Interviewing the creator in front of his painting always gives a different kind of thrill. Perhaps, Shoojit Sircar could sense my excitement as we sit outside the balcony of Stein Auditorium in India Habitat Centre where his latest creation October is playing to a houseful show where youngsters are glued to the unusual bond between a girl for whom the world has died but for a surely boy who believes that she will return from the head injury. For many of us, who follow Shoojit’s work closely, October is completion of his trilogy about the relationship between the bodily functions and life’s larger purpose. The other two being Vicky Donor and Piku . “It is, but it was not the purpose. Yes, like in Piku constipation was a metaphor, here comatose state is one,” says Shoojit. “Juhi (Chaturvedi) and I have many subjects on similar lines. It becomes a learning for us. Some people think I have created some magic by dealing with a difficult subject or that I am intelligent. The fact is I have also become a better person in the process. I was also learning about what happens when a person’s brain gets injured. Doctors, who are working in this space, maintain that it is an uncharted territory. You still don’t know what happens exactly when a person gets unconscious. Some call it a spiritual stage. Some doctors believe that at that time the patient is at the top of his/her consciousness. Though we call him/ her unconscious. In terms of physicality, it might not be there, but inside it is in top form. It gave me an idea as to how silences can talk in films. Something which we have forgotten; how to feel the film like a poem.”
As a creative person, Shoojit says, October is a part of the process where he is trying to erase all his mistakes and get rid off all the frills from the visual medium. “Whatever subject I choose, I do a PhD in it,” he chuckles. “Here I wanted to show that deep conversations can happen in silence too. The second thing was that you don’t need a reason to be a caregiver. In times when consumerist tendencies are on an all time high, how do you create a world where selflessness is also very important. Dan had a different kind of hope. He never thought of Shiuli as a patient,” says the director who honed his craft in advertising industry.
Lived reality
As for the age group he chose to set the story around, Shoojit says the story could have been between a mother and son also. “Like I stayed with my mother in VIMHANS for many days. Juhi gave care to her mother for 30 years before she passed away on a ventilator. We both knew what it is like spending days in a hospital, when hospital staff becomes family. You tend to forget about the New Year and Diwali, the hospital becomes your world. And observations like watching the urine output of the patient and the nurse asking to lift feet so that she could clean the floor have seeped into the narrative.”
The presence of Varun Dhawan helped in bringing audience to theatres but Shoojit declines that casting Varun was a strategic move. “I didn’t cast Varun, I cast Dan. In fact, in the beginning, his core audience got disappointed. Though the film has got a U certificate, it is not a film meant for kids. The film requires a lot of patience and its depth cannot be understood by an 8-10 year-old. It was very brave of Varun that he accepted this challenge and did it with utmost sincerity. While watching the film, you never feel that he is Varun.” Perhaps, because like Dan, Varun is always eager to do the right thing even if he doesn’t have the required skill set, yet. “I exploited that sincerity,” admits Shoojit, known for his brilliant casting. “That’s my gut instinct. I was looking for a debutant till one day I saw a clumsy Varun in my office. It was a case of accidental casting,” he grins.
Shoojit Sircar
The fact that the film has recovered its cost and is sailing in a profitable zone has reassured Shoojit that it has been able to find the right audience. “At first people found it slow. Possibly, they were not ready to accept this reality. Also, it is different from Vicky Donor , Piku and Pink . I am happy that I have been able to make the film on my own terms. I could break the conventional mode and do a film without music and drama, and without underlining things.”
Having said that, he adds, that he never played to the gallery. “Every film has its own integrity and honesty. Even Piku was quite an experiment in terms of storytelling because on the surface nothing happens in the film. If you ask me what was the film about, it was about father-daughter fighting and the narrative captured their daily life.” Here too, he continues, the camera captures the daily life in a hospital. “The difference is, in this particular case, the devotion and silence are most important. While in other films somebody is talking or doing things all the time, here I needed to prove that to communicate you don’t always need language; silence can reciprocate a lot of conversation. It was difficult to get Varun in this space because he came with a lot of commercial taam jham . It was important for him to just calm down, and for me as well.”
However, there has been an allegation of plagiarism by Marathi filmmaker Sarika Mene. She has claimed that there are many striking similarities between October and her film Aarti: The Unknown Love Story . “We had no clue that something like that existed,” avers Shoojit. “The Screenwriters Association has given us a very positive feedback – that it’s not a copyright infringement. If something is there, I will be the first person to give credit. I have done it for Yahaan and Madras Cafe .”
Shoojit grew up in Delhi and his films have captured different shades of the city. “In Pink, it was the dark side, the way pollution has grown in the atmosphere and society. Piku was very light. Here I wanted to capture the poetry. I wanted the gardens of Delhi to come through. I have lived in South Delhi amidst greenery. So we shot in Lodhi Gardens, DDA gardens, the City Forest... I wanted to capture the Delhi of early morning when the city looks misty. Then we shot in real locations, only the ICU was recreated. The real locations around hospital and hotel provide an interesting milieu and create a compelling contrast with silences.” There are many theories about using hospitality industry as the backdrop but Shoojit says his simple reason was that his research showed that people in hospitality industry are most prone to accident because have odd job hours.
Talking of research, his chemistry with Juhi has become part of industry folklore now. “In my films writers are more important than actors. Juhi is from Lucknow and she has lived in Delhi. She is a multitasker – a mother, a mother to her father, wife and a working professional. She is already doing those social responsibilities that her characters grapple with. I come from theatre background. I have a family and my wife is a big inspiration. Juhi and I debate a lot, otherwise it will become mechanical. It is a two-way process where we both have to agree . For example, the scene towards the end where Dan hallucinates and we can see Shiuli on the terrace on the wheelchair. We debated a lot on it...dikhayen ki nahin.” The visual gives an impression that it was a love story. It is upto you but we did debate whether it is a love story. My point was without love also people do a lot of things, there cannot be a logic for everything? At the end, we both were convinced.” Same here!
