THE MAKING OF REFUGEE - FIGHTING AGAINST FIRE

A FIERCE SCREAM OF A MAN CRYING OUT FOR BEING TREATED AS A HUMAN BEING
LOVE, THE ONLY REFUGE FOR A REFUGEE -EVEN IN A DESERT
or a change I put myself in the place of JP Dutta’s learned father, OP Dutta, seventy and over and still very alert, very agile, very active on all fronts, alive to the changes that have taken place in man and nature, between man and the many marvels and miracles that have made man a plaything in the hands of destiny, of miracles both traditional and modern. The more man tries to prove his superiority to the former that have been there since life has been, ever life has been, the more he falls and fails and turns into a hopeless toy without realising how the powers that have been go on playing with his puny little self. OP Dutta has been

witness to the changing times, the changing spirit of man which has sometimes surprised and mostly shocked him. He has also seen a group of brave young men refusing to surrender in the face of the most devilish deeds of the devil around and the devil in man himself. And I have seen OP Dutta, a known writer in films for the last 40 years, witnessing the genius of his son, JP Dutta, growing as a filmmaker from one big film to another, from Ghulami and Batwara and Hatyara and Yateem and Kshatriya and to his most ambitious film to date, Border, which aroused an entire nation to the dangers both within and without, made Indians aware of the devil in the body and the monster in the mind which infact is the "kokh", the "wicked womb" where all kinds of wild ideas are born, take shape and are put into action for better or mostly for worse.

I, OP Dutta, have seen my son, JP, slogging it out over every film he has made during the last decade. It is not that the other filmmakers don’t work hard but JP is a very different man when he is making his film. His fire within him, his sweat which keel him going, his passion, his perseverance, his agony, his ecstacy. He’s filled with the spirit of the Almighty and threatened by the forces of the evil but he fights like the last ever fighter on the face of this earth and then waits for the results. There are times when his Herculean efforts have not met with the success a director like him deserves. But he doesn’t mind. He makes it a point to see that the next time is a tougher time, a better time, time to triumph over every threat. That’s the feeling with which he goes to work and I have watched him take every step because I am not just his caring, loving father but also a member of his team. I am his dialogue writer in all his ambitious films and I don’t think I have ever let him down. A father who knows the amazing genius of his son who is the director can never ever let down his son, however difficult it may be. He may falter, stagger or even fall at times but he will strain every nerve, drain every drop of blood to give his son nothing but the best when it comes to his work as a dialogue writer.

I am OP Dutta, writing what I feel about my son’s REFUGEE. It is difficult but I will try, only for my son’s sake. I go on to put down the high-points of REFUGEE:

The parting of the sea by Moses or the Setu Bandhan across the Ocean by Lord Hanuman were divine miracles, the Rann of Kutch in the middle of the Arabian Sea is one of nature’s greatest marvels. The relationship between my son JP Dutta and nature’s marvels is that of a Bee and a flower. One look at the Rann of Kutch and a movie took shape in JP’s mind. The movie named - REFUGEE - a human story, a story with all the human emotions, .... in strength, in hope, in despair, in misery and ecstacy - a story of all the members of one family, crying out for the most fundamental right of being treated as human beings. To give proper expression to JP’s imagination we initiated two of the most celebrated star-children, Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor. If one is the son of the star of the last millennium, the other is the torch bearer of the grand Kapoor tradition in the film family. Can a mature, serious and sincere film with a strong message have some scope for music? Yes, we, in the unit headed by JP, felt.

Every other human being in the film makes music. If the musicians make it with their instruments the boxer makes it with his fists, an artisan with his tools and a peasant with his sickle but easily the most heavenly music is made by a look through quivering eyelashes. Suddenly, a symphony is born that pervades your whole being. To record that soulful symphony, JP has once again brought together the team of Anu Malik and Javed Akhtar after BORDER hoping that the soulful chord of REFUGEE linger in your ears, your mind and your soul for a long time to come. - OP Dutta.

JP’s determination is a fact which is known to every filmmaker, young and old, in the industry. He has made double the efforts with REFUGEE this time because he knows that the success of Border has made the enlightened ones who pass judgement, the critics, the experts, the specialists and even the historians raise great expectations from him. JP must have scratched his salt and peppered beard millions of times during day and night to make REFUGEE a film which would not only live up to the expectations of millions but to his own expectations, the most delicate, and to the expectations of his father whose judgement he has great respect for.

JP’s REFUGEE is a very crucial film, come at a very crucial stage when the industry is passing through a major crisis, the cash crunch, the crores that the stars demand, the threats, the crisis of egos that are the hallmark of the industry today. JP started off making REFUGEE knowing fully well that he had to make his film under all these circumstances. I am sure he would not let go any chance to fail him in his endeavour to excel.

REFUGEE is one film which will have to make an impact at the box-office, not just for JP but for the entire industry which is waiting, tense, in turmoil, even tears to know how the people would take to JP’s super-human efforts to make a film which would cater and pamper to the millions of filmgoers all over the Hindi-knowing film world. "I have never spoken about my films but I feel like saying something about this one film. This is a film which will either make me or break me, this is a film which will inspire me to go ahead and go for something bigger, something much more ambitious. Does ambition has a stop? Or sit back and sulk and wonder what to do next."

A movement like JP’s REFUGEE makes every filmgoer aware of the lenghts to which our young, intelligent and ambitious filmmakers of the future are willing to go. The expectations as I said are soaring sky-high. What JP has done with those expectations will be known only when REFUGEE strikes the screen all over. JP has also been helped in his mission by some very good artistes like Jackie Shroff, Sunil Shetty, Anupam Kher, Sudesh Berry, Reena Roy who makes her comeback with this film which is a major achievement for JP and some of his favourites like Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Avtar Gill and Shadaab Khan, the young son of the late Amjad Khan. Mrs Bindiya Dutta is the costume designer (JP’s all-rounder wife). JP’s REFUGEE will have to work not ordinary but great wonders if the industry which is already living and slowly dying through one crisis after another has not to run helter-skelter to seek refuge like a REFUGEE on the run.

Ali Peter John