BR Ishara

The idol-breaker is back!
He created a major sensation in the seventies with sex as his major subject. Baburam Ishara, the bearded bare-footed director made a series of films after he made his first film, Chetna. It was a shocker more than a shocker. His intentions, he said were noble but to make his intentions clear, he had to break too many rules of normal filmmaking. He had to show the truth, he said. He had to tell the truth without any fear and that’s why he was one of those rare filmmakers who was not scared of any power, any censor board, any screams from society, any section of society.

In his very first film Chetna, he told the true story about a city-based prostitute. It was the first film in which he had Rehana Sultan, the leading lady of the film, a gold medalist from the FTII all in the nude for a very crucial scene which Ishara said, was very significant to convey what he wanted through his film. Anil Dhawan who was a bigger star than Amitabh Bachchan was Rehana’s leading man. Ishara had to overcome mountains of obstacles but he never let them come in his way, because his conscience, his concern for his subject (most of them subjects which ruthlessly exposed the different fake and fraudulent faces of society. He had to tell the truth as it is, open the eyes of a dormant society. And what they saw when they opened their eyes had to shock, had to be a sensation because a society which was rooted in hypocrisy in every section had to be exposed, the people who were happy with their chocolate-faced heroes and doll-like heroines had to know that what they were doing or were asked to do was living dreams which would never come true, living false lives.

Ishara’s characters were men and women from real life. He showed what no one dared to show. He mentioned the bitter truths about life to make them come alive and he succeeded inspite of all the complications and controversies and brakes that were put in his way by the so called guardians of society, of cinema specially. He was soon branded "the high priest of sex in Indian cinema" and some even called him " the messiah who believed in telling the truth or nothing if society had to be saved from the rot it was falling into.

He specialised in showing the mirror to all that was cruel, callous and criminal. People waited to see the bitter truth, the truth about life in the raw. The hypocrites and the so called high-class and the educated society kept far away from his films " because, naturally they didn’t want to see themselves in his ruthless mirror". The common man, the ordinary man who went into see his films in the hope of seeing crudity, vulgarity, all kinds of sex and sex-based scenes came back "enlightened" and "titillated" because they had never seen scenes about the truth of life like Ishara showed them, the truth of life, love and specially sex.

He had his own ways of making films. He made films with newcomers like Rehana Sultan and Anil Dhawan. He made films with Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri. He discovered stars like Reena Roy, Danny Denzongpa and Shatrughan Sinha. He also worked with big stars like Dev Anand and Zeenat Aman. They all worked with Ishara because they believed in his sincerity and concern for the truth about life and show it without any fear. He was the nightmare for the censors but he managed to make them understand, he made them realise that he was not out to titillate or use sex. He said he wanted to save man from the depravity he had fallen into, society had fallen into. Ishara completed most of his good films within months and there were times when he completed some of his films within weeks or days. This was something that baffled the filmmakers who were then ruling the roost. The Ishara wave was the sign of the times for those who wanted to save society. Many took the hint and those who didn’t realised much later that what Ishara showed and said was the truth and they could be saved if they had taken him seriously at the right time. Ishara then took a mysterious break and took to television and tele serials but his heart was always in films, films in which he had so much still to show and say. Now almost ten years later Ishara is back with a new film called Sab Kuch which again holds the same mirror which he used ten years ego but this time used with a little more care and greater concern for society which he thinks is " slowly going to the dogs" only for the sickening craving for money money and more money which had almost destroyed society and its values which have to be very valuable if society has to last.

Ishara has just started another film, Unmaad. He says it is a film about love and passion and makes it very clear that there is no sex, vulgarity, crudity or obscenity in it. It is difficult to believe that a film about love and passion can be made without sex, vulgarity, crudity or obscenity but with the modern day Sant Baburam Ishara, you can never say. You just can’t.

Ali Peter John