Shabana spins a silken web in Makdi

Subhash K Jha

So far we knew Vishal Bharadwaj as the man who composed soothing melodies in films like Maachis and Godmother. Bharadwaj has now donned the mantle of director for an intriguing film called Makdi [spider] that features Shabana Azmi in her first role in two years as a witch!

"While shooting, two children at the poolside of our hotel in Goa began to cry when they saw her with her makeup on," laughs the music composer-turned-film director.

Vishal completed one schedule of the film from January 5 to 23 in Goa and Alibaug a suburb in Mumbai. "We have wrapped up 80 per cent of the film. The remaining twenty per cent will be completed from February 7 to 13 in Mumbai. I hope to release the film this summer."

Makdi is an unusual experiment --- you have a music composer as director and Shabana Azmi as a witch. Says Vishal, "It would be wrong to categorise my film as a children's film. Nowadays when children are watching sleazy serials on adultery and extramarital affairs on television, my film goes back to innocence."

"You know," he adds. "When I became a music composer it was my cherished dream to get the great Lataji (Lata Mangeshkar) to sing my first song. I got that wish when Lataji sang my very first song Aye hawaa which we heard in the album of Maachis although it was composed for another film. Likewise I had decided that if I ever become a film director I’d want Shabana Azmi to play the lead in my first film. Now I’ve got my witch….I mean, wish," laughs the man with the golden song.

Working with the awesome Azmi isn’t an experience that Vishal is likely to forget in a hurry. "Shabana never let me feel I was directing one of the greatest actresses of the country. She made the whole processs of facing the camera look so easy. Her make-up used to take two hours every day. The make-up was done by Vipul Bhagat. I took great pains to get specially designed contact lenses from London for Shabana. And the end-result is staggering. I guarantee you, audiences will get scared on seeing Shabana’s witch’s get-up."

The songs, set to tune by Vishal, have been written by his old favourite Gulzar who incidentally is currently writing lyrics for an album sung by Vishal’s wife Rekha Bharadwaj. "There’re such lovely songs in Makdi. I just hope my effort to break the traditional patterns of filmmaking won’t be in vain."

Like many prominent movie persons in this country, Vishal Bharadwaj feels the conventional moulds of storytelling in mainstream Hindi cinema need to be broken. "This is the first film where the protagonist plays a fantasy character with so much relish and conviction. I think audiences in this country are ready to savour different strokes on cellulouid," says the song-maker who changed many patterns of music composition in our films with his music in Maachis, Satya, Hu Tu Tu , Godmother and Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar.

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