The death of a director…
The morning breeze, he referred to as his ‘muse’ and the daytime sunshine was his ‘faithful mistress’.
He thought of the ‘zebra crossing’ as a social impediment.
He had problems with getting the spellings of words right. Many believed that it was a medical issue but he would flatly deny any claims of such order.
“It’s just that I am lazy”, he would retaliate with candor.
He believed that he was responsible for his grandfather’s death. He however never told the world what his exact role was in the above transaction.
His favorite vegetable was the cucumber and he possessed no special fondness for any particular fruit.
He had a very natural aversion for animals but loved conversing with tadpoles. He despised loud noises and found the crying of children highly disconcerting.
He knew every single line of Chekov’s “The three Sisters” by rote.
He was discovered dead in his bed, lying with his face up, gone in his sleep and after a highly satisfying meal of oatmeal porridge…
A leading newspaper reported:
Irshad Zaid, the famed director of many stark and highly personal films that won him admirers galore and rung in international recognition died at his residence in Delhi yesterday. He was 85.
Mr. Zaid is survived by his wife Neha and their 13 year old daughter Niloofer.
A prominent movie website updated their contents:
Biography for Irshad Zaid
Date of Birth
14th July 1923, Uttar Pradesh, India
Date of Death
30th September 2008, Delhi, India
Birth Name
Irshad Mohammed Zaid
Height
5′ 10½” (1.79 m)
Spouse
Neha Tiwari (1994- death) 1 child
Mehnaz Hassan (1962-1965) (divorced) 1 child
Seena Vazir (1957- 1961) (divorced) 2 children
Veena Zaid (1952- 1956) (divorced)
Khalida Wahid (1945- 1951) (divorced) 4 children
Trade Marks
Tracking shots
Close-ups of faces
Deliberate use of pregnant pauses and extended silences followed by a heavy, evocative music that’s heard long before the actual scene arrives.
A film-magazine paid their tributes in their own special way:
Mr. Zaid was a highly personal man who hated being in public glare. But we did manage to squeeze out an interview with him in the 60’s, a time when his influence on world cinema was at its zenith. Here’s an excerpt from the same:
Q: Let me see if I am reading you correctly Mr.Zaid. You are successful and revered?
Zaid: Well…. Unfortunately, yes.
Q: Ok, so if you had to describe yourself in one line, how would you do it?
Zaid: Well….. I think I am a child of irreverence.
Q: Your female characters are often a lot stronger than their male counterparts. Do you think of yourself as a “Woman’s Director”?
Zaid: No I don’t think that’s true. I think I am passionately interested in human beings.
But let me also tell you this. As a teenager, I had varying approaches for men and women. My relationships with women were always plagued by my personal belief that women deserve constant respect. I thought of them as unassailable martyrs.
However, over the years it has served me well to arrive at the realization that a woman needs to be treated with as much contempt as a man.
Q: Among your peers, is there anybody’s work that you enjoy in particular?
Zaid: Well I love Somraj’s work. It’s so unlike me; so warm and so unneurotic.
Though it may sound weird, I hate people who I think mirror me perfectly. The moment I run into people in whom I see the same imperfections that I carry around with me, I start detesting them. I hate them in a way that one can only hate oneself…
The ‘Irshad Zaid foundation’ released a memoir based his own workbook entries. Here are a few interesting jottings from the same:
12th November 1956:
I feel terribly upset. I feel deprived of something. I am too dejected. I guess it’s just the right time to try writing a comedy.
14th June 1958:
People have often questioned my apolitical stance. Many believe that I shrug away from tackling global issues in my movies. But the truth is, I feel a total indifference towards worldly catastrophes. Ghettos and stories of torment that lie on such a worldly level leave me unaffected. I can only read about such events with certain greed, a pornography of horror.
I want to stay within my chamber of dreams and reach out to people.
22nd April 1959:
Seena and I had an argument this morning. We fought like two kids, with little consideration for each other. The fight eventually got corporal. We started hitting and slapping each other. Her physical strength drained me of my desire to win. I never knew that her slender body carried such inner sturdiness.
Later in the afternoon, I decided to make up with her. She was cooking and I came from behind her and slowly rubbed my finger over her navel-area. I could feel her sense of excitement as I touched her. Her eyes glistened and she mixed it up gracefully with a child-like giggle. I cupped her breasts from behind and she let out a heave.
Through this entire operation, she constantly tried resisting me, trying to free her of my grip even as her commitment to the moment was all too apparent. But her retaliations this time were classically feminine. They were gentle, playful, and sensual.
She wasn’t the same individual I had run into this morning. Such strength and tenderness coming from the same person was baffling. Such theatricality; maybe this is what they call art.
15th April 1964:
A ray of light, forehead, faces, emotions, people trying to talk, concealed laughter, simmering hate, eroticism, childhood memories. I suddenly feel like I have been hit by something. Maybe I could develop this into a stream of thoughts. Or maybe it’s the medication. Suddenly I don’t want people visiting me here in this hospital. I just want to sit down and write.
21st July 1969:
I have been cruel to people all my life. And I have been seeking redemption through my art. Isn’t that a bit too perverse? Maybe it is not. After all who is a saint? A saint to me is a person who acknowledges all his sins. Isn’t that definition a bit too convenient? I don’t know…
The following directors discussed their views on Mr. Zaid and the effect he had on them:
Suresh Nair: He was the messiah of gloom. His movies had a deep impact on me in the early 60’s and 70’s. I think I myself was going through an existential crisis back then.
Prasanth Mehra: Truly the greatest artist India has ever seen.
Satish Verma: He elevated film-making to a level of excellence, previously achieved only through literature.
Vilas Rao: I enjoyed his bleak films more than his comedies. His austere works helped me get through break-ups, workloads, diseases and personal traumas. They were therapeutic. Its funny how when we realize that our miseries are not just our own, it inflates our spirits with a sense of security and relief.
Veteran Critic Shishir Vaidya in his weekly article decided to play things down:
Mr. Zaid’s so called personal films were acts of indulgence that fail to stand the test of time. He to a large extent exploited the medium to translate all those reflections of his life that were staged in his own mind. These reflections today exists as worn-out sedatives once created to replicate those private psychodramas about his own associations with his actors and those around him.
His metaphysical assumptions at best diluted the thoughts of a few philosophers rather than stretch them to newer heights.
From the final pages of Zaid’s autobiography titled “The world through my eyes”:
These days I can’t watch my own films. I find them too depressing.
I created them totally believing in their power to reach out to people. I thought they would be of use to people, which I believe is what true art should try to achieve.
Maybe it has helped some people. But it does not help me one bit today. I have finally sought refuge under materialistic pleasures…
The following message was flashed on screen at a cinema hall in the middle of a movie amidst huge uproar from the audience:
“This message has been displayed in accordance with the instructions issued by government authorities. The scene that you are about to watch now features a ‘Tracking Shot’, a technique introduced and perfected by Mr. Irshad Zaid, who passed away last week.
We request you to maintain a minute silence in the memory of Mr. Zaid.
However, we here at the theatre believe that no invention in art can be attributed to the efforts of one specific individual and that it is an ongoing and unavoidable process.
Entertainers may come and go but that should not disrupt the flow of entertainment in any way.
We personally apologize for having broken your pleasure”
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Wow! What a post Sree… thanks a ton!
hahah ethaaaru…
Ravptor,
Oh nooo.. thank uuuu for reading… You have always been inspiring… Cant thank u enough..
Suddenly I feel like I am being too ingratiating… but what the hell? If goodness comes naturally to u I guess one shud embrace it..
Dpac,
Ningal illathey namukkenthu aaghosham??
Didn’t know who Irshad Zaid was until now. Even now I don’t, but atleast will not be zapped when I read about him / his work again.
Arthi,
I would advise you against going in search of him. He is fictitious in his constitution…
Damn. Damn. Damn….
brilliant
Wow !
Anurag,
Thank you sir..
Playback,
Merci Pour Tout ur honour..
UNdaaakki chumma kadhayundaakki aalkaare pattikkunno koppe?
Sreehari: It’s been while. Good one! Very imaginative
Hi Sree! Cant find much about Mr. Irshad Zaid on the net, please direct me to a website or tell me about some of his films that I can find and watch.
Thanks.
@Puneet… the only website you will read about such hidden gems is PFC :-)
@Sreehari: arre kya sir? I am just a guy who enjoys reading you… Distances are far, and words are we have.
DPac-ey,
Sho onnu pathukkey… Aarelem kettal enthu vichaarikkum enney patti? Njaan pinne saukaryampoley salkarichekkaam..
Subrat,
Thank you Sir… Yeah its been some time… I had a few issues with posting here..
Puneet,
The director here is in my opinion a reflection of every true artist. Not just talking about cinema you see..
A true artist is someone who entertains his audiences by asking them the toughest of questions, without necessarily providing a answer those questions…And I believe that every true artist is a tormented soul. If he’s not not riddled by his own anxieties and that of the world around him ,he can never be an artist…
But yes…there are aspects of film-makers that I have generously borrowed. Aspects as in trying to understand the cathedral in which some film-makers place their movies…
Ingmar Bergman for one is definetely in here…
There is also Fellini, Antonioni and many more. Its not necessarily just one director…But Bergman’s presence is a lot more pronounced…
Ravptor,
))
Please sir…. I am run out of modesty to fake it anymore..
Entertainers may come and go but that should not disrupt the flow of entertainment in any way. We personally apologize for breaking your pleasure…..naam yun hi gum jayega…..
Superb…Very well written Sreehari…
Great stuff.
You walked a thin line between something and something.
And rather successfully I should add.
I was wondering where you were. I’m glad that good old fashioned telepathy still works.
Pheonixnu, VC, Thushar..
Thank u
Dabba,
I liked the way u described the piece… Sometimes it gets a bit too tiring to really say what u want to express. But essentially u shud have something to say.
Try explaining 8 1/2 for instance..I mean its an experience that works as an extrapolation of a certain truth that I think creative people exprience.
Yeah well abt the layoff.. the last time I was writing I guess I was genuinely scoffed at the sense of positive spirit that was engulfing me.. It wasnt helping.. So, now with the stock-market crash-down and Mr. Bhandarkar releasing his new movie, the mood just seemed perfectly set for a write-up to be unfurled.
excellent and unique write up…
was for a moment i was thinking how come ive never heard of irshad zaid…
please do keep contributing regularly……
Sree hari
Welcome back..was wondering why oflate there werent any posts from your side….
Looking forward.
Jayakumar Chetto,
I could be agressive and say stuff like..”Yeah wait till you see the wasp’s sting” and stuff.. But it doesnt work that way… PFC ocassionally can be a strenous place for u, if you have an idealistic approach to certain things…
Like for example if u ask me… I think DABBA and SUBRAT write more interesting posts than most celebrity bloggers here (They also might get scandalized in time, mind u).. But as of now, they have a genuine love for the medium and not a journalist-like approach aimed at charming people..And the later approach I find totally devoid of any love for cinema.. And it can be frustrating being just being around such people.
Thank u ashwin,
Will try…
@Sreehari LOL @ comment 21!
.
.
.
Liked the post. At the beginning, thought it was Guru Dutt, you were writing about (thought the recent announcements of a couple of movies on him prompted you to write). Then thought it was a non-fictional read of someone I have no idea about… Did a google and found zero results (or well, 1 – but it was from this article)… Then saw the comment and realised it was indeed a fictitious post…
And just like everyone seems to be saying – Welcome Back
Sreehari,
Do you know that cucumber is actually not a vegetable, but it is a fruit. Wait buddy, I will come and get you, if you make another fictitious post about a person who never lived.
Otherwise, I enjoyed reading it. Wish many more stock crashes and Bhandarkar making many more movies, so that you would write again.
rbehemoth,
So you did read the entire post trying to decode who I was talking abt? Now that’s voyeurism on the most atomic level
Thank you for having me over…
JRV,
) )
That incosistency cucumber part was meant to imply that our protagonist was not an old pedant after all (Unlike somebody I know)
Thank u for sitting thru this alio..
Just coz I commented about my thoughts on the protagonist’s relation to the real life doesnt mean that was the only thing I was thinking, does it? But, I guess I dont really mind voyeurism (on the most atomic level, might I add) or the particular tag being attached to me
.
Rbehemoth,
)
No No No.. Ahhh.. I am too tired to explain anything now
Dear Hari,
You are a gifted person.
thanks,
ronnie
Throughly inspiring!!
Great post !! I too was thinking Zaid was someone whom I never knew… :D
“Though it may sound weird, I hate people who I think mirror me perfectly. The moment I run into people in whom I see the same imperfections that I carry around with me, I start detesting them. I hate them in a way that one can only hate oneself… ”
This is something that I have thought over too. Was really happy to see someone sharing the same idea…
But, couldnt the title have been better.. other than “Death of a director”….
Outstanding symbolism. I am lucky to read this old post.
Guys it would have helped if you’d put up his filmography too. There is a possibility we may have seen some of his work but have been unaware of the name. I tried googling it up but couldn’t find anything. Anyone can help?
Oh crap. I guess “Mr. Zaid is survived by his wife Neha and their 13 year old daughter Niloofer.” should have given it away. My apologies. I laud the article and at the same time think it’s unfair on unassuming readers.