Filmmaker Shyam Benegal continues to be thorough and considerate about his work, however does not thoughts a couple of crackling gaps over a phone name to debate it animatedly. Especially when he talks about rediscovering and retelling historical past, rescuing forgotten heroes or unpeeling the unknown layers of these we all know all too effectively. He seeps into analysis, research and analyzes so deeply that his reinterpretation turns into virtually instinctive. Like the last-minute title change he did to his biopic on Sheikh Mujibur Rahmanan Indo-Bangladesh joint manufacturing on one of many icons of sub-continental historical past.
When the movie went on flooring in January 2021, the working title was Bongobandhu, The Making of a Nation. “But then I assumed altering Bongobondhu to Mujib wouldn’t solely be hanging, but in addition have extra which means. The identify Mujib means an individual with solutions. And this towering character was a deliverer of his individuals, who regarded as much as him. Not simply that, they believed in him,” Benegal notes.
The veteran filmmaker, who has seasoned himself with humanising the persona of our nationwide icons by way of The Making of the Mahatma and Bose: The Forgotten Hero, had his arms full, making an attempt to discover the complicated aspects of Sheikh Rahman’s life. In the tip, he selected to conceive him from a uniquely emotional perspective. Says Benegal, “Reconstructing his life was a tricky ask. But what appealed to me was his emotional chord. His best quote, ‘My best energy is the love for my individuals, my best weak spot is that I really like them an excessive amount of,’ was very telling. So I began finding out extra about his human qualities. That’s once I discovered that amongst all sub-continental figures in historical past, Rahman was a religious household man. He had a contented household life and for all his public persona, by no means reduce corners together with his household. He was as uncompromising about his political views and actions as he was about household values and time. That’s the lens from which my movie sees him. The narrator of the movie, subsequently, is his spouse, the closest particular person to grasp him. Not solely that, she grew up in Sheikh Rahman’s family and in the end acquired married to him. So it was simpler to chart the character’s development from this prism. The familial man formed the social and political imaginative and prescient of the person.”
A poster of Mujib: The Making of a Nation.
Perhaps Sheikh Rahman’s interview to BBC’s David Frost in 1972 would shed some gentle on why he selected to be the protector of his household. On the assaults by the Pakistan Army, he had mentioned, “They destroyed my village home where my old parents were living. My father was 90, my mother was 80. They sent the army, drove my father and mother from the house and burned the house in front of them. So they had no shelter.” He had additionally recounted how troops had began machine-gunning his home when he had holed himself together with his spouse and youngsters of their bed room. He then got here out and braced for the worst until an officer thought it was higher to arrest him.
Of course, that is the pivot. But Benegal has chosen vital features of his life and featured a few of his well-known speeches, too, to weave a story that traverses the trail of a nation in making – as a part of undivided India, as a part of Pakistan and a free Bangladesh after seceding from Pakistan. “He was an icon of Bengali nationalism and the language of andolan was definitely a galvaniser of his movement. But his nationalism was not parochial. It was about protecting a singular but definitive culture that was typical of the Bay of Bengal delta,” provides Benegal.
To make Bongobandhu extra reasonable, Shyam Benegal insisted that the most important forged and crew and the author must be from Bangladesh.
Obviously, the speak of Bengali nationalism attracts comparisons with Subhas Chandra Bose, contemplating that in 2003, creator David Ludden, too, described Sheikh Rahman as a “forgotten hero.” Did Benegal really feel the necessity for a comparative therapy? “Not at all. Their historical contexts were different. Of course, Sheikh Rahman saw Bose as an inspirational figure but Bose was an anti-colonialist. Rahman’s nationalism was more cultural, ethno-linguistic and about the right of people to live with their heritage within a certain territorial span. No two historical figures can ever be the same because each is a product of his time and has his own vision and singularity of purpose,” says the filmmaker.
One would assume that understanding Sheikh Rahman would have been a formidable problem for Benegal, contemplating he’s not too conversant in Bengali. But he took it in his stride, notably due to the help from the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC). “I was grateful that the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) chose me as the director. But I had a good support system of researchers, writers, translators and interpreters. So the script was taut all along. I met his daughter and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina several times to understand the nuances of Bongobondhu’s personality and she gave us many unknown facts. In fact, she wanted me to make the film either in English, Urdu or Hindustani. But the story of a Bengali nationalist, who fought Pakistan because it was trying to force Urdu as the national language when the majority of people in East Pakistan were Bengali, deserved no other language. Not only that, the Bengali used in the film is not of the kind we speak in Kolkata and West Bengal. It has the texture and flavor of the Bengali spoken across the border,” says Benegal.
To make Bongobandhu extra reasonable, Benegal insisted that the most important forged and crew and the author must be from Bangladesh. And though he did many discipline journeys together with his crew, he was fairly stunned by the convenience with which the challenge took off. “This is the first time that actors are from Bangladesh and the technical team is from India. But they were outstanding professionals, coming to the sets on time and with their lines ready. It was not just a creative experience, it was a happy experience with very good human beings,” he says.
And would the movie discover resonance inside India? “Mujib remained a great friend of India. Besides, a human story always works,” says Benegal, signing off on one other historic legacy that is as cinematic as it’s well timed. Mujib: The Making of a Nation has simply launched its poster and is scheduled for a summer season launch.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
