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'Govinda looks coarse, vulgar; Madhuri, almost sacrosanct'

M F Husain

It's easy to make a commercial film. It is also easy to make an art film. But it is very difficult to make a sensible, popular film."

Everyone knows about M F Husain and his magnificent obsession, Gajagamini. Starring but of course the delectable Madhuri Dixit. Doing her version of the Baby Elephant Walk.

But what is Gajagamini all about? Is it a film or a work of art or a brightly-painted canvas captured on celluloid? Here, Husain tries to explain his magnum opus. And his vision of Indian culture and womanhood coping with the trauma of a new millennium just around the corner. And Naseeruddin Shah plays Leonardo da Vinci, his alter ego. Excerpts from an interview with Pritish Nandy:

How much of the film is ready?

More than 70 per cent. I hope to finish the filming by March and then will come the post-production. After this schedule in Mehboob, there is just one schedule in Delhi left. In my museum out there. Once I finish that, I am through with the filming.

If I am ready by May, I will take it to Cannes. If not, I will wait till September and take it to the Venice Film Festival. They have a special fascination for Indian films.

What is the sequence you are shooting in your museum in Delhi?

The sequence features Leonardo da Vinci. Gajagamini has two lovers. Her earthly lover is da Vinci. Her eternal lover is Kamadeva. This story is about how Gajagamini, this metaphor of a woman, maintains her identity and her dignity through time and space.

It is a story that goes beyond reality as we know it. It challenges reality in fact. Call it surreal if you want. But I would prefer not to use Western ideas to describe what is a uniquely Indian concept, an Indian dream, metaphor, idea. My technique, my treatment, my music, my approach is entirely Indian and it tries to capture the sensuality of the Indian image, the sensuality that Madhuri so brilliantly embodies.

But does the film have a story line, a narrative spine?

Most certainly. Gajagamini is not an art film. The story is clear and simple. There is Madhuri and her two lovers. Plus, Kalidasa the poet and a scientist called Vaigyanik. Ashish Vidyarthi plays Vaigyanik and Mohan Agashe, Kalidasa. Naseeruddin Shah is da Vinci, my alter ego, who has this big crush on Gajagamini and a young newcomer called Inder Kumar plays Kamadeva. Naseeruddin wears a seventeenth century costume with my modern touch. Gajagamini is torn between her two lovers, the young Kamadeva and the elderly da Vinci.

They obviously live in a time zone that encompasses different centuries?

Of course. Between them, they capture the magic zone between illusion and reality. They meet at the India Coffee House, where all time stands still, where the yugs meet. For in India nothing ever dies. Nothing is over. Everything remains in the present, even the past and the future. That is why all our folk tales, our folk traditions are eternal. They defy history. They challenge time.

This is a very operatic film, Pritish. There are lots of songs and dances.

You mean Gajagamini is a musical?

Madhuri Dixit in Hum Aapke Hain Koun!

No, no. Musicals sound like Hollywood. This is not a musical. This is uniquely Indian, where the songs tell a story. As in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.

Who has composed the songs? You?

No, Bhupen Hazarika. Everyone advised me against taking him, saying that he does not understand popular cinema. But I have known him for 40 years. He has a wonderful knowledge of folk music. Do you know him?

Yes, we went to receive the Padma Shri together, in the same year. A long, long time back.

He is a brilliant composer, you know. He has composed Assamese songs, Bengali songs, tribal music, folk music. These are all part of this film. I am very proud of the music of Gajagamini.

Who wrote the screenplay, the dialogues, the lyrics?

I have been working on them for three years now. The whole storyboard is on this huge, hundred feet sheet of paper and I keep changing, innovating as I go along. I am making a very bold experiment with the medium out here. All the Bollywood elements are there, to make it a popular film.

I could have easily made an art film and won many awards. But I am not going to. As Satyajit Ray said, it is very easy to make a commercial film. It is also very easy to make an art film. But it is very difficult to make a sensible, popular film. That is what I am trying to make. A sensible, popular film. A thought-provoking film.

Throughout my entire career as a painter, I have been concerned about Indian thought, Indian culture, Indian imagery. That is why Pather Panchali made such a bold impact on me and my work. It tried to evolve a new definition of reality. A definition that went beyond the sterile realism of Indian cinema and discovered what you could call the surreal imagery of our time.

Surreal in the way that Bunuel saw cinema? Or Dali, art?

No, no, no. That is why I dislike the word surreal. It is misleading. When we go beyond the real, it is entirely different. It is not actually surreal. It is much more. In India we call it folk realism.

You mean alternate realism?

You could say that. You could even call it maya. Maya is the thin line between realism and surrealism. There is a lot of maya in Gajagamini, starting with the breathtaking sensuality of Madhuri. The way she responds, the way she walks, talks. The way her eyes move as she delivers dialogue. Everything about her is amazingly sensual, amazingly charged. Yet there is not the slightest touch of vulgarity.

See the way she moves, the way she dances. Compare it to Govinda. Whereas he looks coarse, vulgar, unbearable, she looks gorgeous, almost sacrosanct.

In Gajagamini there are four women apart from Madhuri. All are from Indian literature. Shabana plays Premchand's Nirmala. Kalpana Pandit, a young actress from Mysore, plays Rabindranath Tagore's Abhisarika. Shilpa Shirodkar plays a rugged maid servant from Sadat Hasan Manto. Farida Jalal plays Noor Bibi, a role based on my wife. These four women and Madhuri as Shakuntala meet without knowing each other.

Shabana Azmi

In fact, Madhuri plays three different roles herself in Gajagamini. First, as Shakuntala, Kalidasa's heroine. Then as the blind street singer Sangita from Dal Mandi galli in Varanasi. You must see my sets for this. It is like an installation!

I wanted it in two dimensions without any shadows. It took Ashok Mehta three days to light the sets, to get the exact colours that I wanted, the mood, the magic realism. The third role Madhuri plays is that of Monica Mathur, a contemporary character based on Monica Lewinsky. Shabana is her elder sister...

Oops, Shabana too has more than one role?

Yes, she is the elder sister of Monica Mathur. Mallika Grates (married to a foreigner) to rhyme with Bill Gates. A woman who will lead others into the next millennium.

The film ends with this river which separates time past from time future...

How long will the film ultimately be?

Two hours. Two hours that will encapsulate two thousand years of Indian history, culture, art, music.

Are you planning a commercial release?

Yes, but first I will release it abroad. After that I will release the book of the film. Then the music. A beta version on the making of the film, The Creation of Gajagamini, a separate film in itself, will be released simultaneously on television channels worldwide. I want to make it the cultural event of the century.

When did you first think of making Gajagamini?

The moment I saw Madhuri. I have seen many movie stars, many heroines -- Nargis, Meena Kumari, Madhubala -- but Madhuri is the most complete woman, the greatest star we have ever produced, the most amazing replica of Indian womanhood. The moment I saw her, I knew that Gajagamini had to be made. With her in the main role.

She is beautiful, of course. But she is an actress of the kind we have never seen. It is her body language that is at the core of her art. Not just her jhatkas, her dhak dhaks. She is wonderful at that too but what I am talking about is much, much more. She has a sensuality that will redefine womanhood forever.

Remember that song, Didi tera devar diwana? Remember how she bends down and takes those five steps backwards and bursts into song. I have never seen anything quite like this. It is outrageously sexy and yet almost spiritual in its impact. That is why I begin the film with her breaking out of a canvas of mine and becoming real. The real Indian woman.

That is why I am ashamed when I see this stupid chap Kamal Haasan acting as a woman in Chachi 420. It is a shame. It is vulgar, crude, stupid. It destroys the image of Indian womanhood. Like Nana Patekar in Wajood is absolutely awful. These are the kind of people who instead of contributing to Indian cinema end up giving it a bad name.