Interview: Feroz Abbas Khan

Feroz Abbas Khan talks to Pratim D. Gupta about how Tapas Sen helped him switch from stage to screen

You are dealing with a very controversial subject in Gandhi My Father. What are your source materials?
What had really got me going was an incident that someone narrated to me. At a station called Katni, when a train came in, there was a huge crowd and everybody was shouting “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai”, there was one man shouting “Mata Kasturba ki jai”. Then this man comes up and gives an orange to Kasturba Gandhi and tells her: “I’ve got this for you.” That was my first introduction to Harilal Gandhi.
Thereafter the play Mahatma Vs Gandhi came up but I continued to read more about the subject. And I finally came across the biography of Harilal Gandhi by Gandhian scholar Chandulal Shah, first published in 1977 by the Sabarmati Trust. There were lots of unpublished letters in it. There was a book by Neelamben Parekh, Harilal Gandhi’s granddaughter. And then there was another book by Lily Pollock, wife of Henry Pollock, Gandhi’s associate in South Africa. There was more material coming in from Harilal’s family.

So you were planning a movie even while you were travelling with your play…
No, not at all. I never wanted to make a movie, forget this movie. I was happy directing plays for the stage. It is where I have spent almost all my life and I have always found theatre very satisfying. It’s just that when you live with a subject for so long, it becomes a personal thing. How deep can I go for a better understanding of the subject, of the milieu, of the moderation? For explanation, black-and-white is fine. For experience, you have to understand all the shades in between.

Why not a documentary then?
Exactly. One doesn’t make a fiction film if it was just about laying down facts. It is about updating the subject and making it contemporary. It must have something for today. Then there were other themes I wanted to explore. Particularly the dilemma of the mother, Kasturba. Hers was a very difficult task. And perhaps what was most fascinating to me was how the public life and personal life of one man were the same. There was only one face to Mahatma Gandhi. The principles he would preach in public would be the same ones he would follow in his own family. It is these values that built a nation and it is these values that hurt a family. And when you see the politicians of today, everything is about perpetrating the welfare of their kids. Even if their children would commit a crime, they would support it and hide it. Politician’s children’s birthdays are being celebrated in public spaces. Such values will never make the nation.

Does the film take sides with father or son?
Not at all. When you have the right to express, it entails huge responsibility. I am not here to give you value judgment. It’s there for you to decide. Destiny is a bigger reality than psychology. And you don’t have control over that. Harilal had a Midas touch in reverse. He was marked for misfortune and was a victim to the pace at which the political and social scene of India was changing and the speed at which Gandhi wanted things to change. What Gandhi had done for humanity or the nation was much greater than what he did or did not do for his family.

Why didn’t you take actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Boman Irani and Kay Kay Menon, who had done the play?
Mind you, all the actors were auditioned. Darshan Zariwala is one of the finest actors on stage and he was always my first choice for Gandhi but he couldn’t do the play initially because he had some other commitments. Also the very recognisable Gandhi that we know, Darshan has done it beautifully. Akshaye (Khanna) was never cast for his star status. In fact, the lesser the star in him, the more the character came out. Akshaye understood the discipline required for the film and he didn’t take up any other project.

How was the switch from stage to screen?
I spent many sleepless nights. I realised very early that it shouldn’t look like a film made by a theatre director. So I did a lot of homework. I took a handycam, took dummy actors and just built up the locations. That’s where my experience from stage helped me. I compose scenes while starting out with a new play. And this is something I learnt from the maestro from Calcutta, Tapasda (Sen) who did lighting for all my plays. He gave my plays a great visual sense. I put all that in this new grammar called cinema. But let me tell you Hindi cinema is more theatrical than the theatre we do anyway (laughs).

Finally, why would someone like you change his name?
This is not numerology. This is for distinction of identity. As long as I did theatre there was no confusion because the other Feroze Khan did not do theatre. But when Arthur Miller passed away, a major newspaper took my interview and then they printed the other Feroze Khan’s picture. And now things have got so bad that his son has cocaine and I get calls! Feroz Abbas Khan is my full name anyway.