later the producers saw The Lunchbox and they offered me to direct. I felt honoured. (Screenwriter) Nick Payne has done really ingenious things with adaptation. I was very happy to collaborate with him,” says Batra in a chat over phone. Meanwhile, he is busy editing Our Souls At Night , an adaptation of a Kent Haruf novel. It is again about an old couple and stars the legendary Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.
Excerpts:
What attracted you to “The Sense Of An Ending”?
The novel has lot of themes that I love to deal with. Themes of loss, time, loneliness...but beyond that what I loved about the novel was that it was about ordinary people. It shows that there is stuff of great literature in every one’s lives. The ordinariness of it really attracted me.
The film deals with past and memories. As a young director, how big is your memory bank?
When I was growing up, I shared my room with my grandfather. I spent my first 18 with his last 18 years. I absorbed a lot what he went through in the last years of his life. That is not say why I am attracted to this kind of material but the thing with great stories and literature is that they make people see themselves in them and that is the real achievement of the book in my opinion.
We often edit the past according to how it suits us...is it true with adaptations as well?
That is how we interpret our stories for ourselves. It is something the book talks about and that is what makes it a very interesting material to adapt. The novel is told in first person by the main character but the movie is told through relationships. The whole process of adaptation was engrossing. You want to make sure that the movie and the book have to be like cousins, and not siblings. They can’t be too close to each other. The movie should complement the book. It can’t just be a copy of the written material.
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 06: Ritesh Batra attends 'The Sense Of An Ending' New York Screening at The Museum of Modern Art on March 6, 2017 in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images/AFP Restrictions == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==
Even if you are adapting a Booker Prize winner?
You can’t take it lightly but you still have to take liberties. The demands of the two mediums are different. Like Susie is only mentioned in the book, you don’t get to see her. Nick Payne did an ingenious thing by making her a character, a heavily pregnant single mother and daughter of the main character. It is an invention for the movie.
How did you adapt for the British milieu?
When you have source material which is already very equipped, you try to be true to the material. The movie feels very British. The Britishness of it was very important for me. Of course, it is my interpretation of it and I tried to understand how men and women would interact in the past. It was very different from the way boys and girls interact now. It was very important for me to understand that.
Perhaps, you bring in an oriental perspective...
I hope so. It is a question for other people to answer but as far as I am concerned I did it for the love of these characters.
How should Indian audience approach it?
They should buy a ticket! It has a global appeal that’s why it is releasing across the world. Also there are lot of similarities between India and England. How we eat, how we associate with each other...people would see themselves on screen.
Do you have any bitterness left about The Lunchbox not nominated as the Indian entry for the Oscars?
No, I don’t remember it any more. If you have some bitterness left, please write about it!
There is a sudden resonance about stories of older people. Your next film is also in a similar space. Is cinema no longer about people happening here and now?
There is large segment of audience that doesn’t see itself in movies. There are not many movies made about them.
Most people who come to watch movies in the West are older people. It is only natural to tell their stories. It makes a lot of sense and it also makes for great stories and I am more than happy to be part of it which allows me to reflect on life from that standpoint.
