Gujarati Diary

Gopi Desai
Children’s films should appeal to adults, too

Actress-director Gopi Desai has reason to be happy. Her latest film, Bas Yaari Rakho, an NFDC-La Fete (Canada) co-production, premiered at the Sixth Calcutta International Festival of Films in November. The Sisir Mancha within Calcutta’s Nandan Complex, where the screening was held, was filled with children, eagerly waiting for the show to begin. Gopi Desai introduced the film briefly, leaving the audience to enjoy it. This National School Of Drama graduate who also did a bridge-course at the FTII as a student of the NSD, began life as an actress in feature films and television. Among her first films is the title role she played in Jahnu Barua’s Assamese film Papori. Her most memorable role on television is the lead in Kala Jal, a soap based on a noted Hindi classic novel. Migrating to Mumbai 15 years ago, Gopi ventured into direction with her first documentary Manzar on the Ameena Bibi forced-child marriage-to-Arab case of Hyderabad which bagged an award. This was followed by the Children’s Film Society produced film Mujhse Dosti Karoge? which featured in the main section at the International Children’s Film Festival held at Udaipur. Rock Demers of Productions La Fete, was highly impressed on seeing the film. So when Gopi e-mailed him the synopsis of the present film to consider producing it, the answer, happily, was "Yes".

Brief us on Productions La Fete.

Productions La Fete was founded by the award-winning producer Rock Demers in 1980. It is a compnay initially set out to produce a collection of family movies under the umbrella title of Tales For All. Since then, they have produced 17 Tales for All which have been screened in over 100 countries and have earned La Fete more than 170 national and international awards. Ten more Tales for All are under way.

Your current film, Bas Yaari Rakho (My Little Devil) is a children’s film. Did you conceive it as a film for children to begin with?
I do not know how to define a children’s film. A film should appeal to all. Films that generally appeal to children right across the world, never fail to appeal to adult audiences as well. I never designed this to be a children’s film because I rightly think this film is something adult audiences should also watch. Besides, I hate to be bracketed with labels like children’s filmmaker or woman director because these labels are both self-defeating and limiting for a growing artist who wants to express himself/ herself through the medium of cinema. When I sent the film as my entry to the sixth Calcutta International Film Festival, I did not place it in any slot. But when the Festival Director informed me that it was chosen for screening at the Children’s Cinema Section, I was very happy. Because I knew the film would have its first feedback from an audience comprised largely fo children.

Did your wish come true?
Yes, it did. The children rushed to shake my hand after the screening was over. Girls and boys from Calcutta schools came their parents and wanted to talk to me. It was a wonderful experience. They are so open in their reactions that sometimes, they take you completely by surprise. It was heartening to find that children liked it because they are the most difficult to please and to fool, mind you.

What is My Little Devil all about?
It is about Joseph, an orphan, who is packed off to a boarding school run by a Christian Mission. But he is homesick and lonely in this new place and finds it difficult to make friends with his hostel mates. Hunger is another problem he cannot tackle because the food at the boarding school is not enough for this village boy. He then makes friends with Tom Chach, the Rev. Father’s cook who feeds him with toast and omelette, helping him to appease his hunger. But Joseph’s life in the boarding takes a complete U-turn when he meets Sando, a very poor boy belonging to the local Siddi tribe. He finds out from Sando that his family, consisting of a deserted mother and little brothers and sister, often have to go hungry. Joseph begins to steal rotis from the kitchen to feed Sando and his hungry family with the rationale that he is doing it for the good of others. Fate catches up with him when one of his hostel mates complains about the theft and Joseph is rusticated. He runs away to hide in the house of a day-schooler, Cherian. But the school authorities come and fetch him back and felicitate him for his good deed. Sando’s mother gets a job in a neighbouring Mission and the family moves away.

What inspired you to make this film that deals with the theme of universal brotherhood on the one hand, on hunger on the other and on a minority question as a third angle?
The story of the film is based on an actual incident that took place in the life of a noted Gujarati writer Joseph Macwan. The incident dealt with stealing. Macwan wrote a story around the incident and called it Lohi No Sambandh. I liked the story, took it as my base, named my little hero Joseph and then worked on it myself. The question of ealing with the Siddi tribes of which Joseph’s African friend Sando is a member, appeared as the result of some research I pounced on while I was working on a documentary some years ago. The idea of using this motif for a future film remained at the back of my mind. The Siddi tribes are a primitive negroid race that arrived in India 500 years ago by the Nawab of Junagadh as slave labour. They are basically Muslim by religion. Though they speak the local language and wear the clothes we wear, they have retained many of their arts and customs such as playing on their drums, etc. They however, remain among the worst victims of our development - leading near-starvation lives devoid of the basic needs of survival. The growing friendship between Joseph and Sando, one more destitute than the other, is what appealed to me. The poor orphan Joseph finds nothing wrong in stealing a few chapatties from the hostel kitchen to feed his poorer friend Sando. I put myself in Joseph’s place-one hungry boy feeding another hungry boy-there was something very human about it.

How many children did you have to handle for this film and how did you manage it?
I took a major workshop with 150 kids for the film. It lasted for a month and boys were chosen from the local areas where shooting was to take place later. From these, I chose boys who played the main characters. Only Rushabh Patni who plays Joseph, is from a middle-class Gujarati family in Mumbai. He knew nothing about Christianity, about Lord Jesus Christ, or about a Catholic Church. Much to my surprise, his total ignorance about the religion he had to belong to in the film, threw up ideas that might never have occured to me in normal course. I used some of his surprising phrases in the dialogue for the film. I had to handle a large crowd of children for Mujhse Dosti Karoge as well. But this was a much bigger crowd. Shooting with a crew of 80 people and 200 children was no joke. The workshop helped me get close to the children and build a rapport that helped during the shoot. None of the boys had even seen a movie camera before the film. So, for me too, it was a learning process at every stage.

Where did you shoot and what was the budget like?
We shot for 40 days at a stretch, totally on location in different places of Gujarat and Saurashtra like Diu, Ode and Kheda district. The post-production was done in Canada and this helped me to complete the film on a shoe-string budget of Rs.60 lakhs. The film has three language versions - Hindi, English and French, fro international screenings. But the Hindi one was screened in Cacutta. The shot-to-take ratio was 1:4 because we were working with children. I allow for a lot of improvisations during the shoot and always look through the camera for every single take. It helps keep things in control.

Did Om Puri and Pooja Batra work for free?
Well, almost free, if you want the truth. They have been extremely cooperative all throgh the shoot and Om also did the role I chose for him though he himself preferred to do Brother Lobo, the one played by Satyajit Sharma. When I put my foot down and said I wanted him as Tom Chacha, like a true and full-blooded actor, he agreed.

How about your acting career? Does the fact that you began with acting help when you stepped into direction?
As for acting, I am open to any and every role in whichever filmfor whatever banner I am asked to do. Work as an actress is actually what keeps my kitchen fires burning. I survive on acting. I try and keep away from television though, if I can help it because working in soaps and serials binds you to the time factor, which I cannot lend myself to, as a filmmaker. For any director who has once been an actor, it helps a great deal. It has an additional comph in it. You know exactly what your actor are thinking during or about a particular scene. You know how to rid them of inhibitions and stylisations more easily. Of course, this is my personal opinion and some might not quite agree. My short stint of four-days shoot with Vidhu Vinod Chopra for that tiny role in Mission Kashmir has been extremely rewarding though.

Feature films in future?
Of course! But I do not wish to talk about it at this point.

SAC