I have known Nagesh Kukunoor for a good 25 years. And I do mean, good. There was never any stress between us even if I didn’t like any of this prolific filmmaker’s work. I must admit that not liking Nagesh’s work is rare. For example, Bombay To Bangkok (2008) and Mod (2011) just didn’t work for me.
Those apart, I have been a big Kukunoor-o-phile since the quirky Hyderabad Blues in 1998. What a rebellious start Nagesh made! And he followed it up with the boarding school brilliancy of Rockford.
I was hooked. We have been in touch since then. With his close friend and longtime soul-sakhi Elahi Heptoolah by his side, Nagesh has gone from strength to strength seeking to instil not only innovation but purity in his cinematic language with quasi-classics like 3 Deewarein in 2003 (Juhi Chawla’s career-best performance), Iqbal (Shreyas Talpade’s glorious moment), Dor (Ayesha Takiya’s only memorable performance), Aashayein (John Abraham’s only decent performance), Lakshmi (a brutal message in a brothel which proved singer Monali Thakur could act) and Dhanak (a tender achingly sweet parable of a blind little boy who sets off with his sister to meet Shah Rukh Khan).
But Nagesh’s piece de resistance, the tour de force of his career is the webseries City Of Dreams. Produced by the ever-enterprising content producers Applause Entertainment, the series and its sequel in 2021 remain benchmark of excellence on the streaming platform. When originally released in 2019 I was stunned by Nagesh’s grasp of the then-burgeoning OTT medium and his grip over the grammar of a political drama. For my time and money, City Of Dreams is more of a game-changer on OTT than Sacred Games.
Nagesh did the first season of City Of Dreams because he had a really powerful political story to tell. The challenge in Season 2 was to make the story even more powerful. It had to have a cutting edge. Nagesh wouldn’t jump into a sequel just for the heck of it. It took Nagesh six years to be convinced that he can do so sequel to my Hyderabad Blues.
Nagesh who started his career with the clutter-breaking feature film Hyderabad Blues in 1998, sees the OTT platform as the way out and the way ahead. A filmmaker like Nagesh has to constantly face a paucity of theatres. Every film of Nagesh has been subjected to scrutiny and no-show by the gatekeepers of the movie-exhibition business. His only film that did not have a problem getting movie theatres was 8x10 featuring Akshay Kumar. And look at the irony: movie theatres went on a strike just when 8x10 was to release in 2008.
The agony of having to find theatres for his cinema ended for Nagesh with the digital boom. Nagesh had seen the long format being popular on HBO. He used to wonder when he would finally get to be part of it. City Of Dreams was dream come true for Nagesh. It opened a whole new world for him. It ended what he called the shameless self-promotion that his films had to be necessarily subjected to.
Each of Nagesh’s films has its own grammar. He wrote Dor and started shooting it within 45 days. He wanted to make a dramatic tale by conveying his own sensibility, and that meant putting ordinary people in extraordinary situations.
Said Nagesh, “In the process of writing and making a film, we filmmakers never know where we're heading until the film is made. I couldn't pull back and admire this line or that scene. It was only at the end of the process that I realised the full impact. I wanted to take my audience on an emotional journey using all the tools at my disposal without distracting them from the plot. You're right when you say I don't indulge in too much technical wizardry. I'd get gimmicky if I was doing a slick thriller or comedy.”
Nagesh Kukunoor likes to portray real-life characters in his films and in 8X10 Tasveer, the director himself was the inspiration behind Akshay Kumar's role as an environment protection officer.
In Iqbal, an 18-year old deaf-mute dreams of overcoming his economical, emotional and physical handicaps to become a national-level cricketer. The mom supports his struggle to achieve his dream, but the father disapproves. The resilient never-say-die protagonist is bamboozled and tutored into success by his burnt-out alcoholic coach. We saw a similar struggle celebrating the spirit of survival and triumph in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black, where a deaf and blind girl fought her way into emotional and academic freedom with the help of a burnt-out alcoholic but impassioned coach.
Iqbal is not about the protagonist's physical handicap at all. If you notice, right from the start Iqbal Khan's physical impairment is not an issue at all. No one in his family or immediate vicinity draws attention to his condition. There's no pity or self-pity. Iqbal is treated like a normal person, so much so that the audience wouldn't notice his disability if Iqbal didn't communicate in sign language.
With Iqbal, Nagesh got a certain level of acceptance from the film industry. He was consciously present at every awards function.
Nagesh says, “This industry is opening up. We're seeing many non-formula films being made and released. The trick is to stop being an outsider and become part of it. I'd rather be at the forefront of the change. I'm to a large extent not gregarious. But there's enough life around you to observe and absorb, no matter how cocooned you are. There're certain stories that take their own shape in your mind.”
Keep moving, Nagesh. And never become a conformist.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.
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