India-born Canadian director Deepa Mehta is in Dubai to present her film Water at the Dubai International Film Festival. Rajeev Nair meets her
Deepa Mehta is mightily pleased that all Diff screenings of her film Water are already on standby. "How come," wonders the film's producer David Hamilton in a jocular vein. "It is a mystery." And then he adds: "I think it is great film."
Deepa arrives here from India, where she had showcased Water at the International Film Festival of Kerala. The film, on Hindu widows in Varanasi, had kicked up a storm during its making five years back. Mehta had to stop shooting and when she commenced it in Sri Lanka last year she changed her cast too, opting for John Abraham, Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas instead of the original cast comprising Akshay Kumar, Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi.
She says the five years of waiting was a crucial learning for the filmmaker. "I learnt that you can't let your personal agenda get into filmmaking." Her next venture, Exclusion, set in 1940, explores racism in Canada. Like her famous trilogy, it is also her journey into the past "to realise where you are going."
Excerpts from an exclusive interview, the first Deepa Mehta gave to the Dubai media after arriving from Thiruvananthapuram:
Last year you came to Diff with a frivolous Bollywood-Hollywood; this year it is Water, which completes your poignant Earth-Fire-Water trilogy. How do you feel?
I feel excellent, and I felt good last year too because Bollywood-Hollywood was done after Water was shut down five years ago. It was the desire to do something light and fun; it is not that fun can't be important but it is not the same thing. I wanted to take a break. And I enjoyed doing Bollywood-Hollywood. Everything has its time and place, and it was the perfect time for me to do something irreverent.
Water had the honour of opening Toronto Film Festival. How was the experience?
It was superb. That was the biggest honour — to have an opening night film. And somehow, it felt right.
Are you bothered that you couldn't shoot the film in India?
Not at all. I was very happy. I did not want to shoot it in India again. There is always a risk of what happened last time. I am sure things would have been okay but why take the tension. I am a filmmaker; I am not trying to prove a point. I was very happy with Sri Lanka.
You also had to alter your cast. Did you get what you looked for in Lisa Ray and John Abraham?
You see, five years had passed. It is a long time. Nandita Das was five years older; Shabana Azmi was busy. Akshay Kumar had become a big star. All of them had been supportive. I too had changed as a director. I looked at the characters slightly differently.
How different is the Water that we see now from what you had originally conceptualised?
The script is exactly the same, the narrative and story are the same. The difference is that between Sri Lanka and Varanasi. The only thing that was changed was the name of a character that Nandita was to play. During the controversy, when we had to ask for re-permission, they asked me to change the name from Janaki to something else. I changed it to Kalyani.
What have you proved with your trilogy?
I haven't tried to prove anything. I just completed my film. If I were to prove something, I would have done the film five years ago. I am a filmmaker, not a politician, and doing Water wasn't a five-year plan. I feel satisfied that the vision and passion for these three films is over. There is a closure to it and that has a lot of dignity.
What did the experience of doing Water teach you?
I think, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Some three months after Water was shut down, I could have done the film. But I was very angry and hurt. I said, I will not make this script, which I love, which is gentle and flowing like water, till I stop being angry. That took four years. It was four years of different stages of anger. I wanted even the residual anger to dissipate before starting work on the film. I did not want to approach the script with a baggage from the past. I wanted to approach it fresh without it being an act of vengeance. That is what I learnt: You can't let your personal agenda get into filmmaking.
What next for you?
I am doing a very serious film, Exclusion. It is set in Canada and India in 1940, when a shipload of Indians, some of them dissidents, arrived in Canada to escape the British. The Canadians, heavily influenced by the British, would not let them enter. Some 375 men, two women and two children arrived in a boat and they anchored outside Vancouver. They were out there for two months because the white folks were very scared of a "brown invasion." All the Indians in Vancouver, mostly the working class, pooled money, and hired a lawyer to fight for their cause. But they lost. It is a film about exploring racism in Canada. Unless you know where you are coming from, you do not know where you are going. In many ways, the trilogy is also about that. But this is from the other point of view. I have spoken to Amitabh Bachchan – he wants to do it in principle. I like John Abraham and Seema Biswas too to do it. It will start in September.
How was the response to Water in India at the film festival screening in Kerala?
Wonderful… 5,000 people turned up for the screening. I love what Malayalam films stand for. I am a big admirer of Malayalam cinema — with the likes of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, TV Chandran or even the new directors like Pradeep Nair. It is socially conscious cinema and it is progressive cinema. Also I think Kerala has a very cinema-literate audience. To open Water in Kerala, therefore, seemed right. A big producer came up to me and said: "I belong to the Bharatiya Janatha Party, and I don't know why they did what they did to you. This film celebrates India." I was touched.
What is your expectation from Diff?
I have no expectations. You never know about films. You hope (for the best) but you mustn't expect.
