The filmmaker talks to Divya Kaushik about her love for naach gaana, tamasha and The Reluctant Fundamentalist
She doesn’t reveal much about herself in films. But in real life, Mira Nair is good at explaining things. We met the New York-based producer and director at PVR Director’s Cut Vasant Kunj, where the trailer of her much-talked-about film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist was screened.
A political thriller based on the novel by Mohsin Hamid, it releases in India on May 17. Mira is promoting the film in India and Pakistan. It released during the Venice Film Festival and screened at various international film festivals.
“I gave five years to this film. It was born out of my first invitation to lahore in 2004-05. My father lived there before Partition. We were raised in Odisha, conversing on Faiz Ahmad Faiz poems and ghazals of Iqbal Bano and Noor Jahan. We spoke more often in Urdu than Hindi. So it was a moving, familiar yet unfamiliar experience to visit Pakistan. And when I confronted lahore in its extraordinary refinement — in terms of artistic expression, music, culture, painting — I was incredibly inspired to make a film about modern Pakistan that we don’t read about in newspapers.”
She added, “Just 18 months after the visit I got a manuscript of the novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, I saw the possibility of dialogue between two worlds and realised that post 9/11, this dialogue never happened.” Adding, “This film is my first attempt at making a thriller. It’s a coming-of-age love story across continents but the style is shaped like a tight rope. You never know what’s going to happen at the end.”
Mira shared an incident that inspired her to make this film. “When I did the Monsoon Wedding soundtrack, I used Farida Khanum’s ghazal Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo. It was a huge hit. little did I know that Farida Khanum was waiting for me to visit Pakistan. I was there on December 30. The next day 31st, was New Year’s Eve. She came where I was staying, sat beside me and sang the song. I nearly fainted with delight. I was overcome by her humility.”
She said the movie should not be identified as a 9/11 film. “It is much more. Though 9/11 is a game changer in the film, this is a story of a man who dreams of America from another part of the world. He achieves the American dream, finds love. But post 9/11 finds himself betrayed by the country he loved and returns to his homeland. But he has to find who he is. Post 9/11, the movie is more relevant, because if you look at the spins, what happened with 9/11, is as Bush said, ‘Either you are with us or against us.” Movies out of America were monologues about American soldiers, wars. Nothing talked about the rest of the world where bombs were dropped. Or who was affected by the war. Since I stay there, I see the silence, that monologue,” she stated. Mira is in love with the title. “When you see the film, you realise Changez is reluctant about fundamentalism. I love the idea of reluctance. I think in today’s day and age one should question.”
She said she is a fierce desi, “who doesn’t like to explain her culture but still presents what I am and where I come from in my films. I employ the same vocab to reach people. The stories are universal.”
About changes to the original novel she said, “The novel is brilliant, but it is only Changez (the lead protagonist) speaking to an American, who never says a word. So we invented one. We added a third act to the novel — what he does when he returns to Pakistan. What makes him popular. This makes the film topical.” She concluded, “I wanted to amplify family life. Mohsin, the author would joke, ‘Mira you are making a Monsoon terrorist,’ because I need naach gaana, tamasha, family. The way we live. Outsiders don’t know much about our world. We have marriages, sibling rivalry and biryanis.” About inspiration, she said that she loves making films on “subjects that possess me. Since I live in many countries, my world view is expansive. I like to show you the universe as I know it without holding your hand. In revealing the human condition, which is utterly universal, only if you deal with it with truth. I hate my films appearing like homework, I want to transport you on a journey with music, fashion and you will see yourself look at something different.”