'I don’t know how they dared to send Krrishfor a National Award. It was a horrible film!'
'Films like Dabangg and Bang Bang are trash films.'
'Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram Leela was so bad; only the music was good.'
Straight talk from Garm Hava director M S Sathyu.
M S Sathyu, 84, is not used to the sudden media attention his 1973 release Garm Havais getting.
His cell phone is constantly ringing, and he's bombarded with requests for interviews.
Sathyu, who lives in Bangalore, is currently staying in his cozy Mumbai flat -- located in the posh Juhu area -- to promote Garm Hava, which has been re-released on November 14 after being digitally restored.
"In the last two days, I have been getting so many calls from media people... what makes you do that? My movie is 40 years old. Why has it become so important for the media?" he asks me.
In his hour-long interview, Sathyu talks toPatcy N about his film, and also talks about the movies made today.
You saw the movie again after 40 years. What was going on in your mind? Would you have made it differently today?
The technology has changed; the visual and sound quality has been revolutionised. When we made the film, all this was not available. Even if it was available, I don’t know whether we would have had the money to make use of it.
Today there is digital technology; it was very exciting to see my own film with that changed look.
I feel nostalgic; there are so many things one experiences during the making of a film. You think of so many things you failed to achieve.
When I see it now I say, oh, what a mistake I have made, I could have improved that. But one should not be overwhelmed by one’s own work.
There were some constraints then. Like, there is a riot scene in the movie where we showed very few people. We created a little skirmish and there was a fire sequence. We did not have the means to create a real fire. In the dialogue we say the whole city is burning but we couldn't visually show it. That was perhaps a constraint of money and manpower.
Today, with the technology you can artificially create that effect ---you really don't have to burn anything.
Did you think when you made this film that it would reach such heights?
Frankly speaking, 40 years ago we never thought this film would mean something. Somehow, it has sustained itself. It has become a film classic in India.
I only wanted to make a good film as best I could.
This was your debut film. Why did you choose a story by Ismat Chugtai?
I just wanted to make a film. I gave two scripts to the FFC Film Finance Corporation. They like the subject of this one and said they will fund me.
There was no great intention of making a film on Partition or the minority community as such.
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