Theatre and its base ve inspired many of the legendary film makers across the globe and it continues to do so..after all we ve some brilliant names associated with the stage - Naseerudin Shah,Om puri,Girish Karnad,Mahesh Dattani,Lillete Dubey,Arundhati Nag to name a few..even some well known plays being later transformed into films like Mahesh Dattani's 'Dance like a man','Morning raaga' etc..Even the reverse has happened,like recently it was being heard that Paresh Rawal wants to re-create Rituparno Ghosh's 'Unishe april' on stage.Now how much of this endeavours are successful among the movie buffs and the theatre going audience is the big question!
First of all,i ve no objection in plays being transformed into films,but whatever i ve seen of it in the past few years i was not impressed..(i didnt like Pamela Rooks' 'Dance like a man',though Shobhana as usual, was mesmerising with her grace and charm)
Ve seen a film some years back,M.F.Hussain's magnum opus 'GAJA GAMINI' an ode to womanhood, starring Hussain's muse Madhuri Dixit playing a mysterious figure called Gaja gamini,which appears as four different characters in different shots of the film namely Sangeeta/ Shakuntala/ Monika/ Monalisa....
For me the film was very confusing at that point of time coz i was barely 16 or 17 yrs old then, later when i saw the film on dvd,i somehow felt it was beautiful..though not as a film but as an art, which could ve been well represented if being made as a play instead of a movie.Also the canvas of the film was extremely eye candy,thanks to Mr.Hussain,which again could ve been presented on the canvas as well,keeping in mind the avid art lovers like me!
Now coming to the point,what i felt while watching the movie (as well as Hussain's next flick 'Meenaxi') is that Hussain should restrict himself within the parameters of an artist,not as a filmaker coz he's not so good in handling the subjects he had choosen.Instead,like in case of GAJA GAMINI,he should ve written the script and handed it to someone else to direct it on stage,because the script had so much scope in it to turn out to be an amazing play on stage!
When i first saw the film,it just looked like a vision thru a painter's eyes juxtaposed between illusion and reality, a concept which could ve been more appealing if presented as a ballet.Gaja Gamini is a mysterious figure (throughout the film her face has been kept obscurred from the audience's view) who travels thru different time zones carrying a gathri on top of her head,like a burden which a woman must carry on,all thru her life....The women that we come across are in the form of Leonardo da vinci's Monalisa,Kalidas's Shakuntala,a blind girl Sangeeta, inspiring the village women folk to stand up for their rights and carve a niche for themselves,and finally a woman of the new millenium,Monika...Also thrown into the script is a confrontational scene between the two aspects of Science and Arts.
Now all of this sounds interesting and brilliant but not within a 2 hr framed silver screen and thats where Hussain did the mistake by recreating his vision into a film! Something which we ve recently witnessed in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's SAAWARIYA
First of all,i ve no objection in plays being transformed into films,but whatever i ve seen of it in the past few years i was not impressed..(i didnt like Pamela Rooks' 'Dance like a man',though Shobhana as usual, was mesmerising with her grace and charm)
For me the film was very confusing at that point of time coz i was barely 16 or 17 yrs old then, later when i saw the film on dvd,i somehow felt it was beautiful..though not as a film but as an art, which could ve been well represented if being made as a play instead of a movie.Also the canvas of the film was extremely eye candy,thanks to Mr.Hussain,which again could ve been presented on the canvas as well,keeping in mind the avid art lovers like me!
Now coming to the point,what i felt while watching the movie (as well as Hussain's next flick 'Meenaxi') is that Hussain should restrict himself within the parameters of an artist,not as a filmaker coz he's not so good in handling the subjects he had choosen.Instead,like in case of GAJA GAMINI,he should ve written the script and handed it to someone else to direct it on stage,because the script had so much scope in it to turn out to be an amazing play on stage!
Now all of this sounds interesting and brilliant but not within a 2 hr framed silver screen and thats where Hussain did the mistake by recreating his vision into a film! Something which we ve recently witnessed in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's SAAWARIYA
