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Filmistaan

Deserving winner of the Indian government’s National Award for the Best Hindi Feature Film of the Year, 2013, this 2012 production makes it to cinemas in June 2014. It has no stars, no heroine, no item songs, and has been made at an extremely low budget of around Rs. 1.5 crore (Rs. 15 million). Yet, it is among the most outstanding films seen in recent times. It is not to be confused with the production studio of the same name that operated in Mumbai from the early 50s to the late 60s, and which has since been running as a shooting studio. The word, apparently, is a play on Pakistan and Hindustan (the alternate name for India), with films as a common interest factor.

Writer-director Nitin Kakkar says that he wanted to address Indo-Pak relationship in a humorous way, as well as pay a tribute to Bollywood in this film. He had made a short film on famed writer Saadat Hasan Manto’s Urdu story, Siyaah Haashiye. (Manto, who hailed from territory that went to Pakistan after 1947, worked as a writer in the Mumbai film industry during the mid 1940s, but migrated to Pakistan after partition, fearing persecution in India). Then it occurred to Kakkar that he could make a feature film based on his works. So, he took the rights from Manto’s family in Lahore and started writing a script based on five of his short stories. When he took the script around, everyone said – the script is brilliant but it won’t work.  Today’s generation doesn’t want to see partition stories. So he decided to write another script, a script that became Filmistaan.

In Mumbai, film-buff and aspiring actor Sunny Arora thrives on imitating popular Hindi film-stars, but fails at every audition. Somehow, he manages to get an assignment as an assistant director with an American documentary crew that is travelling to remote areas in Rajasthan. One day, an Islamic terrorist group mistakes him for one of the Americans and kidnaps him. Sunny finds himself on the other side of the India-Pakistan border, held captive by gun-toting guards, who decide to keep him hostage until they locate their original target. The house in which he is confined belongs to a family one of whose members trades in pirated Hindi film DVDs, which he brings back every time he crosses the border illegally. He returns from one such foray to find his home under occupation and hiding a captured Indian national. A strange bond develops between the DVD pirate and the Indian captive when the former discovers that the latter is an assistant director, and is carrying a movie camera with him.

There is little you can fault Kakkar for. Tight screenplay, careful casting, amazing performances, perfect locale, strict control over possible over-the-top situations, eschewing the trap of letting the story falter into a war saga…he has done it all. Maybe the film drags just a bit in the second half, when the positions have been played out, but only for a short while. And the climax, though effective, could have been more impactful. He is reported to have shot the film in 20 days instead of the scheduled 30, so that the money saved could be used to shoot it in the better quality 35 mm film format, as against cheaper options. A wise move.

Sharib Hashmi, son of a film journalist, was initially brought on board as a dialogue writer. When no one fitted the character of Sunny, Kakkar looked sideways. Sharib cannot escape comparison to Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and the slight similarity in looks will only make that an occupational hazard. Nevertheless, he’s done a great job. And who cares if he is a mere 5’4” tall? As Aftab, the peddlar of pirated DVDs, Inaamulhaq (seen in Agneepath, Firaaq) is another natural and a scene-stealer. Like Sharib, he too is a writer, having penned the dialogue of BBuddah…Hoga Tera Baap. A 2003 graduate from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, he did a lot of theatre before entering films. The two Pakistani terrorists are played by Gopal Dutt (last seen in Samrat & Co.) and Kumud Mishra. All four show good command over language, which adds an extra dimension to their portrayals.

All the grammar of good cinema is in place. Significantly, there are large doses of satire, but satire never peters down to ridicule. In this story, set at the border of two nations that have often faced armed conflict, performances are the dynamite and direction hits bull’s eye. Don’t miss it.

Rating: ****

Trailer: http://moviescollection.in/2014/04/filmistan-movie-2014-wiki-starcast-trailer-story/