Mani Kaul.

Mani Kaul.

Today the is the second death anniversary of the eminent Indian filmmaker Mani Kaul. He was my friend for more than forty years through many ups and downs. As a film maker from the Film & TV Institute of India,Pune, he was my senior by four years. He passed out from the institute in 1966 while I  finished my course in 1970. But after a few years of hierarchical relationship during which time he was my 'senior' I  worked as an assistant director to him in his film "Aashad Ka Ek Din" we more or less settled down on an an equation where we could be termed as "friends".

Today in Mumbai a book is being released which is an English translation of a long interview of Mani Kaul conducted by Udayan Bajpayei many years ago in Bhopal.Why I am not present at that function is a mystery to me. No one has formally approached me to speak in a public function about Mani Kaul so far and I think it is a very difficult task for a friend to speak about a friend after his death, specially in a public forum. As a friend there is so much to say  that one may not be able to do justice in a small speech which one is expected

to make on such occasions. So in way I am happy that I am spared of such a difficult task at the same time I feel one way or the other I should be present when it has to do with Mani Kaul. But maybe that is not the way others may be  looking at it.

After Mani Kaul expired for many months  I closely interacted with his entire family. His children Ribhu and Shambhavi, his first wife Lalitha in Mumbai and his sisters Gattu and Chunni  as they are popularly known. On 25th December, 2011 many of his friends and relatives organized a big party in Gurgaon in Delhi  where 

Mani Kaul spent his last days. I was also invited but I was not able to attend it and as a gesture on my part I sat down to write a brief letter for that occasion to his sisters who had organized that lunch. As I sat down to write a simple letter words flowed through my computer and it became a long letter.To my surprise it became a letter which inadvertently expressed many things about my relationship with Mani and many glimpses of his journey with cinema. Today on his second death anniversary I am reproducing that letter here which I sent to his sisters Gattu and Chunni. Perhaps my first attempt to describe a man called Mani Kaul. 

Vishnu Mathur

July 6th 2013

                                                                

                                                                  Mani Kaul

Dear Gattu, Chunni and all the dear ones,

First Birthday of Mani. Without him being present physically! Certainly he had a great presence and there is nobody who ever came in contact with him who ever left without carrying a bit of him. That is the way he was. Fierce anger and deep emotions--two extremes were in him at the same time. It all depended on your horoscope which part of him was reserved for you!  I am still unable to decide why we were friends for so long through all the ups and downs both in our personal lives as well as our coexistence as film makers. Must be something to that. Of course,  both coming from Rajasthan and sharing a similar background must be one strong reason for our bonding. However much different were our films and personal nature, we were both non-compromising in our films and shared common cinematic sensibilities and understanding. Our methods were different in making our films and so was our way of interacting with the world. He was strong and pragmatic while I was soft and simple. He came to Bombay four years before me from the Film Institute of India in Pune and actively started contributing  to  the New Cinema Movement in the late sixties and we who came later joined that movement, not for any other reason but for the fact that we had already found our own path in the medium which was similar to his and many more who were already there in Mumbai at that time struggling to make their own films. We all made our first films during that phase of the New Cinema Movement in India, from the late sixties to say mid-eighties. Mani went on to make many more films and was far ahead in the race of numbers but in terms of spirit of cinema we were co-runners and continued to strive for making more and better films. At least we never gave up  hope. 

I have no hesitation in putting this on record here at this point that Mani Kaul, Kumar(Shahani) and I were  the only true non-compromising film-makers in the Indian New Wave cinema, however much different we may have been as persons is a different matter. Adoor Gopalakrishnan, in my opinion is the only other film-maker who has stood his ground as a genuine film-maker, though his films are rooted in a different cinematic syntax. Many other film-makers who were part of the Indian New Wave were either not very sure of what they were doing there or were just fence-sitters. But many of them found their own way of practicing their craft and language gradually and became successful film-makers in their own right. Saeed Mirza, Vinod(Vidhu) Chopra and Kundan Shah come immediately to my mind in that context. Many other film-makers continued to make films and many quite successfully, but failed to attain an individualistic style of their own in their films, in their attempt to win both the critics and market at the same time. Of course, they earned their own share of fame and money. And  nothing wrong in that moralistically speaking. 

And when on that morning of the month of July 6th,2011 I stood watching the frozen face of Mani in Gurgaon Delhi I was transfixed. So was the fixed expression on Mani's face. Slightly pursed lips as if they were going to open any moment and talk about the next film he was hoping to make in Italy and was actively planning it from his death bed so to say. But that was not to be. It was the death of cinema for him like the death of the Indian New Wave cinema twenty-five years ago. We all died an early death in that sense in terms of film making at that time. Indian New Cinema was declared dead by its detractors who were of the opinion that pure cinematic expressions were not valid in the Indian context and what was not commercially viable was not to be encouraged especially at the cost of the exchequer. Such a view was spearheaded by none other than Satyajit Ray himself who was critical of our kind of cinema and was  seconded by film-makers  who were the epitomes of “middle-cinema". Paradoxically even the middle- cinema could not sustain itself for long after that because in a sense it was parasitical on both the pure genre of film-making and the popular genre. We all lost our race even before we completed it as the race itself was termed meaningless and unnecessary.

After that it was a lost battle for many a film-maker and a lone struggle for many more. Some reached the shore and others drowned. Govt. organisations like FFC/NFDC shifted their stand in the name of public accountability and have remained a sheer facade as organisations in terms of development of cinema. But Mani Kaul survived against all odds both in his personal as well as professional life till he died on that night of July 6th in 2011. And as I stood watching the animated face of Mani's frozen body my immediate emotion was anger and not sadness. And I haven't cried since. Anger because of the betrayal of the state in first encouraging and then withdrawing the support to the good cinema movement and its continued apathy towards film- makers who kept making their individualistic  efforts to better their own expressions. Who knew what Mani Kaul and likes were doing all these years? Leave aside active encouragement of the state and  semi-official organisations of such films and film-makers, they did not even make cursory gestures of giving honorary awards, which are routinely doled out every year to so many for some facile reason or the other. The state did not even think of awarding any of the 'Shri' awards to him, not to talk of the  prestigious 'Dada Sahib Phalke Award.'

Post his demise there were encouraging signs. Mani’s passing away was noticed. It was to my surprise that the media, at least the print media, reported it prominently. Many write-ups appeared and Individuals who knew him personally and who had come in contact with him through his film-making or his engagement with Drupad music, expressed their feelings one way or the other. Many in praise and some in a negative vein. Never mind whether it was right or wrong it was clear that Mani's life did not go in vain. He continued to tell his tales in his own way, whether everybody  agreed with him or not and at the same time left an impression on many young aspiring film-makers who continue to hope to make their own films. Mani would have liked to narrate a few more of his tales to achieve a sense of fulfillment but that was not to be. A touch of sadness perhaps for him and ourselves who are still waiting to  listen to a few more of his tales.

"Bade shaukh se sun raha tha ye zamana,Ham hi soe gaye dastan kahte kahte."

Tears can wait for a little  longer. It is time to wish him a Happy Birthday if not to the person himself but to the his spirit which continued to strive for something better in his expression in cinema. And while I will keep wondering why we were friends for so long through so many ups and downs -- after all we were such divergently different people and film-makers the answer does not come easily.Maybe we were together so that we could be a witness to each other’s struggles both in our personal lives as well as our endeavour to make our own films in our own way. Well, it is not necessary to have all answers to all the questions in life. After all great cinema does not necessarily need a story to tell.

Go ahead and celebrate his Birthday, the way you would like to and enjoy it the way Mani would have liked too in his own style, with full gusto, unmindful of his critics and detractors.

With Love,
Vishnu
25th December 2011