It is arguable if Udta Punjab is Abhishek Chaubey’s best work but it is certainly on its way to become his most widely watched film. During its month-long battle with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the film became the face of freedom of expression. The star-studded drug-drama set in Punjab, that released last week, has benefited from the controversy, agrees Chaubey. But he is ready to trade it with the nightmarish experience he had to go through to release his film without multiple cuts. When we met the 39-year-old filmmaker in a relaxed mood in his airy Versova apartment post-release, he opened up about various aspects of Udta Punjab , why it needed to be an anti-drug public service announcement (PSA), his penchant for mashing up genres and why love is crucial for rehabilitation.
You have said the idea initially was to make a drug-film set across India. But you chose to set it in Punjab because on account of being close to the border it is the most affected. Did that change the initial idea in some way?
From the beginning, Sudip Sharma (screenwriter) and I were conscious about the fact that this in a sense was going to be the first Hindi movie exclusively about out-and-out drug abuse. We went to the Majha region of Punjab which is worst affected. We met a cross-section of people, from health care professionals, law enforcement officers, super-rich kids in rehabs, addicts in rural areas, including some very young kids. That really changed our agenda for the film. Until then, we were feeling very cool about the fact that we were making the first of its kind drug movie in India, that we are doing something edgy, dark and trippy. Hence, the Public Service Announcement in the film.
Is that why the film is so overtly anti-drugs?
Yes, especially anti-heroin and anti-opiate. It’s not so much anti-cocaine if you notice. It’s a party drug that rich kids do it; many great directors like Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone have experimented with cocaine, have binged and come out of it. Many Bollywood stars have done the same. Coke is not a big deal. Marijuana doesn’t even qualify. The name of Alia’s character as Mary Jane, a brilliant idea by Sudip, in fact is an allusion to marijuana. I mean any drug is bad per se but doing drugs is a matter of choice if you are 18 and above. But when it becomes a sociological problem, when somebody like Alia’s character or Balli (Diljit Dosanjh’s brother in the film) doesn’t have a choice in the matter, then you have to take a stand. And you have to go out there and do this. Hence, the film is so viciously anti-drug.
Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic is considered a textbook for multi-track narrative. Was that a reference?
It’s silly for a filmmaker to make a drug film with multi-track narrative and not acknowledge Traffic . The reason why we went for a multi track narrative is not to ape Traffic . In fact we were worried about the fact that it may seem derivative. It really came from our experiences in Punjab. We had to look from two perspectives: the systemic and the individual. There is the cop and doctor in Sartaj and Preet. Drug addiction cuts across all social classes in Punjab. So in Tommy, you have the wealthy, upper class drug addict, Balli is the lower middle class, Mary Jane is below the poverty line.
Despite the PSA-like theme, the film has a whimsical, mash-up quality: there are shades of dark comedy, narco-thriller, light romance, stoner caper. That’s true with all your films. In a previous interview, you have also expressed your dislike for the West’s obsession with tonal consistency.
Tonal consistency is overrated. Even the foreign films I like take wild risks with tone. I can think of the Korean film Oldboy . It becomes a love story, almost operatic action film but it has a very dark emotional core. And there is humour in the middle; in fact the opening of the film is a joke. Scorsese does that all the time when he does gangsters films with a lot of dark humour. Quentin Tarantino too. Even Bollywood does that. Vijay Anand is such a cool, sexy filmmaker. I like taking those risks. Sometimes I just can’t help it. I have a weakness for it. For instance, when Tommy and the two junkies go into the hospital, I told the two guys to start imitating Tommy’s limping. Suddenly all three of them are limping their way into the hospital.
All the protagonists of your films have something to do with music: Krishna in Ishqiya , Begum Para in Dedh Ishqiya and Tommy in Udta Punjab . A crucial moment in the latter comes when Tommy rather unexpectedly starts singing in the hospital.
It is tricky to have songs in films. When I started out, I was very hard-nosed about it. I mean, I came to Mumbai from Delhi after working with Film Societies and watching movies in French and German centres. I would be, like, why should films have songs? What is all this crap? But you have to adjust to a new environment and be mature about it. While it’s not a must, music is a very important part of our films.
I have worked with Vishal Bhardwaj for a decade. And he, before anything else is a musician. Music was a foregone conclusion in his films. I mean, even Talvar has songs. Keeping all those things in mind, I have been honing my skills in using songs in films. I have no plans of being an obscure filmmaker; I want to go out and do it in the mainstream and connect with people. But not by losing myself in the process.
What’s with the trope of ending your movies — all three, Ishqiya, Dedh Ishqiya and now Udta Punjab — with a shootout?
I don’t know. It’s a subconscious pattern I suppose. Of the films I wrote, Blue Umbrella and Omkara didn’t have it, but Kaminey did. I think it’s because of the kind of structure of my films. All these films have one thing in common: they have multiple characters. While there are protagonists, the others’ story arcs also need a closure. That pre-climactic shootout is the only way I know I know to do it, I guess.
Why did it have to be love as a motivation for the reform of the characters in Udta Punjab ?
Firstly, if you look carefully at the angle between Tommy and Mary Jane, it’s not so much romantic love: he is amazed by her. Here is a guy who is extremely wealthy and successful who, because of abuse, has lost his muse and his bearings. He is talking about it to this girl saying things like, “life is over, party khatam , go home” and all that when the girl turns around and says, “What are you talking about? This is what has happened with me.” He is blown by her. He goes to find her because that will in a sense, bring him redemption.
Secondly, it is the absolute truth that when abuse takes over you, de-addiction is one thing but the real solution — complete rehabilitation — is a process of human connection and love. Through both these characters finding each other, the film also says that the individual battle against drugs can be won if there is human connection and love around you.
You offered to remove the shot of Tommy urinating on the audience, which is the only cut in the film. The line ‘ Powder ki Line o Ka Rakhega Kaun Hisaab ’ from the song ‘ Ud Da Punjab ’ was changed in the promo, although it was an innuendo for cocaine. Why?
Every nanosecond of my film is important for me. However there was a feeling during the legal proceedings that there mustn’t be anything gratuitous in the film because if there is, we would lose the right to defend things that weren’t gratuitous and absolutely essential to the story. This was the one thing that the bench in the honourable High Court mentioned that could be perceived in the wrong light by the viewers. Hence we chose to voluntarily remove it.
As for the song, it was a mutual call by everybody, including the producers, because the same promo was going to be aired on TV and watched by children. But the line is intact in the album.
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