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Namrata Rao has shaped several Hindi films as an editor over the years, including Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani (2012), for which she won a National Award. Now, she is turning her attention to direction with Angry Young Men, a 3-part docuseries on Salim-Javed, the screenwriting duo of the 1970s and 80s who invented a new language in Hindi cinema and gave birth to the character of the Angry Young Man, most famously played by Amitabh Bachchan during his spectacular rise. (Also read – Angry Young Men review: A heartwarming, engaging update on the Salim-Javed legacy)
In an exclusive interview, Namrata opens up about the process of filming the documentary series, whether she was worried about conflict of interest, and why she felt the need to ask some uncomfortable questions.
Part:
It has been more than 40 years since Salim-Javed separated. When you got the opportunity to bring them together and tell their story, why did you interview Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar separately instead of in the same frame?
I found it more interesting to shoot them separately. Of course, we had logistical concerns as we started shooting during the pandemic. It was very difficult to shoot anyway. We had to maintain distance. They are old so it was not very convenient for them either.
I always wanted to shoot them separately and then bring them together for one last thing. We sat them down and interviewed them. But for me, somehow, it didn’t really feel right. I wanted to see them together, but the three years I spent with them made me believe in their different side. It became interesting to ask them the same question and see them give different answers. That came up for me by itself. When I started, I still had the idea of putting them together. But somehow, it felt better for the story.
Salim Khan’s son Salman Khan and Javed Akhtar’s children Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar are associated as co-producers in their father’s documentary series. Did you ever fear a conflict of interest in this?
When I started shooting the docuseries, I was very apprehensive about whether the producers/the family would censor me. I told Zoya that I didn’t want to make a sacred work or a farce. It’s not something I’m very interested in. Zoya assured me that they didn’t want to do it because there’s so much available on the internet about them that it would be really silly if we tried to say, “Oh, they were really good people and wonderful fathers.”
I asked them a lot of uncomfortable questions. I removed something only when it didn’t fit the narrative, and not because someone told me to remove it because “it doesn’t reflect well on our fathers.” They’ve been really supportive and they’ve given me a lot of space. In fact, during the editing, none of the producers were involved. They only saw the cuts when I had finished working with them, and their feedback was limited to engagement issues and factual issues, and was never about “this is too personal, or this is too uncomfortable.”
The most common criticism of his most popular film Sholay (1975) has been that it borrows from the Spaghetti Western genre of Italian cinema. How important was it for you to address this criticism of his filmography?
It was very important for me to talk about the criticisms, the plagiarism, the fact that their scripts started to sound the same, that there was a fatigue in their work as they kept getting more and more successful because that really changed the game for them. So you listen to what they say. Now that I know them as people, I believe them: ‘We did this. We knew we were doing this. We watched a lot of movies. We read a lot. Whatever we had, we put it into our scripts.
I couldn’t go into too much detail in the interest of time or in the interest of narrative momentum. But when you’re painting a portrait of an artist, you have to know their flaws and you have to know why they did what they did. There’s no judgement, it’s just the way it is. That’s what makes people 3D, more human, and that’s what makes a story more interesting. Personally, I don’t find stories that are only about the good in people interesting.
Zoya said she wanted the docuseries to include women as Salim-Javed’s work is very male-centric. How important was it for you to respond to the criticism that while their films may have progressive female characters, they have little to do in terms of male protagonists?
Though I loved Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), I didn’t like the fact that when Geeta (Hema Malini) dreams of confessing her identity to Sanjeev Kumar, he slaps her. And I was wondering how she could dream of getting slapped herself! I asked him this question, and he admitted that he didn’t know any better. As Javed sahab said, “Main abhi Geeta ko aise bilkul bhi nahi likhte”. Because when she comes to Sita’s house, she sees that Sita is a very good cook, she is a really good seamstress. She also wants to do the same thing, aspires to do the same thing, which she is not really. Also, I think it was a different time, a different environment as well.
In the docuseries, Farah Khan revealed that Vijay aka Amitabh Bachchan’s dialogue “Main phike hue paise aaj bhi nahi utha” in Yash Chopra’s Deewar (1975) was taken from something he said to a producer who was trying to cheat him. Do you think there is a lot of Salim-Javed themselves in Vijay?
Salim and Javed together are Vijay. They have all the qualities that Vijay had. Of course, Vijay has a filminess, a cinematic freedom. More or less, they believed in the same things. Dignity and honesty should drive your life. This whole idea of dreaming bigger than life and achieving what you dream, because both of them had very humble beginnings, but they really dreamed big. Like that little Vijay who is polishing boots (in Deewaar) but he feels he should be treated with dignity and respect. That’s how they are. They have told me so many stories that have gone into their script.
Which screenwriter has come closest to Salim-Javed after their split? Do you see your producers Zoya and Reema Kagti carrying forward their legacy with Tiger Baby?
Salim-Javed’s success was their success, because nothing is greater than success. When you write 24 films and 20 of them are hits, it’s a record like no other. That’s the one thing that gave them the agency, the credit they got in the industry. Reema and Zoya are a great pair. Just like Salim-Javed, they have their independent strengths as writers and when they come together, they really enhance each other’s work. But we have to wait till their body of work becomes 24 films. But they always think of new ideas, more contemporary. They are not really focused on one character like Vijay. I really hope they get the same success as Salim-Javed.
You have included voices from many people in the industry, across generations. Was it a conscious decision to not let Amitabh Bachchan’s inputs overshadow the docuseries? Could his presence distract from the legacy of Salim-Javed?
Amitabh Bachchan was the third Angry Young Man. For the world, he is the Angry Young Man, isn’t he? His inputs were very, very important. Yes, there were times when I felt I didn’t want to make it just about him. Because my idea was to document or dive into the life of Salim-Javed, the creators of the Angry Young Man persona. I identified certain areas where I knew I really needed his inputs. Deewar was one of them, Jai’s death in Sholay was another. Then, of course Don (1978), because it was very different from the Vijay he played. And there was a personal thing on how he was approached for Zanjeer (1973) after 11 flops.
At the trailer launch, Zoya said that though the initial idea behind this docuseries was to find out what went wrong between Salim-Javed that led to their separation, she confessed that she still doesn’t know much about it. Did you not know much about it because you wanted their dignified silence on the separation to also reflect in the docuseries?
I think the reasons for their separation are present in the documentary series, but maybe not in the way people expected the separation to be shown. A lot of time has passed since then, so I never wanted to delve into the day they separated, what kind of conversations they had, who took whose side, because it’s almost like a breakup. It all didn’t feel very good. They’re older now, so I don’t even know if they still believe in the things they did in their 30s and 40s, now that they’re almost 80 and 90. It didn’t feel very relevant today. What I found more interesting were the bigger reasons that they weren’t enjoying working together, there was fatigue that had set in, they were doing the same kind of work, and the idea of success really played a part.
His professional life also went through a rough patch and he also separated from his wives Salma Khan and Honey Irani during this period. Did he emerge as a completely new person after that phase?
Yes. Both of them went through turmoil in their professional and personal lives at the same time. It’s interesting that similar things happened to both of them (smiles).
Angry Young Men is streaming on Prime Video India.
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