Basu Chatterjee interview

Basu Chatterjee who was at FTII for a seminar speaks to Sandhya Iyer about some of his delightful evergreen films that continue to be a great source of enjoyment His films along with Hrishikesh Mukherjee's remain the most avidly viewed films on television by far and the countless re-runs have only added to their timeless appeal. Films like Golmaal, Baaton Baaton Mein, Chupke Chupke, Choti Si Baat and Rajnigandha have been a source of endless delight and new-age filmmakers too have come to see them as wonderfully conceived classics. And even if these two veterans have been out of the limelight for years, their films feel as fresh as ever. We met up with Basu Chatterjee at FTII and although he admits to not being much of a talker and only comfortable behind the camera, he does agree to a tete-a tete even as he politely waits for his sugarless tea to arrive. Chatterjee had a long and impressive body of work, but the film that appears closest to his heart is the lesser-known Saara Akash (1969), which was only his debut. It also remains important for the reason that almost the entire cast and crew were chosen from FTII. “The only person I could not get was Jaya Bhaduri. I was told that she could not act before completing the course. My point was that the very purpose of such a course was to get an opportunity to act and here I was offering it. So I had to take someone else. But otherwise, almost all the technicians were from FTII and I remain grateful for that,” he says. 

Saara Akash is a story about a young immature man — with political ambitions — and the turmoil he faces when he is pushed into an arranged marriage. The film was a satire on the unpreparedness of youngsters to marry. Chatterjee says he surprised himself by coming up with such a good film and theme. “That is my best work and path-breaking for its times,” he says. 

As for his other classic Rajnigandha — about a woman's struggle to decide between two men she loves — he credits his writer Manu Bhandari. “The story was written by a woman, so it got the complexities right. This was the time when the heroine was viewed as a sati- savitri and this film subverts that idea because here she is in love with two men at the same time. Originally, the story was written as letters shared between two ladies. I sat down and worked out the screenplay.”

 A lot in the film is left unspoken. For example, one doesn't know if Dinesh Thakur's character really loved the girl. “He does,” says Chatterjee. “It's just that he is not expressive.” The film starred a young Amol Palekar and Vidya Sinha. “I had seen Amol on stage and had liked his face. He was working as a clerk in a bank at that time. Vidya Sinha was struggling for years in the industry when she got this break. She looked very young in the film although she was almost 28 by then. She was married too,” he tells us about the film that offers one of the most nuanced exploration into a woman's mind.

His films like Chameli Ki Shaadi, Baaton Baaton Mein, Choti Si Baat were all set in a middle-class milieu and were narrated with ironic humour “That’s because I belong to the middle-class and it was the only thing I knew. Also, comedies by nature appeal to me. I was called a balcony class filmmaker in those days because most of my films had the balcony full,” tells the filmmaker who also made one of the most popular television serials, Rajini. 

Chatterjee's obvious strength was his ability to pick good stories. “Even today I don't think there is a dearth of ideas but you must know how to recognize and grab the good ones,” says the director who made a Bengali film called Trishanku a year ago — about the conflict between a mother and daughter. Among recent films, Chatterjee mentions A Wednesday which he liked, and among the filmmakers, he likes Sanjay Leela Bhasali. He doesn't see the Hindi market as conducive enough for him to make a film, though he readily admits that the industry and audience are changing for the better. All of Chatterjee's films were greatly entertaining and studded with several useful gems of wisdom. Would he share what he believes about love, life and relationships today? “I don't think my views have changed much since then. I'm almost 80 now. I believe you are wiser when you are younger. Experience is not necessarily useful. Most people who attain something in life do so in their youth. By the time they are old, they are already established in what they chose," he says. As always, Basu Chatterjee leaves us thinking and smiling.