SHANKAR, DEEPTI AND BEBINCA WITH ICECREAM

Shankar Mahadevan has a couple of molar teeth missing. That doesn’t stop him from laughing out loud. To me, he came across as a simple man, happy with life and mad about music. If he does care about his public image or his fragmented smile, it doesn’t show. At least it didn’t show to me when I met him at the last IFFI, in Goa.

It was a big day for me. Although around seven documentaries that I have written have been to various installments of the IFFI, I have never followed them. This time, I invited myself. It was my dear friend Deepti Sivan’s film, “Decoding Shankar”. Since it was a PSBT film, and almost every director I know has always lost money on such shoestring mega-projects, I thought she might need a shoulder to cry. So off I went.

We film-crews have a mutually agreed dictum; ‘what happens in shoot, stays in shoot’. This time I can’t abide by that. It wasn’t a shoot anyways.

What happened in Goa was far beyond my expectations.

To start with, Deepti called me on stage to receive the memento of participation; me and our video-editor Soni. In a flash all those desperate calls and sleepless nights came back to me and those hundred plus rough cuts, graphics templates, heated discussions, switched off phones, rushed questions (Hey AB… Amitabh Bachchan is in the middle of an ad-shoot, he is waiting with the answers, but he just needs the questions … now go figure that out!!!).

This almost always happens, with every major documentary, so we screenwriters are pretty much used to it; but what was happening now has never happened before; at least not with me.

Here I was walking down the stairs of a dimly lit and jam-packed auditorium in Goa, uncomfortably numb. I was also pinching myself on my tummy. Not too hard; if this was a dream, I didn’t want to wake up.

I know it’s not desirable for a screenwriter to be a fan of his character, but what to do!!! Life has never been the same after Breathless, and Dil Chahta Hai, and Rock On.

And here I was, by his side.

Onstage, Shankar took the mike and started singing. The crowd exploded with this impromptu concert; Shankar enthralled them by singing in multiple languages. It was enchanting. The crowd was shouting a language, and Shankar was singing in it.

The film begun, ended, and Shankar stood up, with moist eyes. He asked me, “Where did you get all that information about me?”

What to say? What could I say? I mean I could have said that I took some of it from Wikipedia and some by logging tube interviews about him and some from his website and mostly from his wife’s interview in an obscure magazine – but that would had broken the charm of the moment.

So I stood there with a catch-me-if-you-can expression, all smiles.

The evening was still young. Before I realized what was happening we were off to Bagha Beach. Shankar wanted to treat us in his favourite restaurant.

We sat there on the beach and spoke about music and cinema. Shankar and his lovely wife Sangeeta were just the perfect hosts, with Deepti adding on to the charm of the atmosphere with her incredible energy and infectious smile. Shankar’s younger son Shivam was there too. Sanjeev Sivan, Deepti’s husband and my long time director friend was by my side, with our editor Soni Sasankan. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and his wife joined us as well.

It was funny. Surrounded by celebrities who are confirmed foodies, ordering as if there’s no tomorrow, while emphasizing on each other their succinct knowledge of Goan cuisine. “That yellow curry please from last time, with coconut milk”; “But you shouldn’t put that sweet coat on the shrimp zacuti”; “Naah, no squids…it’s late”; “What you don’t have Bebinca!!! Get it from somewhere then, and serve it with vanilla ice-cream…, you should always have Bebinca with ice-cream… ”

That apart, they were all this while getting pestered by a constant swarm of selfie-seekers that inevitably peer between the dishes asking ‘Are you Shankar Mahadevan?’

It’s almost like saying if you are not, then it’s no use taking a photo with you.

Shankar, however, always obliged, with his signature grin.   

Those who know me will confirm that I have always preferred to be useful. Here, I took upon myself the responsibility of pouring the beer with minimum froth. That’s something I can do with impeccable precision; much better than scripting. Any doubts, get me a beer-tower with a tap and check for yourself.

Between around five of us beer-drinkers, we had two of those towers. 

In the process, we spoke about so many things. Well, that’s a hyperbole. They spoke, I listened. They went on and on about the craft of Gulzar sahab’s writing, about the little notes he scribbles that turns into full fledged songs, about the score of Mirzya, the unique edit patterns of Rang De Basanti, about A R Rahman in Delhi 6 and so on.

But let’s not get into all those details. I think some of it I will keep to myself for my autobiography, if I can find someone like me to write it for me.   

As an afterthought, when I recollect now, for most of the evening I was feeling much like that scene from Avengers Endgame, where Professor Hulk was signing autographs and taking selfies. Heck, I was not even the Antman here.

It ended, like all good things, with a group picture on the beach. It was about 2 AM deep in the night; I don’t seem to remember who took that picture.

Whoever it was, don’t blame me!!! I might have been a little tipsy.

Pasting the trailer link below; the complete film is on YouTube. Watch it. It does have some fascinating insights about the craft and the language of Indian Film music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFdcpB1Kbp0

I am often asked about the role of a scriptwriter in an interview based film (like this one) that doesn’t have the “voice-of-god”. Valid question!! If the film has no voice-off narration or anchor links, what did the writer write???

I will take that up separately, because that requires a complete post.

For now, I quote from Barry Hampe’s popular guidebook on making documentaries.

“These are the things that documentary scriptwriters do.

• Research and Planning
• Visualization
• Organizing a structure for the film
• Writing the words that are needed”

So writing the words, according to him, is about one-fourth of my job profile.

Would elaborate on that later; in the meanwhile, if you get to see a documentary without a voice-off or anchor (like this one), and still find the name of a script-writer in the credits, do not doubt.

We don’t just write the voice of god. We create gods, frame by frame. 

See you next weekend.