The taming of the prude
V S Srinivasan
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Urmila Matondkar on the sets of Khoobsurat. Click for bigger pic!
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Some of them were nattily dressed, some lolled in grungy outfits. All of them, and their poky equipment looked out of place in the dilapidated Jaipur Saw Mills studio. The shoot was for Sanjay Chhel's Khoobsurat.
You might be justified for asking who Sanjay Chhel is. We render answer: He's the scriptwriter for films like Rangeela, Daud, Yes Boss and that immensely popular television serial, Nukkad. You might also have heard of another Sanjay -- Dutt. That's whom we find in animated conversation with Sanjay the First as we saunter in through the gates. Closer up you realise that the Dutt is only bragging: "Sanjay Dutt kya cheez hai yeh unko pata chal jayega." The things a director has to do to earn a living.
With that trademark Malboro, oozing nicotinous vapour, Dutt looks ill as he leans forward. But he's just informing the director of some of his lesser-known exploits. Chhel motions the journalists into the shade, telling them to make themselves comfortable. Apparently the hero is too modest to speak about his achievements before the press.
Anyway, the sets look healthier than Dutt, clean and built along the simple lines that most of Bollywood has discarded long ago. No ostentation. Even the bespectacled lady -- must say, a very comely one -- who smiles at us is totting a copy of the recent entrant into highbrow literature, The God of Small Things. But there's something familiar about this woman clad in a lemon yellow churidar that covers almost end to end. So where have we seen her before...?
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Sanjay Dutt with Om Puri on the sets of Khoobsurat. Click for bigger pic!
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Yikes! It's Urmila Matondkar!
Why in heaven is the sex bomb marking her pert nose, her pretty ears, with that annoying prop of glass and plastic? Again, you realise, with bitterness, there are many sacrifices to be made to make it in this industry. The fact hits you harder this time, far harder than when you saw Chhel being bludgeoned into boredom by Sanjay Dutt.
"It's a different role from the regular," Urmila says. And we nod vigorously. "It's a very serious role. It's about a girl who is very serious... And then there is this con man who comes and changes her life, and she changes his." Then she stops short.
"What did Sanjay Chhel tell you about the film?" she inquires a little anxiously. "I don't think I'm supposed to reveal the storyline." So we shuffle around disconsolately, making small talk with her.
Presently, the two Sanjays stroll in. Chhel, looking the worse for wear, apologises to us for chatting so long outside and not joining us. For some odd reason, we feel he's looking very relieved. Almost immediately he hares off again, this time to check if the shot is being set up properly.
Meanwhile the unit gossip starts doing the dirty on Urmila. "Woh Urmila ne finally date diya Sanjaysaab ko. Last last mein bahut pareshan kiya. Sanjay saab bhadak gaya. Lekin Bharat Shah ne aake mandavli kar diya. Translation: "Urmila caused Sanjay Chhel much trouble with her dates. The director got annoyed and it took Bharat Shah, the film's financier, to settle the matter amicably.
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Director Sanjay Chhel Click for bigger pic!
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Chhel has decided the set is satisfactory. He goes over to the camera. "Dost, mein zara dekhun, kya," he asks Sunil, cameraman Madhu Ambat's assistant. Everything apparently looks fine.
A Bollywood babu enters and engages himself in some mysterious measurements, and disappears. Leaving the field clear for Sanjay (Dutt) and Urmila.
Chhel explains the scene to them and then enacts it himself, leaving little room for doubt. They nod agreement.
"Lights, sound, camera, action." With that the magic of movie-making settles over the studio. The motes dance lazily through the light beams and a stillness descends on the set.
Dutt walks up to Urmila, who's reading the book we mentioned before.
"Yeh kitab sab chhod do," he tells her. A pause. Then, "Cigarette piyogi?" Cue for Urmila to rise in anger and prepare to scream. Dutt offensively knocks off all the books from the nearby shelf.
"Cut," hollers the director. "Good rehearsal," he says, pleased. "We'll take now." They don't. For something seems missing this time. Urmila's the culprit, so Chhel again explains the scene in detail.
Take two! This time Sanjay muffs up. Retake. Ah! The shot is canned.
The lights fade out and the bustle of conversation begins again. We corner Chhel.
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Sanjay Dutt with Sanjay Chhel on the sets of Khoobsurat. Click for bigger pic!
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Why such simple sets? Why is the heroine of Rangeela wearing so many clothes? And why, oh why, is she cowering behind those pair of spectacles? What has he done to Urmila? Chhel knows which are the important questions.
"See, the role is about a girl brought up in this manner (to be moody, almost neurotic). "Her life changes after she meets the hero. Even the hero's life takes a dramatic twist." That should satisfy Urmila: the director has told us the story after all.
And the spectacles, the spectacles!? Would she wear them throughout the film?
"See the character undergoes a transformation. Whenever a character is metamorphosing into a fresher one, we have a lot of scope. I needed a good cameraman for that." That was Madhu Ambat. "I loved the way he got the girl move from the shadows to the sunlight in Mani Rathnam's Anjali...
The title is lifted from Hrishkesh Mukherjee's Khoobsurat. Mukherjee, who had asked Chhel to write scripts for him earlier, had no hesitation in parting with the rights.
A unit hand comes up and whispers something in Chhel's ear. The director apologises again -- getting to be a habit and goes out on some mysterious errand.
The next shot is ready. The lights clack on, the camera whirrs. Dutt throws down the remaining books and proceeds to set them ablaze.
"Fire, fire," Urmila shouts. Very informative, the lady is. Dutt walks up to her and, gym-hardened muscles rippling, hoists the heroine atop his shoulder.
"Cut," bellows the director. He turns to us. No, Dutt wasn't doing the caveman. He takes Urmila up to the terrace and makes her walk the parapet. That, apparently is his variation of the stress method of acclimatisation that some psychologists advocate.
We hope Hrishida knew what he was doing...
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