In Conversation With God...

 29^th March 2010 could be just another date for most of you and I was also expecting it to be just an ordinary, mundane day at work & otherwise. But…something happened that day, something that made it one of the most precious days of my life till now!

And the credit of converting my humdrum day as a radio show producer to an astonishing one, goes entirely to the God of filmmaking, Mr. Shyam GOD Benegal. People, who know me, will swear on my mania for Mr. Benegal’s cinema & himself as a person. I think I can say that he is one of the few public figures I look up to and respect. Clearly, when his film releases, it's a festival time for me and it holds true for his latest release Well Done Abba too. I was full gung-ho about the film, esp. coz I LHUUUVED his Welcome To Sajjanpur. So I went to experience another enchantment from the God himself! I had my roommate Vikas for my company. It was on a Saturday, 27^th Mar. Finally the film starts and I got the shock of my life the moment credit starts! If you closely follow Mr. Benegal’s cinema or TV shows since Ankur (1974) till Welcome To Sajjanpur (2008), the credit rolls of his films speak volumes for the man. All his film credits start with the title of the film in “Hindi” then in “Urdu” and then in “English”. For those who still couldn’t comprehend this, it shows his personal, childhood trauma of the partition in 1947…Hindi & Urdu are our indispensable languages, English is & will always be our guest (or ‘invader’ if you wanna call it that). And that’s how I got the shock of my life, Well Done Abba started with English! I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. I was so badly hurt & anxious that I couldn’t contemplate for the first 10-15 mins of the film. It was so painful to see the man you’ve always idolized, negotiating his sensibilities with the producers (the Reliance (BIG) bastards!).

Anyhow, I thought the worst was over but more disappointments were waiting for me, giving me contemptuous smile as if saying “gotcha”!! for the first time since 1974, including his TV serials & documentaries, Shyam Benegal’s characters were unidimensional. May be I’m wrong but for me, film had no graph. It was running flat. I simply couldn’t believe what I was watching. It’s not that film isn’t good, it’s a very sweet, simple film but it’s not a Shyam Benegal film, it’s like God has lost his enchantment powers or sacrificed them for “BIG Pictures”.

There was no layering, no subtext in the film, which always been Mr. Benegal’s strong suit! His films were always prosperous with characters & their journey. His characters were always his mistresses. He used them as & how he wants it, never compromised, never hesitant, never thinking about what people would say or react. And the mistresses were always more than happy to get used by their lord, never complaining.

But in Well Done Abba, it seems producers got their way to God’s den. The on-your-face branding of Reliance, the unexplored & incomplete characters and stereotypical presentation of the situations & the characters…disappointing

I was so disturbed that I decided to display my pain to the God himself. Fortunately for me, Mr. Benegal’s office is in the same building as mine. I wrote a “letter of disappointment” to him. I wrote all my displeasure & issues with the film & the script. It was a 2-page long “disappointing” letter. I took the print out and put it in an envelope, wrote his address on top of it but was still unsure coz he must be getting thousands of fan mails daily so my mind was telling me, “Dude! You’re no Bob Dylan and definitely not Akira Kurusowa whose letter Mr. Shyam God Benegal would open & read!”

But my heart was pulling me otherwise saying, “Dude! You don’t need to be Bob or Akira! You’re Mr. Benegal’s fan and want to say something to him so go ahead & send the letter”. Suddenly I found myself being the rope in the tug-of-war game with “Mr. Practical” mind on one side & “Mr. Emotional” heart on the other. And like a true Cancerian, I gave my grip to Mr. Emotional (which is very unlike me btw!). I asked my peon to go to the 2^nd floor to Mr. Benegal’s office & drop the letter. I gave him definite directives of NOT to tell them that it’s from Radio One (my workplace) since it was a personal affair.

He did the exact and I got busy with my work in the due course of time. Then suddenly at 4:12pm, I got a call from a number which had 8888 as its last four digits. I assumed that someone will try to sell me some plan or insurance if I pick up the phone. So I decided no to! But donno what struck me and I picked up the call.    

The heavy voice from the other side confirmed,

“Is it Manish?”

Like a good boy, I replied,

“Yeah this is Manish (Loser Tiwari!!)”

And then the Godly voice said something which swept the floor under me! Voice announced,

“Hi Manish, this is Shyam (God) Benegal”

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

  

I fumbled,

“Oh My Shyam! I can’t believe you actually called!”

God declared,

“I got your letter.”

Loser fumbled more,

“I’m sorry sir if I offended you by any way”.

God articulated,

“No no…I really appreciate what you wrote. One shouldn’t get habitual to only praises & accolades. Criticism is also important.”

A certain Manish (who was, by now, on cloud 9) managed to reply,

“Sir, it’s not that Well Done Abba is a bad film. It’s just that it wasn’t a Shyam God Benegal’s film”.

God paused for a micro second & countered,

“I’m really happy that you said whatever you wanna say. Whether I agree with it or not is a different issue but you told me this is what matters.”

(God was “really happy” with me!!! Dying is the only thing left for me to do! Anyways…)

I pinched myself to break my dream and blabbered something I can’t remember. Then God spoke his last few words of this conversation,

“Ok, it was nice talking to you. All the best”

And again, like a loser, I muttered,

“Thanks sir, you made my day. Thanks again”

Fortunately I didn’t say ‘same to you’!!! Imagine! Wishing ALL THE BEST to God!

Anyways, he bid me adieu (as I would like to put it) and the God went to stupor.

I was dumbfounded for the next 5 minutes after my “conversation with God”. I was possessed and in a void. But it didn’t last longer as my intern, Laxmi, came running to my cabin, screaming, “Sir, Prachi ma’m poochh rahi hain Playwin ka kya mention hai aaj?” After controlling myself from stabbing Laxmi to death for bringing me back to reality, I got busy with my work but with a constant smile on my face that lasted the whole day till I went to sleep (or may be after that too).

So that was my conversation with God and that’s what made my 29^th Mar 2010, an unforgettable day of my life…time 4:12pm…

God called me…