Interview with Ashim Ahluwalia

After a stint at Cannes and a year long battle with the Censor Board, Ashim Ahluwalia's excellent Miss Lovely finally released in theaters this week. Though everyone loved the film, there was one consistent criticism - the lack of a deep story and the indulgent 'Film Festival scenes'. 

Why would a filmmaker who goes to the furthest extent in detailing, direction, casting, lighting and sound not focus on a decent story? 

So we met Ashim over a round of drinks (four to be exact) and we finally got to understand his point of view. Ashim has this rare combination of uncompromising vision, bravery and massive talent and passion to stick to his headstrong ideals. And he really, really fucking knows cinema.

Regarding his deliberate exclusion of a big story, Ashim said that any movie that he makes will be about the form, and not the plot. He has absolutely no interest in catering to the rules of commercial cinema nor the rules of independent cinema. Cinema is one medium which allows him to be expressionist and build up on atmosphere and mood, so what's the point of spoonfeeding a story to the audience? In fact his script had more detailing on the story but he chopped off huge portions of it during editing. 

Also, he wants to put every genre of cinema into one film and fuck with all of the rules of every element of every genre. He partially achieved this in Miss Lovely. And with this ideology he's making an INDIAN film, where every genre used to be there in the 80s and 90s films. This is very unlike most new age indie filmmakers who try very hard to ape world cinema with the facade of Indian sensibility.

He also explained why there were random shots of foliage and staircases in the second half of the film. When Nawaz's character is imprisoned and hospitalized, he visualizes the world outside him. He wants to get out and once again belong in the outside world. That is what those shots were about. If you think that's indulgence, Ashim has an answer for you. For him, a Salman Khan film is indulgence. A 50 year old playing a 25 year old romancing a 20 year old on screen - that's indulgence. 

Below is the transcript of a brief chat I had later with him on Twitter. (Thanks to @misslovelyfilm)

MF: When did the idea of Miss Lovely first come to you?

AA: I've had this idea for almost ten years. I just couldn't get finance earlier until I made my first film "John & Jane" which was the first Indian film to be sold to HBO. That made things easier

MF: Were Nawaz and Niharika Singh always going to be the leads, or did you audition others as well?

AA: I didn't know them. I wanted unknown faces. Nawaz had only done small roles when we cast him. Miss Lovely is his first lead role. I screen tested 100s of people, and they were both amazing in their tests.

MF: To some extent Anil George was even better than Nawaz in the film. Where the heck did you find him?

AA: Doing street theatre in Delhi. Another totally unknown face who had never done a film. Other than Nawaz and Niharika, he's the real discovery of Miss Lovely. He's got incredible presence.

MF: What was the casting process of all the junior artists in the film? They're all so wonderfully authentic.

AA: Most of them aren't extras, they are real guys who worked in the C grade industry as actors or crew. I just wanted them in the film because they're the real deal and totally believable.

MF: Was the film always going to be the way it turned out to be, or did the script change as you shot it?

AA: In the script, the story is completely spelled out. it is more conventional but I removed a lot of that in the editing because I preferred a more open-ended quality. I wanted the mood and atmosphere to play a part in moving the story forward, more impressionistic. I didn't want to only focus on the character development and 3 act structure because that removed a lot of the mystery. For me a certain incompleteness is not indulgent. Like in real life, not everything is explained.

MF: How do you deal with the constant criticism of Miss Lovely 'not having a deep enough story' Is the criticism even valid?

AA: It's not surprising. I don't face this so much internationally, but in India we are used to the story being the most important facet of cinema. Our cinema tradition comes from theatre. We rarely make films with atmosphere. For me cinema is about images as much as it is about story. I like that.

MF: How did you get your hands on the vintage 80's stuff, like the Weston C90 cassette, the TV sets and the yellow Yezdi?

AA: Mostly we emptied peoples houses and we hit up collectors of 80s memorabilia. I grew up in that era so I was very clear about what I needed - it was just a matter of finding things that weren't too damaged.

MF: What was the Censor board’s first reaction upon seeing Miss Lovely, and what finally convinced them to have just 4 cuts?

AA: They were fairly scandalized because they hadn't seen an Indian film like it. We were asked for a lot of cuts at first. But I went back to them for a year, we had multiple reviews, I kept bugging them until they reduced the cuts. They liked the movie and knew it wasn't an exploitation film, which helped.

MF: What, in your opinion, is the state of filmmaking in India? Are we progressing or regressing? Is the future bright for indie films?

AA: It's an exciting time because filmmakers are energized about cinema again. It's not just about 200 cr films. Smaller, more personal films are releasing more often. I'm hopeful.

MF: Given a budget of 100 cr, free reign and complete creative control, what sort of film would you make next? 

AA: 100cr and free reign are two words that can't co-exist! But if they did, I'd make a twisted remake of Mithun's Suraksha (Gun Master G9).

Movie Review: Miss Lovely

In the opening scenes of Miss Lovely a man in an 80’s Ramsay-esque movie wanders around a dark haunted house with a candle, and is suddenly grabbed by a saree clad nubile female ghost. Later, we’re plunged into a film set where a heaving, semi naked woman is attacked by an overtly masculine monster, and the director who is off camera pinches the woman’s thighs to make her scream. This scene is projected on the screen of a seedy theatre where a pervy old man sits and smiles lasciviously as the woman suggestively moans when the monster assaults her. Director Ashim Ahluwalia beautifully demonstrates how enormous an impact horror filmmakers like the Ramsays, Harinam Singh, Gyanendra Chowdhary and their ilk had on India’s B-movie industry and the psyche of desi film buffs.

Some will appreciate Miss Lovely for its experimental arthouse style. Others will hate the film and call it a slow, story-less and pointless exercise in indulgence. But those like me and most desi D-grade horror fans will be fascinated to see (and hear) how 80’s low budget Hindi horror movies were made and delve into the unglamorous world of their production. What you’ll probably not expect is Miss Lovely being a moody rumination on loneliness, alienation, and desperation. It’s not the kind of film you’d watch every week but it’s impossible not to be mesmerized by its audacity.

The film follows a typical lower middle class bloke Sonu Duggal (Nawaz) who arrives in Bombay and finds some footing when his B-grade filmmaker brother Vicky (Anil George) offers him work in his cinema. A young and innocent girl named Pinky (Niharika Singh) shows up and Sonu is so besotted with her that he lies to her about being a filmmaker with the intention of turning her into a star. Things get ugly and Sonu gets embroiled in the murky underbelly of the B-movie industry, cops, shady gangster film producers and his desperate brother.

Theoretically this plot should make me giddy with delight and transform the very face of ‘Bollywood’. But this is a rare movie that is terrific yet simultaneously frustrating, because director Ahluwalia just doesn’t expand his plot. The story only kicks in the second half and just when it is about to mature into something truly great Ahluwalia pulls the rug from under your feet and just ends the story, but continues the film. What actually follows is an extremely long and indulgent existential slog through the eyes of Sonu, with various intentionally languid still shots of staircases, houses, foliage, telephones and buildings. The effect is so jarring it feels like Ahluwalia is deliberately blocking a good story from being told just for ‘film festival indulgence’. It’s maddening because there was so much effort put in every other aspect of the film.

You can’t even credit the film to be a character driven, rather than a plot driven piece. The screenplay reveals absolutely nothing about Sonu’s life before his arrival in Bombay and doesn’t provide much for him to do after the city clobbers him to near death. There is a brilliant dramatic contortion towards the finale but by this point the fundamental problem of the film not having a meaty story prevents it from elevating to the masterpiece level that it could so easily have reached. It’s a sad but solid reminder that without a good story no movie would become great, no matter how brilliantly acted, directed and shot it is.

Despite its drawbacks, there’s plenty of dark and wonderful stuff within Miss Lovely. The atmosphere in the film is so intoxicating it will take your breath away. The moody lighting and ambient sound design render a hypnotic feel to the film. The detailing is ridiculously good – all of the stuff from 80’s is omnipresent - from the Weston C90 cassettes to the Mirc television sets to the ancient projectors and reels to the polka dot clothing to yellow colored Yezdis. There is even a shot of Bombay traffic in the 80’s with all of the cars that were present in that era – how Ahluwalia pulled that shot off is a mystery. Most importantly Ahluwalia doesn’t make the sets too showy, thereby adding to the realism of the film’s timeline.  

As a lifelong lover of horror and B-cinema I found a ton of things to admire in Miss Lovely, like Ahluwalia’s ability to create an oppressively dreadful yet hilarious setting. In one of the film’s most memorable scenes a B-movie producer - a dwarf who sits in a grungy office with walls covered in smutty photos - is approached by a wannabe actress to star in an adult movie. She hands him her photographs and says ‘mai sexy dance accha kar leti hu’ and starts gyrating, and the producer points out to Sonu how busy he is.

The ‘filmmaking’ scenes, like the African jungle dance one are amusing. The sets are filled with bizarre scummy pulpy people you never expect to meet in your life. These are the rodents of the film industry and Ahluwalia presents them to you with glee. Hilariously, the B-movies being filmed in the film sometimes feel more real than the one we’re actually watching.

The casting and performances are flawless. Nawaz is yet again excellent – he switches from good natured and innocent to helpless, desperate and violent without missing a beat. Whoever discovered Anil George deserves a trophy because he’s a hell of a dramatic actor. Watch him in the scenes where he verbally spars with Nawaz and you’ll know we have a Vijay Raaz-Deepak Dobriyal competitor. Newcomer Niharika Singh is icily mysterious (not to mention gorgeous). The junior artistes are all wonderful in their tiny roles.

Miss Lovely breaks a lot of ‘Bollywood rules’. You can bristle about its indulgencies but I'll still prefer a movie that fiddles with the rules over an easy commercial one. Especially if it has a climax that features blood and a Nazia Hassan song.

(First published in Firstpost on Jan 16, 2014)

Movie Review: Inside Llewyn Davis

The Coen brothers’ movies have always been weird, unpredictable, neurotic, always funny and never depressing. So it’s quite surprising when you discover that Inside Llewyn Davis is their bleakest, saddest film to date. The change in tone didn’t seem to have had any effect on quality though, because the Coens are in top form as always.

Set in NYC in the 60’s the film chronicles the titular character Davis, a struggling folk musician (played to grim perfection by Oscar Isaac), who is having a hard time keeping up with his famous father’s reputation and paying the rent. Davis couch surfs his way through life, often depending on friends, exes and the generosity of rich acquaintances who render him some token remuneration in exchange for a song or two. His life takes a big turn when he pursues an escaped ginger cat across the city and re-examines his struggle and his life’s purpose. The cat is a wonderful little metaphor and anyone who has had a tussle with following their passion and making money out of it will be able to connect with Davis and his problems.

For the first time in many years the Coens work without Roger Deakins and there’s a significantly different mood to the film. Bruno Delbonell (Amelie) shoots in icy cold NYC and the imagery is powerful enough to give you the chills. The photography really takes you inside the lonely isolated yet hopeful headspace of Davis as he chases the cat around town. You get to feel what Davis goes through. You get to experience every agonizing disappointment that Davis faces. You can see the pain, the hunger to succeed and the distinct shadow of hopelessness in Davis’ eyes. When Davis meets a host of helpful and selfish people who all want to make it in the industry you realize in a way he is selfish too, for sticking with his plan and not getting a proper job and mooching off his friends’ couches to live. The quirky black humor typical of the Coens does show up in spurts, and the comedic moments are so welcome you end up laughing harder than intended.

Isaac, who was last seen in tiny parts in Sucker Punch, Drive and a host of forgettable films is given the role of his lifetime here. He’s completely committed to his role and you can tell he’s worked really hard to channel his own struggles as someone trying to peddle his talents across the film industry. It’s a tough role because Isaac is faced with the task of making Davis likable instead of pitiable, and he pulls it off. The soundtrack is as good as the supporting cast. The scene where Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake sing ‘500 miles’ will give you the goosebumps. Like the rest of the movie, the scene is a deeply moving, authentic portrayal of an artist scuffling to showcase his art to the world. Whether or not you can relate to it, you need to watch it on the big screen to appreciate its tragic beauty. 

(First published in Mid Day)

Movie Review: Dedh Ishqiya

My impasse here is to convince you to see Dedh Ishqiya without revealing too many plot details, which is like a salesman persuading you to buy a car because it is red.

Suffice to say that Dedh Ishqiya is smarter, funnier, richer and way more gorgeous than its predecessor. If you're a fan of really, really great writing, masterful direction, clever lines, terrific actors, Urdu literature and shayari, Dedh Ishqiya delivers by the truckloads. And if you were worried that Abhishek Chaubey and Vishal Bharadwaj had exhausted their supply of sardonic dialogues in the first film, relax. Dedh Ishqiya not only outdoes the wit and intelligence of the first film, but is also the finest sequel and perhaps the most hilarious thriller to come from Bollywood. Few filmmakers have the ability to deliver dark and nuanced humor with such confidence, and the Chaubey-Bharadwaj team have pretty much outdone themselves with this deeply awesome installment.

The story picks up an indefinite amount of time after the events of the first movie. Babban and Khalu continue to con their way through life in the hinterlands and evade being buried alive by their former boss Mushtaq (Salman Shahid). After a heist goes wrong the duo chance upon a lifetime opportunity of carrying out the ultimate con and 'settling down' in a gigantic Scindia style palace occupied by the ridiculously rich Begum Para (Madhuri Dixit) and her subordinate Muniya (Huma Qureshi). Trouble brews and hilarity ensues when the villainous Nawab Jaan Mohammad (Vijay Raaz) decides to contest Khalu for Begum's hand over a round of Shayari and Target Shooting'.

There’s a severely satisfying degree of subtext beneath the front layers of Dedh Ishqiya, and homages are only a part of the film’s intelligent satirical touches. But don't let metaphors and subtext get you down, Dedh Ishqiya is first and foremost a very entertaining movie. Plus it's got a generous dose of cinematic ‘moments’, and a terrific special effect – romance between Naseer and Madhuri Dixit. 

Much of the film’s humor comes from dry sarcasm and a deliciously acidic sense of irony. The genius is in the details. Chaubey and Bharadwaj fill Dedh Ishqiya with an array of stunningly colourful sets to complement the layered writing and set the film in a see-saw of the hilariously absurd and the absurdly hilarious. While Naseer and Dixit wax on Ghalib and Lihaaf a shot shows a bar with the signboard ‘Bhayankar Chilled Beer’ and a railway station is called ‘Baap’. There are deconstructions of Mexican standoffs, juxtaposed to beautifully ironic songs, and they’ll make your belly ache with laughter. The Shayari contest between Khalu and Jaan Mohammad is itself worth the price of admission. 

As the film goes through its myriad of twists and turns the viewer may recognize how quirky the characters are. And once the secondary characters branch off individual plot threads Dedh Ishqiya feels like a multi-pronged classic. Not to mention the wonderful production design and Setu’s elegant cinematography that gives your retinas a spa massage. There’s poetry in the lines as well as in the frames.

Naseer and Warsi really are a classic on screen couple - the camaraderie between them is a lot of fun. As in the first film Babban and Khalu are dysfunctional to an astronomical degree - they bicker, fight, dupe each other, but ultimately can't do without each other. Babban and Khalu are funny guys, but they'll go to any extent to frame people and manipulate situations to get what they want. And Naseer and Warsi portray their impious characters with a refreshing lack of apology. Naseer is quite lovable and you can tell that he's having fun in his role of a slyly fiendish and the winningly romantic conman. This time Naseer loses his faux youthful mehendi beard but gains a shade of vulnerability to his character. Faring just as strongly is Arshad Warsi who is once again amusing, and exudes a surprisingly darker shade to his character. Babban is a romantic on the outside but deep down he'll manhandle and slap women if he feels betrayed. Warsi nails both sides of his character - he should really do more films like this one instead of stuff like last week’s unmentionable dud.

With her pale visage and haunted eyes Madhuri Dixit looks stunning and has a couple of superb scenes with Naseer, but doesn’t have the magnetic screen presence of her former self. The fact that she plays a formerly beautiful and popular star makes her casting and performance kind of meta. It’s still great to see her back on the big screen in a really good film. Qureshi continues the super strong ‘don’t mess mess with me’ attitude from her previous films and seems to have perfected her style here, it’s nice to see that she’s getting better and more wide ranging with every film. Manoj Pahwa in a small but significant role is quite terrific. Bringing down the house is Vijay Raaz who is delightfully scummy and displays some previously unseen acting chops, teasing every comic as well as menacing possibility out of Jaan Mohammed’s character. The guy is an acting giant who can effortlessly make even the most jaded moviegoer applaud. It is frustrating that he doesn’t appear in more movies.

The only problem is that there are no ‘hit’ songs like Ibn-E-Batuta and Dil to baccha hai ji and that might not bring in audiences in droves, and that’s a shame because the songs (Gulzar-VB) in Dedh Ishqiya work really well within the film. And the film deserves to make hundreds of crores, because it’s a hundred times better than part one. It’s a rare movie that delves in intelligent humor and succeeds so brilliantly. It transported me to a more cheerful and less cynical headspace and I fell for it all the way. You will too, so check it out.

(First published in Firstpost on Jan 9, 2014)