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Baba Azmi has made his directorial debut at an age when most filmmakers ponder hanging their boots. He says being a cinematographer saved him from making a movie of his personal. But with Mee Raqsam, Baba has lastly realised his dream.
Mee Raqsam releases on the centenary beginning anniversary of his father, legendary poet and lyricist Kaifi Azmi. It’s produced by his sister Shabana Azmi and the siblings name it their tribute to their father.
But contemplating present traits, wouldn’t a biopic have been a extra natural thought to honour their father’s recollections? Baba says Mee Raqsam, with its story a couple of courageous, progressive father who fights social bigotry for his daughter’s happiness, captures the precise essence of Kaifi Azmi.
The Azmi household in 1972.
“I never wanted to make a biopic or anything like that. It’s a script, an extension of his personality. This was the kind of mindset in which we were born and brought up. It is not based on his life or anything,” he stated.
It was Kaifi’s dream to make a movie primarily based on and shot in his beloved, Mijwan, the place he was born and spent an enormous half of his childhood. The movie couldn’t be made whereas Kaifi was alive however Baba determined to fulfil on his promise to him regardless.
But Mijwan isn’t probably the most simply accessible areas for a movie shoot. A small city in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, it made Baba nervous in regards to the logistics. “Before starting, I was quite intimidated by the fact. It’s not where I wanted to shoot, in Mizwan, which is such a small village. So the infrastructure that is required for a film’s shoot with about 70 people – where will they stay, boarding, lodging and stuff – Mijwan doesn’t have any of these facilities as such. But when I went there, everything fell in place. For me, it was like my father’s blessings were there with me. NO one fell ill, even for a day. And it was very cold! It gets very cold in January-February,” he stated.
Aditi Subedi and Bada Azmi in Mijwan.
With an virtually fairytale-like high quality, Mee Raqsam can appear ‘salt and peppered’ with white and black characters all through. Naseeruddin Shah performs a bigoted group chief who wouldn’t let Danish Husain’s type Muslim father go in opposition to group guidelines. Rakesh Chaturvedi Om performs a Hindu patron of a dance faculty, who sees the Muslim man’s dancing daughter as nothing however good PR. The two strive all tips, generally so evil they’ll qualify as the following Disney villain, to hassle the daddy and his daughter.
However, Baba says he doesn’t preserve this black and white view of the world. “I don’t have a pattern kind of opinion about people. Everybody has got their little shades of grey. We all have our weaknesses and all. So for Naseer also, those are his beliefs. There might be some good qualities to him. Like in the beginning of the film, when he says ‘If you need anything just come to me’. That means he is also a character who helps around and all of that but you have to move according to his terms,” he stated.
But is there any hope of redemption for these villains? “See there is no scene as such but yeah, I do feel so. If there was a scene on something like that, I would have preferred that after she gets the award, she also gets the respect from her aunt or somebody. Because the aunt also actually loves Maryam a lot,” he stated.
“Not of a character like Naseer but someone like the khala might go slightly soft because her love for Maryam is equally strong and she believes she is telling Maryam to start taking sewing classes for her own good,” he added.
Mee Raqsam’s selection of villains, nonetheless, is kind of secular. If Naseer’s Muslim chief needed to cage the daddy in intangible, conservative guidelines; Rakesh’s Hindu patron was an opportunist, masking his bigotry as thoughtful recommendation. “You see these kind of people everywhere, in all communities. At least I don’t say that as I don’t believe that only a certain community has grey and black areas. I don’t think only certain community’s people are all negative,” Baba stated.
“With the film, what one is trying to celebrate is the composite culture of our country. Because that is the atmosphere that both Shabana and I have been born and brought up in. These are our beliefs so I cannot say that ye community ke log sab bure hote hain,” he added.
Mee Raqsam is obtainable to look at on Zee5.
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