• Sudhir Mishra

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    on Jul 23 2007 @ 10:18 am
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« Sunday 100 : A sound in the dark | Home | The Janus-faced Nutty »


The boy who made “Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin”

I have been reading comments to the previous posts and some of you asked me to write more about Yeh Woh Manzil to Nahin and the idea behind it.

I must say at the outset that I am no longer the boy who made Yeh Woh Manzil to Nahin. I sort of see, the kind of idealistic boy. I kind of know him. Sometimes I find him very naive, sometimes very didactic. I seem to find him, a bit too cocky, some times doing things for effect.

Somewhere you also like some things there which you may have lost. A young boy, not corroded so much by the world. It’s a different person. It’s a film that’s going back in time. And people, who had seen this film and mostly they had all seen the film on television, told me, they thought it was some 80 year old man who had made it. It has its moments. But I don’t like it too much. A lot of people tell me it’s still your best work, but I don’t think so. It’s too sure of itself in a very amateurish way and it’s too judgmental at times.

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It’s actually a film about three people who betrayed Bhagat Singh, If you take the Srikant character somewhat like a Bhagat Singh type of a character. Actually, they are traitors in the context of the Indian freedom movement. They collaborated with the British against their own. They were weak, they were cowards and it’s a story of their redemption.

It’s still got some of the themes that I like. All my films are about people who failed and who lament that failure and recover their ways. I think people are heroes only some of the time and there is no such thing as a hero and a country that looks for heroes in that sense is a very childish country. It has not grown up.

Some Indians see films and literature as some exercise in nobility. And that’s the biggest problem in Indian art. And a lot of us carry that inside our heads. I am also partially that. We cannot explore enough. We are scared of ourselves. And it’s quite a surprise because Indians talk so much about consciousness of the inner self but I don’t think they enter it.

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As a film maker you need to confront that about yourself a lot. I always think about what is it within me that stops me from becoming a great film maker. I don’t think I am a great film maker. A great film is a film where you lose the distinction between how a tale is told and the tale itself; where there is an investigation into the truth but simultaneously the idea of being wrong is also present. You want to know the truth but when you reach it you also have an idea that maybe that’s not it.

All great films have it. I don’t think Indian cinema has it. Maybe in a Pather Panchali, maybe some films of Ghatak or two or three films of Ray. I don’t think we have, in that sense reached somewhere yet. But this is just my opinion. I feel we are all film makers of a different kind, where the idea is to engage an audience and uplift them in some way and take them into an experience which is multi-emotional. Though, we are quite good as narrators of simple tales.

There’s an idea in India of propriety, “yeh mat bolo” (don’t say this), for the sake of not upsetting anyone around. When you will go somewhere deeper you will offend. Maybe it’s a country that was enslaved for so many years where you weren’t allowed to talk. Maybe. I wouldn’t know. It’s difficult to figure out. But somewhere we don’t go the whole distance. Somewhere all Indian films cop out.

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Somewhere you can begin with an interesting premise and then they go somewhere else and not fulfill their promise, even the better ones. Somewhere there’s a problem and somewhere we need to confront that as film-makers. Same thing about why we can’t run 9.7 in a 100 m race. Maybe there’s a whole danger of failure. There’s a danger of dying. When you want to run 9.7 then you take a risk with your life.

What is a good man or woman in India? A person who is family oriented, comes home at a certain time, is a responsible parent and to fulfill that family responsibility, it’s okay if he’s slightly corrupt. Can we confront as Indians the truth about our selves? Almost all good films are semi patriotic.
Nobody has made a film, for instance, about our selves as villain. Every Indian will get upset if we talk about their role in so many places. What is our role, say, in Nagaland. Has there been any film. Do Indians have the balls to make that kind of a film.

I am not sure if we can confront truths about ourselves and sometimes when you confront the truth about yourself, not all of it is pleasant …

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[pic courtesy : Smriti Vij and Manjeet Singh]

23 Responses to “The boy who made “Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin””

  1. Vikram on July 23rd, 2007 10:33 am

    Now,that is enlightening :)

  2. krysh on July 23rd, 2007 10:36 am

    Sudhirbhai,your dilemma about confronting the truth connects. Yes we Indians in a way are cowards or hypocrites..Take a very open case of sex education in our schools..The entire issue boils down to this..we will do it but not say it..Sam Pitroda once mentioned that his whole experience of American way of life or for that matter European vis a vis Indian ethos boils down to one word–lack of self-esteem.Maybe slavery and colonisation of thousand years is the culprit..But it seems India’s collective conscious loves this tag hence so much of resistance to change and look within or beyond.

  3. Viczee on July 23rd, 2007 2:35 pm

    Sudhir,I think that as long as we try to look and feel good and sacrifice the steaming,bubbling and often festering reality all around us for the sake of aesthetic and narrative convention,things are not likely to change…it is that way in most mainstream Hollywood films as well…though here there is a strong independent presence which is a lot more ballsy than Indian cinema has ever been.
    Also, the traditional definition of a filmmaker as a mere teller of tales has been redefined. Images and sounds can be and have been deployed to generate sensations far beyond the commonly percieved mandate of a’storyteller’.Cinema can be a totally immersive and immediate experience for the viewer if traditional dramatic instruction and dialogue are subjugated in favour of the raw,naked image and visceral,spontaneous sound.
    Mr.Mishra, I would appreciate it if you read my post - ‘The Most Dangerous Place on Earth’ and told me what you think, in light of this article….

    best
    xxx

  4. diadepur on July 23rd, 2007 11:38 pm

    We can’t look at ourselves in the mirror because the relection is a huge lie. And maybe because we are all escapist by nature. Stuff happening in the North-East does not bother us because the geographical distance is too huge. The sunrise in the the north-east states is a good 3-4 hours before the Allahabad Standard Time , yet they are forced to follow it.Maybe if people travelling to the North-east are made to realize that they are in a different time zone it could make them wake up to some realization.

    As far as corruption goes , i think its become genetic. Just like hatred and intolerance.

  5. sunil on July 24th, 2007 2:40 am

    SIR G …VERY RIGHTLY SAID…BUT WHAT’S A SOLUTION……WE DONT DARE TO PORTRAY OURSELF AS VILLIAN B’CAUSE THERE’S A DANGER OF REVELATION BEFORE OUR FAMILY AND KIDS WHO MIGHT SEE OURSELVES AS IDEALS…THERE MIGHT BE A DANGER OF MAKING A FEATURE LIKE THAT B’CAUSE LOT OF MONEY IS INVOLVED AND THE FEAR REMAINS WHETHER THE FILM WORKS OR NOT…I AGREE WITH YOU ON ONE THING AS THE COUNTRY WAS ENSLAVED FOR SO MANY YEARS PROBABLY THAT’S Y WE’R COWARD..IF A TEENAGER GIRL GETS RAPED IN HER 16′S THEN FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE SHE’LL SEE EVERY MAN WITH SUCH A POINT OF VIEW…AND WILL BE SCARED OF MEN FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE…SAME APPLIES TO US B’CAUSE WE DONT HAVE BALLS TO PRESENT THE TRUTH MAY BE AS U HAVE SAID WE’R AFRAID OF OURSELVES AND AFRAID OF PRESENTING THE TRUTH OR INVESTIGATING THE TRUTH…
    PLZ KEEP WRITING ABOUT SUCH THINGS SIR…IT GIVES STRENGTH AND A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILTY AS FILMMAKERS WHAT WE HAVE ACTUALLY FORGOTTON…
    REGARDS,

  6. kaalia on July 24th, 2007 2:45 am

    Thank you Sudhir. More on Devdas please. Wud luv to hear from the horses mouth.

  7. sandeep varma on July 24th, 2007 6:34 am

    hi sir,
    i think the stuff about films which put the mirror to us not being made being cause we’re cowards is only partially true. for eg. hazaron…did put a mirror on the young turks…siddharths….how life took over and they abandoned the ’cause’. didn’t hear too many protests….
    other examples also. ya but hardly any films of that kind being made, maybe that could be because of lack of vision of story tellers or green lighters….
    sandeep varma

  8. Surya on July 24th, 2007 10:40 am

    hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm… Hopefully soon that thing will change too and people will get out of the formula mode and experiment with the truth.

  9. Surya on July 24th, 2007 10:41 am

    And smriti and manjeet were these pictures in the middle of the article really needed?

     

     

  10. atray on July 25th, 2007 1:37 am

    wow^:)^^:)^thanks for the truth sir..

  11. RK on July 25th, 2007 4:25 am

    Manjeet and Smriti: thanks for this new episode of interaction with Sudhir Mishra and double thanks for pictures. Guessing its Renu Saluja in the photo on the wall in pic 1.

  12. Naren on July 25th, 2007 6:41 am

    Sudhir sir, I always feel that your thoughts are so deep that they can easily be applied to the life in general and not only films.

    I feel you are philosopher first and then a film maker.. aren’t you :-)) ??

    Keep them coming sir…

  13. Phoenixnu on July 25th, 2007 9:38 am

    RK…yes, thats renu saluja’s pic.
    Smiri n Manjeet…thnx ya. nice read.

  14. Sanjeev Sharma on July 27th, 2007 1:39 am

    I agree with what Sudhir has said but not entirely. There have been many movies which were forceful and stated the truth namely
    Garam Hawa,Aakrosh,Ardh Satya, Ek Ruka Hua Faisala, Ek Doctor Ki Maut, Jaagte Raho, Achaanak and recently Parzania & Black Friday. I am sure there many more but not enough. But that is what we expect from Directors like Sudhir.

  15. Magik on July 27th, 2007 5:23 am

    chk out dis link guys… an article by apna revered SMji.

    http://www.tehelka.com/story_main12.asp?filename=hub051405Films_Change.asp

  16. jayanth on July 27th, 2007 6:38 am

    well… i was one of the guys who asked for a write up on ‘Yeh woh manzil…’ after all that you’ve written (surprising to see the angst still being there after so many years of film making..), I still feel that ‘yeh woh..’ was one of your better films, amateurish it may be, but there seemed a voice which wanted to say something thru cinema, which resorted to a brilliant narration and juxtaposition of times and struggles…
    Chameli might be much more technically accomplished movie, but Sudhir Mishra in the 80’s would have made it closer to truth, more realistic…
    Perhaps you want it that way.. still ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein..’ is to me your best film. ‘yeh woh..’ lurking somewhere close by, atleast for idealogical reasons…

  17. The Real Abhishek on August 1st, 2007 4:18 am

    I am a film aficionado.
    And very few films (Asian, American or European) have had an impact on me as powerful as HKA.

    I hope you could take out time to write posts more frequently.
    There are many secret admirers who want to silently listen and be silently grateful.

  18. Shantanu on August 16th, 2007 4:06 pm

    thanks for this article. If possible, please get this film released on dvd.

  19. charudatta on November 3rd, 2007 10:10 am

    Dear Sudhir,

    I was a school kid when I saw Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin on national Television and it still lingers in my mind as one of the early cinematic images that I imbibed. could you tell me where could I get a DVD of the film ? I have been looking for it for years now :)

  20. Rajiv Tiwari on November 11th, 2007 9:14 am

    Dear Sudhir Uncle,

    Iam nephew of Late Anil Tiwari-Lucknow- friend of yours in sagar university who did the ministers role in your film.Is there a way to get a dvd of your film ‘YEH WOH MANZIL TO NAHIN’?For the memory of my beloved MAMA please help!!

    Rajiv Tiwari-98108-55606

  21. Prakash K Ray on November 12th, 2007 11:24 pm

    Dear Sudhir sir,

    I am a student of JNU, New Delhi (M Phil, Cinema Studies). I want CD/DVD of Yeh Wo Manzil To Nahin..

    How I can get it??

    thanks,
    prakash

  22. Image on March 17th, 2008 4:39 pm

    HEllo…

    Nice Article …
    gud to see still we have Dir who think differnt and have diffent Vision for indian cinema.

    well gr8 fan of yr ..

    keep gud work ..

    byeeee

  23. krishna on March 23rd, 2008 7:45 am

    Like Charudutta, I saw KYTWMN when i was in college…dying to see the film again but dont know where I can lay my hands on a DVD/VHS…Sudhir Ji…if you can just let me know…KYTWMN was in my opinion one of the best Hindi films I have ever seen…despite your attempt here to dismiss your own effort…in terms of technique…the use of black and white to show the flashback…perhaps the first in Hindi cinema….performances…manohar singh was wonderful…and the story…what a story! kamaal ka kaam tha…the way Lucknow was captured was also amazing…even now i think about the film i drool…please let me know how I can lay my hands on a copy…

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