I was interviewing old-timer filmmaker Mohan Kumar for Screen at his bungalow when I received a call from New Delhi. It was a senior official of the Directorate Of Film Festivals (DFF). He wanted to know if I would like to be on the National Film Awards Jury for 2010′s films.
Pleasantly surprised, I asked what it entailed. He crisply explained and I said, “Why not? I would be glad, sir.” A few days later, I was asked for my CV. I was told that the DFF recommendation would have to be approved and passed by the Ministry for Information & Broadcasting.
That was in late 2010. On April 14, 2011, I got a call stating that my name had been approved and I was to be on the Jury-Western Panel, a 5-member team that was to watch, evaluate and then choose and recommend shortlisted Marathi, Gujarati and Konkani films for specific awards across various categories. On April 26, I was to fly to New Delhi, and we were to watch the films from April 27. Clearly, these three dates are now red-letter days for me.
It was a huge task completing my routine work that would be needed during my absence from Mumbai by India-West, Screen and the others for which I write. Something made necessary because under the confidentiality word of honour and ethics I could not reveal to ANYONE OUTSIDE MY HOME that I was on the Jury!
Friends were curious, so were professional associates. My India-West colleague, Lisa Tsering, started making wild but in their own way inspired guesses, even assuming that I was joining the Censor Board, because I had to tell everyone that I would be out of town and off-work for over a week!
I must say that being chosen for A GREAT NATIONAL HONOUR like this was very gratifying, simply because I did not know anyone in the hierarchy and so it was my work alone over the years that must have been noticed. When my wife Nishika told me at the airport before I caught the flight, “I am proud of you!” it was like winning a National award myself. Never mind if I had missed it for my book “The History Of Indian Film Music”, which I had entered in 2010 for the previous year’s awards!!
Yes, Jury business was hard work. My four colleagues were wonderful people – the renowned Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, our chairperson who pitched for our recommendations in the Central Jury, Aijaz Khan and Purushottam Berde, both filmmakers, and Sukumar Jatania, an accomplished DOP. It was doubly gratifying that I was the only media member.
(And it was piquantly interesting to note that Dr Dwivedi and I, that is 40% of our panel, were medical doctors! A ‘clinical’ assessment of films was guaranteed, we both would joke, and the results too seemed to prove it! NEVER HAVE MARATHI FILMS CLINCHED 12 HONOURS AT THE NATIONAL FILM AWARDS IN A SINGLE YEAR. The tally was more than one-fourth of the total honours – 46 across 37 categories. Categories-wise, we had scored almost one-third!)
So what did all this entail? We would assemble at 8.30 in the morning to leave for Siri Fort Auditorium to watch our quota of 4 to 5 films a day. Our departure could be anywhere from 5 pm to 8.30 pm for returning to the hotel or meeting friends based in Delhi. One day, all of us had dinner together and breakfast was a meal we normally had together, once we had been introduced to each other.
I am sure that we were the most cohesive jury in the lot.Nature seemed to have arranged that five people who vibed completely had come together to have a blast amidst the very serious work we were doing with intense passion! And of that passion there was no doubt. As a film critic for 18-plus years on a weekly basis, I realized once again what goes into filmmaking. Their mutual conversations were insightful eye-openers too.
Contrary to popular belief, there were no pressures upon us. No Ministry official watched films along with us, discussions were in private and methods informal in the sense that we had to devise them between us. BUT OUR RECOMMENDATIONS HAD TO BE UNANIMOUS – AND THE PASSION WAS SEEN IN OUR FINAL DEBATE BECAUSE WHILE WE DID NOT TAKE MORE THAN TWO HOURS TO ARRIVE AT A CONSENSUS, WE HAD HEALTHY ARGUMENTS IN THAT PERIOD.
The excellence of the Marathi films made it easier. Mee Sindhutai Sapkal and Malaa Aai Vhaayachaaya were my personal favourites and both won 4 and 1 awards respectively,. Baboo Band Baaja which bagged 4 too, was liked by all of us though to different extents. Then there were more films like Champions (three wins) and some that did not make it to the final wins.
For me, New Delhi, where I schooled from Standard VI to IX in St.Columba’s – later to have Shah Rukh Khan as a student – also had a special meaning. I met four of my former classmates who showered affection on me – Raman Baluja, Atul Backliwal, Kapil Vaish and Varun Aggarwal, all eminently successful in their respective fields. I spent my first three evenings with them, and my Delhi stay had a great start because Raman and I spent five hours together at his home with his wonderful family, including son Atharv who is an extremely talented music video writer, director and editor.
The most wonderful aspect of these four gentlemen was that none of them had been close friends. We connected on Facebook last year and their warm natures and inherent Delhi hospitality and warmth made us meet like best friends meeting after years.
Finally, I met four people that I had only interacted with on telephone – Sidhant Khosla, Sanjay, Madhulita and Lakshika from the Times Books team that had published my book. They came across as very warm people and the icing on the cake is that they have promised to relaunch my book, whose marketing had been low-key because it had ALSO been included free with a set of CDs on 79 years of film music.
What more befitting reason and occasion can there be to motivate me for restart writing my blog after a break of several months?
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
