Bihar & ' Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi ' : Back to Future

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Bihar & 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi ' : Back to Future 

“Even as election process in Bihar is on, nobody expected any significant change in the polity of the State. Tell me the name of any hero in politics and other spheres of contemporary society in India who can lead a revolutionary change, Sudhir Mishra - the political activist-turned-filmmaker opined during an interview with yours truly in Mumbai with deep anguish on the eve of the last-to-last state Assembly elections - a decade ago - that coincided with the commercial release of his English film 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi'.


" If elections during the last 50 plus years could not bring about a desired change in the polity why should one hope for one now ", said director of the film that some dubbed as 'India's first serious political film portraying imminent death of idealism'  while others-including those involved in Naxal movement in the country as an 'anti-political' venture, saying millions of people still believe in revolutionary ideals.

Mr. Mishra, however, contended that leaders in politics today are totally devoid of 'values' and therefore nothing 'revolutionary' is likely to happen in the country in general and Bihar in particular, where the film's central characters took part in Naxal movement.

The film, a love-triangle of three characters whose lives intertwine across a decade against the backdrop of a politically-decaying India from the late sixties to the late seventies, often described as the ''Indira Gandhi years ", has been described as the 'country's first great political epic 'by Ashutosh Gowarikar, director of Lagan , India's first feature nomination at the Oscars.
  
But, some film critiques and leaders of the Naxal movement dubbed the film as 'confused and anti-political'. Senior film critique Ajay Brahmatmaj said he found it strange that although Mr. Mishra borrowed the title from the first line of Ghalib's famous couplet, the film was made in English. " It is good to make a political film, but if the targeted audience is a privileged English-speaking class and not the masses of Indian society, what is the use of that ",he observed and said not only the entire film is confused but intended to create further confusion and depoliticise the people.
   
An underground Naxal leader from Bihar, Prabhu Lal Paswan, who had neither seen the film nor intends to so, said that such films are not going to affect hope and aspirations of lakhs of people engaged in revolutionary struggle in India. No immediate reactions of other top leaders of the Naxal movement, including legendary Kanu Sanyal  ( now dead), who had assembled in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh at that time for a political conclave of the CPI (Maoist), couldn't be gathered.
  
International filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor held the view that 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (HKA)' is the most important film to come from India in a long time. According to him, the film's importance lies in that most of the leaders of our nation today, are a product of those conflicting philosophies, conflicting values.

Countering critiques of his latest film, Mr. Mishra said, "I will defend my film. We have seen the era of people's romance with idealistic politics before Independence and their disenchantment with those who matter in politics these days.  As a filmmaker I have every right to pick up any story. However, one is free to comment on cinematic treatment given to it by me ."
 
Leading film critique Maithili Rao said the film should be seen by a nation that is increasingly getting more cynical and disillusioned with politics as a passionate, idealistic expression of ideology. The film amplifies the unspoken part of Ghalib's resonant lines by interweaving the personal journeys of three character with the unfolding political drama through to the emergency and its aftermath, she said, adding that the film embraces the thousand dreams of the post-Nehruvian generation, the beginning of political turmoil in India, the clash of conflicting ideologies and the imminent death of idealism.

Before this, Mr. Mishra had made 'Chameli', a film on a street prostitute and a Hindi remake of a hit thriller in Telegu, 'Calcutta Mail'. Both films created a buzz without going on to become hits. Later he turned a producer and announced a number of new projects from a colonial period drama to a contemporary thriller.

'Hazaaron ....' reminded one of Mr. Mishra's decade-old first film  'Yeh Woh Manjil to Nahin'. That too was a journey, of nostalgia and regret, into the past by three men in the autumn of life.  Mr. Mishra, however, said  that 'Yeh Woh ....' was made by a ''young filmmaker'' and ‘Hazaaron .....' was the work of a film-maker who had graduated to maturity.

The film was about intermeshed stories of Siddharth Tyabji (KayKay), son of left liberal parents aware of his peculiar predicament of not speaking good Urdu despite his Muslim surname; of the brilliant Geeta Rao (Chitrangadha Singh), daughter of a top-notch scientist set in his South Indian conservative ways and Vikram Malhotra (Shiny Ahuja), a typical small town boy who wanted to acquire the gleam of ''cosmopolitanism'' in a hurry and shed the legacy of his father's political idealism. They all just graduated from a prestigious Delhi college. The big question was " What will they do now?".

Geeta was  in love with Siddharth but his first love, was  elsewhere. Politics, shorn of its politicking and compromise, was his idealistic quest. He decided  to join the Naxals in Bihar and fought  for the cause of the oppressed peasants. His gentle, erudite father couldn't approve but he could understand and watched helplessly. Vikram's obsession was Geeta and he waited  first when she went  to Oxford for higher studies and, then, after her tangled life of a journalist five years later. Vikram became the consummate fixer, walking in and out of corridors of power. Vikram could have turned into a despicable, ingratiating cad, but for his love for Geeta and the conflicting feelings of jealousy, friendship and reluctant admiration for Siddharth.

Vikram discovered  that Geeta uses the cover of a journalist to visit remote villages in Bihar where Siddharth is fighting his battles. Eventually they gott married. When the couple landed  in jail, Vikram, using his clout in politics, helped them get released. The film had an " open end " after Siddharth renounced  his political idealism.