Cinematography is his first love and direction only an extension of his dream to narrate a powerful story where spellbinding images move the audience more than dialogues. Meet Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi who has worked as a camera assistant in Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed film Life of Pi and also in Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminey . He has now forayed into direction with Seher Hone Tak-Till the Morning Comes which was screened at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival.
Celebrities sang hosannas to his film at the Cannes where his second film as cinematographer The Wild, the Child and the Miracle , directed by Calvin Robertson, was also screened.
Excerpts from an interview:
Why did you decide to make your directorial debut with a film dealing with the subject of loneliness in a metropolis?
Loneliness is universal, it affects the young and old, rural and urban alike. It knows no borders. I tell stories to bring people together, to unify the personal and the universal. I wanted to create an environment where I compel the audience to believe that loneliness is part of isolation. I deliberately took a real life woman Sakina Mehta, who lives alone in Lokhandwala, as the protagonist. I took a non-actor as I wanted to convey her story in a simple way, which in a way reflects reality. I have shown her living alone in an apartment dependent on the vegetable seller, the dhobiwala for her daily needs. One day when power goes off and these people do not turn up, she realises her loneliness.
Instead of using dialogues you make the audience empathise with the protagonist through images.
This is the beauty of cinematography. Here I have used minimal dialogue but made use of light and camera movement to express emotions. Things are not said but felt. As a cinematographer I have told my story. I see the world through images and they help me to present a dramatic story. Visually I could express more. I thought the best way would be to show one person and show her routine the whole day.
Ashrita Kamath, my wife, handled the production design and used props like different kind of furniture to convey the larger picture. Similarly, Sakina shared her idea while the script was evolving. I relied on her idea and it gave a unique approach to the character.
How would you describe your transition from a cinematographer to a filmmaker?
I don’t think I am in a transition. As a director I would like to present the story through the eyes of a cinematographer. We are in between the audience and the actors. We are the medium. I would like to be known as a cinematographer. Even now I am working as a cinematographer in Rene , which stars Hollywood actor Xander Berkley. It is about a small boy, who loses his family during a hunting accident. So as he grows up he seeks to avenge killers of his family.
With filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee, we see the advent of new age cinema. What kind of films you are comfortable with?
Certainly filmmakers like Dibakar have shown how stories can be narrated like never before. He is part of independent cinema and I too am a part of it. I am talking to a couple of Bollywood filmmakers and also doing films in the U.S., where I live. I have learnt a lot from Ang Lee, who narrates the story with great sensitivity and there is intimacy between the audience and the story. He has great control over the medium.
Have you felt the urge to make a film on the subject of Nirbhaya, who had gone out to watch ‘Life of Pi’ with her friend. On her way back home, she was brutally gangraped. Or the Anna movement against corruption?
I like working in fiction genre where you suspend your disbelief. It is part of accessibility to the audience’s emotions. There is truth in fiction, whether tragedy or drama, they are grounded in reality. All fiction films have messages.
