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neeraj pathak
Right no wrong
I met Neeraj Pathak, the writer for the first time in the honourable
company of the greatest one-time super-star, Rajesh Khanna. It took
me some time to recognise him. Then he broke the ice and asked:
"aren’t you the same Ali Peter John I met in Fateh Pur
Sikri during the shooting of Subhash Ghai’s Pardes. I said
yes and we started talking and for most of time we talked about
writing in films till the honourable Mr. Khanna asked us if we writers
could talk of anything else in life. We blushed unashamedly and
continued talking about serials, films, stars, the past, the present
and the future till about two in the night.
Then we left only to meet a few days later again to talk about writing
and mostly about what he called "a bounded script, a script
without any flaw of any kind". Says Neeraj: " I know writing
in films is going through a very bad phase. I just can’t believe
how the countless writers, so-called directors and fraud writers
fake it out in film after film leading some of the best filmmakers
to the depths of hell. I stand for quality strictly and that’s
why you will see me hardly coming up with a crowd of films. I have
made it a principle to work on just three bounded scripts in a year.
I am capable of struggling, making compromises, falling for any
thing tempting but I dare not indulge in bending and bowing before
men who hardly know the alphabets forget writing a script".
Neeraj further goes on and quotes Alfred Hitchcock who once said:
"to make a great movie, you need just three things: a great
script, a great script, a great script."
According to Neeraj a good writer is not someone who knows to write
but how to write. Believe in your self and your talents if you don’t
believe in yourself how do you expect anyone else to? So don’t
get it right, get your writing to be written and finish what you
write. Enjoy it, worry about perfection. Have persistence and commitment.
If you don’t have it, learn it. Reject rejections. Set yourself
a minimum daily word target. Make an appointment with yourself and
write-or get written off.
To tell you very frankly, I think to become a successful writer
you must connect yourself to the minds and emotions of the audience,
to do this a writer must know how! What you create on the pages
and how it effects the viewing, you must understand and create audience
identification with the characters who have universal elements of
truth that people can recognise.
Apart from all this where does the Indian writer and his scripts
stand in todays Hindi film industry. Everybody acknowledges that
the script is every thing but they say something and do something.
Our industry practically functions on set-ups. Like the stars who
are saleable, are signed by producers who make substantial "table
profits". Nobody bothers about the basic element of cinema
and the team are in a hurry to finish the story as fast as possible
because they want to go on shooting fast. As they have a good hero
they shoot two or three good songs. Lots of money is spent on hyping
of the film but there is no meat so the whole hype results in a
damp squib. Then we say that industry is in a bad shape as only
two films had a successful run in the current year. Inspite of this,
there is no rectifying. The CD, DVD culture is "in vogue".
English movies are shown to stars, they agree and the poor film
writers sit in hotels trying to adapt the foreign culture into an
Indian one. As writers are less paid they sign more films in numbers
to fulfil their requirements. Hence they also want to finish films
as soon as possible.
Since long there has been a debate that there are no good writers.
I completely disagree. Today a lot of working writers are talented
but they should get good money so that they can concentrate on qualitative
work. Everybody’s first priority should be to have a bound
script, visuals and feel the power of script and then go far casting
and other steps of filmmaking. In the past we know how much pain
and patience filmmakers use to put into he script writing. The results
were there to be believed. Today also there are some good and successful
makers who give importance to their writing such as Yash Chopra,
Subhash Ghai, Sooraj Barjatya, Aditya, Karan Johar and Rakesh Roshan.
Their film reflects their commitments to a good script and a successful
film.
For me too I have set a target of three bound scripts a year and
I am confident of marketing them to intelligent producers and stars.
Because by now our industry has hopefully learnt a lot of lessons
in the economics of filmmaking. Bound scripts are sure to help us
out in this field. Especially when universal film production companies
and corporate houses are entering the film industry I am highly
optimistic that there is a great future for good bound scripts and
scriptwriters.
And finally being a writer you are called creative. The writer in
you is learning all the time from everything you do. Learning about
life, learning about yourself everyday in a day in a class room.
A writer needs stamina and dedication. It takes a lot of effort
and hard work. But more you do it is the swift it becomes, don’t
forget every great writer was a new writer once-even shakespeare!
My humble request to all those who are associated with films is
to recognise the power of writing and give due credit to the writer
who is the backbone of the film. Try following this one line advise
from a young writer who has still so much to achieve and you will
find fascinating results. That’s my hope, that’s my prayer,
that’s my wish for an industry I would not give up for anything
else.
PS: It is difficult to live the life of a Neeraj Pathak,
I sense. A majority of the people who run the market may not understand
what he means. But what is wrong in trying, my friends? It is only
after you follow the advice of Neeraj Pathak may be the times will
change. Who knows? Who knows these young men like Neeraj could bring
in that big change which is so very necessary at this stage before
anything more darker than dark befalls it.
Ali Peter John
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