‘I waited two-and-a-half years for Nandita!’

Cinematographer Thankar Bachan’s first film Azhaki, starring Nandita Das, Parthipan and Devyani, is a surprise.

Reviewers loved the film, but nobody expected this serious, unconventional film to top the charts ahead of Kamal Haasan’s Pammal K Sambandham.

Azhaki, a Pongal release, was a slow starter but the film has been declared a success not only in the urban centres but all over Tamil Nadu.

Shobha Warrier met Thankar Bachan, the director, at his residence.

He talked about his early life in a village in Tamil Nadu. About how he felt alienated at the Adyar Film Institute. About how he carried with him for years the story of Azhaki. About the initial struggling days. About his admiration for the late Malayalam film director, Aravindan. About his decision to name his son, Aravindan. About the number of attempts he made to contact Nandita Das.

He confesses he went to a Adoor Gopalakrishnan asking for an opportunity to shoot his film. “I do not know whether he remembers me.”

Azhaki is the story of the unfulfilled love between a poor, lower caste young man and a rich girl in a village. The man goes on to become a veterinary surgeon, marries a woman who works in a multinational firm, have two children and leads a very happy and contented life.

One day, at the village fair, he meets the woman whom he loved dearly once but she is a different person now after she was forced to marry a drunkard.

Excerpts from the interview:

Did you ever foresee this kind of a warm response for your film?

I did. The masses reacted very slowly. But I did not expect the media to react in such a positive way to my film. If Azhaki is successful today, it is only because of the good reviews that have appeared. I have with me around 68 reviews, which I feel is unprecedented.

People go to see a bad masala film without waiting for anybody’s opinion but they wait for a hundred reactions before they go to see a good film. Why do they have such an attitude?

How long did it take for Azhaki to become a film from the time of its conception?

The seed for Azhaki’s idea was sown from a personal experience of mine, at a village temple festival. So a part of the story is very personal and the rest is my imagination.

I wrote a short story based on my experience in 1986 but I could make a film only now.

In fact, I got an offer to make a film based on the short story after it appeared in my collection in 1990. An industrialist got so enamoured by the story that he wanted me to make a film, but I was not ready. Without any experience, how could I make a film? If I had made the film then, when I was just 29, it would not have been half as effective.

Now that you have made the film, are you satisfied with the final product?

Oh, this is not my Azhaki at all. I will say 70 per cent of the film satisfies me. The producer was not in a position to take risks. I had to compromise so that there were some commercial elements in the film.

The film that was released in the theatres is not my Azhaki. I have kept my Azhaki in a cassette for my own satisfaction.

I had no say in the final product. Perhaps I can be more assertive with my next film.

Even the producer didn’t have any say in the matter. Finally, he was so desperate to release the film, as nobody was willing to touch it the way I had made it.

No theatre wanted the film. The first drawback was that there was no Vivek (comedian) in the film. The distributors asked me, “No Vivek? Who will come and watch the film?” Finally, I shot a few scenes with Vivek.

All these things made me very, very sad.

Now, all those theatres, which refused to accept my film, are asking for a print!

Azhaki is Nandita Das’s first Tamil film. How did you convince her to act in the film?

Would you believe if I were to say I waited two-and-a-half years for Nandita? I tried contacting her but she never even came on the line.

Finally, it was Ravi K Chandran who introduced me to her. Then, I gave her the films that I had done as the cinematographer, the stories I have written and showed her my paintings.

Then she agreed to come here but at her own expense. My story attracted her.

Why did you decide to have her as Dhanalakshmy?

It is a long story. Many years ago, before Nandita started acting in films, I had been to Delhi to do some shooting, and there I saw her, leading a procession. I didn’t know who she was but I was attracted by her face.

I thought, she is my Dhanalakshmy.

Later, when I saw her at the National Museum, I was curious to know who she was. Then, somebody told me she was the daughter of the famous painter, Jatin Das.

Some years later, I saw her face in the stills of Fire with Shabana Azmi, I was surprised. But it gave me some hope.

It is a big thing that she agreed to be my Dhanalakshmy. I have not seen such a disciplined and committed actress in my life. She was just superb.

You learnt cinematography at The Adyar Film Institute. Were you interested in filmmaking even as a young boy?

I was passionate about films. I had a lot of friends in my village who worked as operators in various cinema theatres. So I used to get bits of film reels from then, and used to show them to my friends in one of the darkened rooms in my house. That was the beginning.

I joined the Film Institute only because I was told that the course guaranteed a job. But I didn’t study anything in the first year. I wasted a year there.

What I experienced in my second year opened my eyes to reality. We had to make a film as a project in the second year. Finally, my turn came, and I was in for a rude shock. There was nothing on the screen. Just a blank screen.

I was humiliated and teased a lot by everybody. But that incident was a turning point in my life. I went to the library and started reading.

After the course, nobody chose me as a cameraman. See, I was a village boy who didn’t have the sophistication that the citybreds had. I didn’t know English. Nobody wanted to take me as his or her cameraman as they found it humiliating to introduce such a person as their cameraman.

So far you have worked as a cinematographer in 25 films — including successful commercial films like Kathal Kottai (in its Hindi version Sirf Tum review) and also serious films like Moha Mul, Bharati, Kutty, etc.

Yes, all my earlier films were flops. Fortunately for me, filmmakers liked my work. The film that I am going to work on now is for Mahendran, which again will be serious.

What is your next film about?

I still cannot erase Azhaki from my mind. But I am planning to make a film on folk music. And I have already started discussing about this with Ilaiyaraja.

A personal question. How did you get the surname Bachan?

My father’s name is Pachaan in Tamil, which we write in English as Bachaan. That is how I became Thankar Bachan.

It’s strange. When I went to Mumbai to work for Sirf Tum, many people asked me the same question!