Between the guard and the studio head

William Goldman writes in his Bible on Hollywood, Adventures In The Screen Trade: "In terms of authority, screenwriters rank somewhere ...

William Goldman writes in his Bible on Hollywood, Adventures In The Screen Trade: "In terms of authority, screenwriters rank somewhere between the man who guards the studio gate and the man who runs the studio (this week)."

As I am beginning to write a column on the film industry, I feel it only appropriate to start with a meditation on screenwriters, the poor cousins (in their own eyes) of the pure writers — novelists and playwrights — authors who have total control over their work as it is seen in public. Screenwriters are commissioned architects whose designs are finally buried under the orchestration of light and sound that they themselves have dreamed up. Since it is ultimately a blueprint, a screenplay has to follow certain principles and guidelines, like length, where to put the songs, how to introduce the star, etc — worries that other writers are free of. I have read several accounts of screenwriters reflecting on their craft and their trade — almost universally, there is an inevitabledisenchantment and dissatisfaction with the work they are doing — and that’s when it is going well, or going at all. Which is not often — screenwriters tend to spend most of their time with demons who convince them that they are screwing up. This puts them in a Promethean kind of position, a daily soul-wrenching exercise of knowing they have to write something that even when they manage to get it right will probably be mutilated by the perils of the film-making process — miscasting, misdirecting, and sometimes missing the point entirely, plus the niggling doubt that it probably hasn’t exactly brought fire to humankind.

I have admired the work of several of India’s best screenwriters — such varied talents as K A Abbas, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Gulzar, to name a few, and have been privileged, in the last few years, to have met a few of my heroes. Javed Akhtar is, in a word, brilliant. One of the funniest people I have ever encountered, his acerbic wit goes hand-in-hand with one of the most eminent,analytical minds in the business. As a bonus, he is a truly gifted poet. At his best, his screenplays, his lyrics and poetry share a beautiful simplicity that comes out of a complete mastery over the Hindustani language and a rare understanding of the human condition. Who else could think of counterbalancing the material world on the one hand with the emotional weight of a single word — `Maa’ — on the other, as he did along with Salim in Deewar? Simply put, I am a fan of Javedsaab.

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I might have to say that if I have a guru, it is Manohar Shyam Joshi, partly because I have spent more time with him than any other writer. Physics gold medalist, Bohemian journalist, post-modern Hindi novelist and possibly the best television writer we have. His knowledge is gargantuan a man who can spot accents from Pittsburgh, Putney or Patna, he is equally at home tracing clan lineages in UP for the last couple of hundred years as he is describing the nomadic, modern tribes of pop culture that flit from rockfad to rap fad as the only measure of their cultural identity. Of course, that’s not half as much fun as discussing the lasciviousness of Nepali villagers with him. That’s probably why he has been well suited to television, which allows leeway for the grey shadings of character that he is a master of. He creates people whom we know and can relate to in a straightforward way that few other screen and television writers are able to — interesting blends of the traditional and the progressive, none more memorable than Lajoji of Buniyaad.

But for me, he is a mentor of sorts for other reasons — he is also fighting his own demons, caught between the possibilities of his next novel in progress and the eternal half-satisfaction of screenwriting assignments. His sarcasm, his cynicism, and ultimately his professionalism in tackling those demons is inspiring enough to want to hazard forward and try and occupy a position somewhere between the guard at the gate and the studio head.

(Rohan Sippy is part ofthe film and television industry)