From the beginning, Neeraj Ghaywan was clear that he needed to connect with the grassroots through Masaan. “When we were shooting for Gangs Of Wasseypur in and around Varanasi, I was sure Varanasi was where I wanted to shoot my first film. This is the Indian heartland. I wanted to capture a side of the Holy City not seen before. We have for long imagined the city as being film with Sadhus smoking ganja at the ghats. I wanted to look at a city in transition caught between tradition and progress,” he said.
Neera Ghaywan on 10 years of Masaan, “When I heard the foreign audience clapping, I just broke down and wept”
He was lucky to get a perfect cast. “From the beginning it was supposed to be Richa Chadha. I worked with her when I assisted Anurag Kashyap on Gangs Of Wasseypur. I had also zeroed in on Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao for two principal roles in Masaan. Their dates couldn’t be worked out. I signed Sanjay Mishra and Vicky Kaushal instead. They gave stellar performances.”
Neeraj says acceptance internationally was immediate and unconditional. “I was a little afraid about how foreigners would react (to) the cultural references. My film is set in the outcasted dome community. Would the foreigners understand the desperate deprivation of the community? Or for that matter the Bhojpuri dialect that I’ve used in one section of the film? …Luckily the foreigners got the point. The story is so universal that the nuances explained themselves to the international audience. When I heard them clapping, I just broke down and wept. I never expected a film so rooted to the grassroot reality of our culture would connect so deeply with a foreign audience.”
Neeraj feels he would like to bring a European sensibility to his cinematic language without losing the sheer Indian-ness of his ideas. “There is a kind of cinema that’s being made entirely for film festivals. I don’t want to indulge in that sort of creativity,” he said.
More Pages: Masaan Box Office Collection , Masaan Movie Review
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