'Only good cinema crosses over'

Cinema is cinema, as long as it's good cinema, was the verdict from an interview with Indian actors Anupam Kher and Urmila Matondkar, who both feature in the critically acclaimed I Did Not Kill Gandhi.

While Kher's performance as a retired professor who's afflicted with Alzheimer's and traumatised by a childhood incident that leads him to believe that he is the assassin of Gandhi, has just won an award in Karachi, it was his commitment to social causes that ensured the film's completion.

The two share their experiences on the film, their future projects and how they feel about filming song and dance sequences in foreign lands.

With quite a few of these non-commercial films in your portfolio, are you moving away from the glamour of Bollywood?

Urmila Matondkar: Not at all. In fact, you can't say that. I've been working in commercial cinema for 10 years and just felt like moving on to cinema of a different kind. But it's not like I'm moving away. I'm just using the name that I've made in mainstream films to work in all kinds of cinema. I won't ever move away from mainstream movies as I really enjoy the singing and dancing routine.

Generally speaking, why do you think that Western audiences think of Indian movies as Hindi movies?

Anupam Kher: Like everything in life, it's got to do with economics and numbers in terms of audiences. Movies are made with equally big budgets and watched by as many numbers in Tamil and Telugu, but as far as regional cinema from other areas go, it's got to do with the finances. But honestly, I don't really care what the West thinks of our movies. We have some fabulous filmmakers in regional cinema as we do in mainstream Bollywood.

Is language a barrier for you as an actor? Would you work in regional cinema?

UM: I think it's the theme of a movie that's more important and some themes are just so universal that language doesn't matter. You don't need a language and this film was one of them. I am Marathi, but I've done three films in the south ? one in Malayalam with Kamal Hassan, a Telugu film and a Tamil film,  also with Kamal Hassan.

It was your stepping in as producer that allowed I Did Not Kill Gandhi's completion. Why did you step in? And what gets the producer in you activated?

AK: I just felt that this was a movie that had to be made. And when the government film body backed out, it was the only option to make sure that Jahnu [the director] made this movie. As a producer I step in when I believe in the subject so much that I'm willing to sell my car, take a loan, beg stars to cut their price. I've also produced a Bengali film Bariwali so it's really the subject that interests me.

Playing an old man once again [Kher debuted in his 20s, playing the role of a 70-year old man in Saaransh]. Was it déjà vu for you?

AK: Saaransh gave me life for 20 years and this has extended my career by 15 years. I think the two characters were similar in that they both believed in courage and goodness.

Both these films are not landmarks because of the performances, but because of the films and the characters in them.

Do you ever feel embarrassed when you're filming song and dance routines in other countries?

UM: Not at all. I feel extremely proud to be doing something that Indian cinema is known so well for.

What's your take on the whole trend of crossover cinema?

UM: I think cinema should be good cinema and if it is then it automatically crosses over.

AK: Absolutely. After Bend It Like Beckham, I've had 500 scripts sent to me for movies produced by NRIs [non-resident Indians] and 90 per cent of them are just horrible. Now with this movie magic software, everybody is a scriptwriter. I acknowledge that NRIs are an important audience for us, but it's like that phase in the 80s when art cinema came about.

Everyone who had a budget of Rs100,00 and a camera would film. They would all revolve around movies of an old man sitting in a chair with a fly going around his face. The scene would just drag. And if audiences didn't accept it,  then they were dismissed as unintelligent.

And finally, what are the films you're working on at the moment?

UM: I've got a film called Banaras, it's about Indian mysticism and spirituality then there's Shyam Benegal's project which is his take on the opera Carmen.

AK: I've got a film called Khosla Ka Ghonsla which is about a small family in Delhi and then there's a hardcore Bollywood film in which I play a dwarf. That's with Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta and Salman Khan.