Shabana Azmi, speaking with Subhash K Jha delves into Playwright-turned-Filmmaker Mahesh Dattani’s Morning Raga which released 21 years ago.
Do you remember your stellar performance in Morning Raga?
Of course! I don’t know about stellar. I play a Carnatic singer who while going for her first public concert has a car accident in which she loses her son and best friend. It’s about a pop singer who comes to the village to learn music from me. It brings two disciplines and two worlds together.
I remember you worked really hard on the music and accent?
I had to work really really hard to get it right. My cinematographer Rajiv Menon’s mother who’s a Carnatic musician , was cursing everyone for my presence. She wanted to know how a North Indian woman could play a Carnatic singer. According to her the only person who has played a Carnatic singer successfully is Mohanlal. I was terrified and stressed. I was dealing with a hundred things in my life including parliament.
What made you choose Morning Raga?
Morning Raga interested me because I’ve watched Mahesh Dattani’s work on stage. I’ve always been interested in the complexities of his characters. And for Chrissake, Rajiv Menon was the cinematographer and the producer was K. Raghvendra Rao with whom I’ve had a very happy working relationship in the past. I really enjoyed doing his Kaamyaab with Jeetendra in the 1980s with him. I enjoyed the part in Morning Raga. Without making a song and dance , there’re many important ideas on cultural compatibility in the film.
Please elaborate?
I think India is a country that lives in several centuries simultaneously. We’ve people living from the 18th to the 21st century. And all the Indian people encapsulate the contradiction that arise from this long stretch of time zone. Morning Raga is a bridge between the city and the village, tradition and modernity, Western and Carnatic music. Even though the language in the film is English it speaks a universal language. It appealed to someone like my driver who can’t follow the spoken language.
But isn’t it ironical that a film about losing connection with our classical heritage was in the English language?
Ideally, Morning Raga should’ve been in English and Telugu. But we also wanted the film to address a larger audience. We chose English because you’ve to see it working in translation. Otherwise how can you have Shakespeare’s Hamlet in English? There has to be a suspension of disbelief about the language. We had to widen the circle of communication. Why not Hindi? Because Mahesh Dattani chose not to use Hindi.
The interaction over the generations is immensely interesting?
Yes. And the character that Perizaad played was very similar to the person that she is. The most closed bud would flower in her company. It’s impossible not to like her. She was interesting to not just Shabana Azmi but also to her character Swarnlata. I had a very happy relationship with both Perizaad and the young leading man Prakash Rao. Everyone in my family likes Prakash. They were surprised to know he’s a trained actor from Lee Strasberg’s acting school. And he’s played the violin in Morning Raga like a dream.
It is astonishing how you connect with your co-stars. Recently every actress in Dabba Cartel was ga-ga about you?
I pride myself for the ability to reach out and connect for a very selfish reason . I need to observe and absorb from those I work with. Acting is such a collaborative art. If you can connect with those around you, your job gets so much easier. All you have to do is look in their eyes and know the truth. There’re some actors who thrive on playing a power game on the sets. I can’t bear any tension on the sets. I ‘ve to have a comfortable atmosphere. Predictably the young people come to the sets with pre-conceived notions about me being a serious actor. Then they suddenly discover this very open and accessible person.
Did you feel you crossed another performing threshold in Morning Raga?
Mujhe nahin maloom hai. I won’t make any such claims. But after watching the film and my performance my mother got the same feeling that she did after my breakthrough film Ankur. The short-term challenge for me was getting the swarams right. I had the feeling if I got my character’s singing and body language right everything else would fall into place. When I first heard the Carnatic music I couldn’t understand a word of it. Gradually I realized it wasn’t that hard to understand.
