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Rumi Jaffrey
Laughter is no laughing matter
It was Rishi Kapoor who introduced me to Rumi Jaffrey. I thought
he was one of those struggling actors whose time had still not come.
Rishi, however, said that Rumi was "a very good writer, as
good as your guru and my father’s  favourite
writer, KA Abbas". I was interested in knowing more about Rumi,
the man, Rumi, the writer, and how an experienced actor like Rishi
who had worked with Abbas and some of the best writers in the industry
could compare him with my guru who I considered the guru of gurus
when it came to writing.
I observed Rumi and his work very closely. I still do and I still
don’t know why Rishi compared him to Abbas and his writings
to the writings of Abbas. The only reason I found was that Rumi
took interest in the industry after reading a lot of literature
by Abbas. Rumi wrote while he was a student in Bhopal. He was a
popular student known for his writing, his poetry, his ghazals and
nazms and his intense interest in theatre.
Abbas and his writings inspired one more young man to take the next
train to Mumbai. He first hung around Prithvi Theatre, the Mecca
of struggling artists, writers and directors, interested both in
theatre and films. He also played some small parts in plays but
made many friends. He decided to take to writing for films seriously
and during the struggle to find "that one chance" he met
Rishi Kapoor who liked most of his ideas and made it a point to
encourage him and introduced him to as many filmmakers as he could.
He found work in some films but what he was asked to write and even
what he ultimately wrote could in no way be compared to the impeccable
writings of Abbas. Every time I met Rishi I asked him where he found
Abbas and Rumi and Rishi said Rumi had still not got the opportunity
to write something like Abbas because these days writers like Abbas
did not sell, was not found interesting by the audience who only
craved for entertainment.
The big change came for Rumi when he met the master of entertainment,
David Dhawan. David took interest in Rumi’s ideas. It was writing
as a pure form of entertainment with a blend of sense, speed and
a shot of some madness in the film. David, Rumi and Govinda formed
a team and churned out one entertainer after another and founded
their formula of a dash of a story, a bag full of items to entertain,
a story which gave them the liberty to the most unbelievable things,
take their character to world’s away from the world we live
in, was the kind of language that had no name. It was a language
to entertain whatever the learned pundits and critics said. The
team of three was happy as long as the people got their entertainment,
their money’s worth. "I could have written seriously then.
David is a fantastic director who knows the pulse of the people
who flock the theatres, he knows. the common man’s idea of
entertainment. And he is basically a very good editor. He makes
his writers work till he gets the mazaa (fun) out of them. He loves
fun and to spread fun in an eternal dark and gloomy world. We can
make serious films too but we care for the masses. What will happen
to them if all of us make what are called class cinema or serious
cinema or parallel cinema. Cinema is ninety per cent entertainment
and ten per cent enlightenment, we believe. We have tried our formula
and by the grace of God have succeeded 90 per cent of the time or
more." (Rumi). Rumi believes that writing to entertain is much
more difficult than telling a sweet and straight love story or recreating
a legend on celluloid or making a film which goes on preaching till
the audience falls asleep or runs to the nearest loo. Writing to
entertain is much more difficult than writing any other subject.
Writing for films like David’s films is a very tough job. It
needs very careful observation of human behaviour, their ways of
life, their style of walking, talking and dealing with circumstances
which are mostly outlandish.
"The most powerful weapon" a writer writing for pure entertainment
needs is the freedom to create a world by itself, a world of characters
who rarely belong to the real world who talk the kind of language
which is the language of entertainment which has to make an impact
on the masses. The critics feel and believe that writing for David
Dhawan or any other healthy comedy is child’s play. Believe
me, it isn’t. It is tight rope walking, or riding in a well
of death or playing with a tiger. One little mistake and you are
gone, all your efforts are gone, the film has gone. The writer is
a very important man in the making of an entertainer. In Hollywood
writers of comedy and gag writers are treated with great respect
and are paid very well. We have still to find that place, that standing...
We are still treated like comedians. I don’t know why.
They should understand the pain we go through to bring pleasure,
to bring happiness to entire families. I deal with healthy entertainment
which is so much more difficult to create and I must say that our
standard of entertainment is falling (Rumi). Rumi can write "serious
stuff" too. He was one of the writers who worked on Rishi Kapoor’s
first film as a director, Aa Ab Laut Chale. He will fulfill his
dream of being a writer like Abbas wrote, a tinge like Abbas. I’m
waiting for that day.
Ali Peter John
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