Meeting Kundan Shah - Talking about Films

Meeting Kundan Shah

His assistant opened the door and asked me to wait. I was made to sit and a cup of tea awaited me. Not
bothering to drink it, i preferred to instead look at wall which was adorned with posters of Jaane Bhi Do
Yaaron, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na, Kya Kehna, Hum to Mohabbat Karega, Teen Behanein (3 sisters,
his yet unreleased film). There was somewhere a poster of Kaagaz Ke Phool..with a mesmerised Guru
Dutt kissing an enigmatic Waheeda Rehman… All of it seemed so magical …. would be the first time I would
be meeting Kundan Shah extensively ….
(P.S - i did happen to meet him at the screenwriter’s conference 2 yrs ago in pune)
“Hello Kartik.. How are you doing ?”

Was pleasantly surprised to see a young at heart man talking with a spring in his voice. Felt nervous …felt
small .. felt dumb …didn’t know what to say ….
“I’m fine sir …. Hope you are doing good too…” I mumbled.
The next 30 minutes were all engrossing cinema talk … where he spoke with child like enthusiasm … Here
are some excerpts ….
ABOUT PFC AND TASHAN
“I really admire what you guys are doing.. but at times there is a negative vibe from PFC”
Meaning ??
“Like for eg: Tashan..the reviews of tashan on pfc …”
But sir its a bad film ..people are bound to trash it.
“Trash for sure ..but then what after that ? See you are frustrated ..I’m too …so might be everyone with the
present scenario .. Do u know that I happen to know Vijay Krishna Maurya .. And i was so depressed after
watching that film …. I didn’t even feel like coming to IFFLA ….
Tashan is a caper film … Do u know how difficult it is to make a caper film ? It’s not easy to make a
film like Tashan either…”
Meaning ???
“What would you do if you were given all the stars Vijay had ..and a budget of 30 crores ???”
I wasn’t expecting this question at all …
“You can use all the fire and frustration against the bad films in a creative manner ..Think what if you
were the director and had all what the director had … What would you do ??? What can be made
better ? How do you improve upon it ???
PFC is on its way resembling/similar to what Cahiuer Du Cinema was…. When film critics would criticise films
..and then slowly would make films….”
I think what Kundan Shah was saying was - Use the anger creativley
CHARLES CHAPLAIN AND DELETED SCENES
The conversation went to Charles Chaplain …
“We at FTII had access to deleted scenes from films… I remember watching a Charles Chaplain film which
had an 8 minute long traffic sequence. Basically it revolved around the heroine getting stuck at a manhole
cover on the street and Charlie Chaplin trying to help her out via signals and sign language (since he is
standing on a balcony far away from her).
It was an expensive scene .. clearly you can see that it would’ve cost a lot of money.
It was a good scene too … but at times the comedy looked forced …. So Charlie Chaplin deleted the entire 8
minute from the film !!!”
ON JAANE BHI DO YAARON

I couldn’t help but ask “Sir is there any way we can see the entire 5 1/2 hr long first cut version of JBDY ?
The one where Anupam Kher plays the disco killer and all the deleted scenes ?”
“No. It’s not available anywhere”
“But there were quite a few scenes in JBDY which were deleted. And some were saved. For Eg: the entire
bomb sequence at Pankaj Kapoor’s house was ridiculous..but was carried off really well by Actors …”
Oh yeah sir ..who can forget Ravi Baswani’s “What an Amazing Lighter ???”
I made the one request which probably every Kundan Shah fan wanted to make ….
“Sir … Please make more films …We want to see more films of yours …Please sir ”
“I’m trying … There are some problems that I don’t want to get into .. on a personal level…It’s a different
thing that I don’t want to talk about”
I could make out what the big man was hinting at ..but moved onto greener pastures …
ON KABHI HAAN KABHI NA
There is an interesting anecdote on KHKN’s “Woh to hai albela song”
Initially, the song was on different lines. When SRK’s father accepts SRK with all his pluses and minuses.
That song was supposed to be a celebration of the positive and negative qualities of SRK. Because the logic
was as soon as Naseer - the priest forgives SRK, his father too understands and accepts SRK.
“After that song, there was to be a garage scene which was one of my fav scenes. When SRK says he will
begin to work in the garage …and his dad hands him the screwdriver and plass. SRK tries to fix a car …. tries
again and again ..but he doesn’t seem to understand the mechanics of it … Just then his father gets a phone
call and he leaves…
As soon as he leaves, SRK not knowing what to do with the screwdriver/plass, begins play the drums on the
bonnet of the car…
Soon his father arrives and sees his son still on music …that’s when his heart melts and tells SRK … “Dont
work in the garage ..do what you want to do …. ” or something to that effect.
“When I told Majrooh sahib about the situation and the theme of the song..he didn’t like it. He told me to
rework on the scene … And Majrooh sahib is a senior lyricist. How can I argue with him. So i reworked and
made the song as if everyone is co-ercing SRK’s dad to understand him ..and forgive him … ”
After shooting and during editing ..I realised that the song Woh toh hai Albela ended on a dramatic note …
and immediately after that was the original garage scene. These two scenes looked jutting out…and didn’t
work for me.
So I had to convince the producer to shoot another 30 second “neutral” scene where Satish Shah, Reeta
Bhaduri, Ravi Baswani, Suchitra etc are in the car and Satish says “SRK is such a nice guy ..Anna tumko
uskey baarey mein sochna mangta ”
This 30 second filler scene wasn’t adding anything new …but it fitted onto the edit ….
And the original garage scene had to be edited. SRK playing drums on the bonnet of the car was edited out…
and only SRK’s dad’s speech remained …..
This is what happens on editing ..It was nobody’s fault really ..but one of my favorite scenes had to be
chopped off to maintain the flow of the film. You need to notice the graph of the film on the edit.
For Eg: the most expensive scene of JBDY isn’t there in the film at all !!!”
CREATIVE EXERCISE - HOW TO CHANNELISE FRUSTRATION INTO CREATIVITY
One thing what Kundan Shah told me was about how to react when you see a bad or good-but-could’ve-
been-better films.
“We used to so this exercise.. Me, Sriram Raghavan, Vinay Shukla, Pankaj Advani(writer of KHKN). We
would pick up our fav films and then analyse where they went wrong. What if we were the directors of those
films. What would we do?
I used to pick up Kaagaz Ke Phool.. I remember Sriram picking up (no prizes for guessing) Johnny Mera
Naam”
After this, we discussed some of the recent films…
ON EK CHAALIS KI LAST LOCAL
Told him i loved the film … but for me ..the film ends when Abhay gets the 2 1/2 crore. All that portion in
train with cops inspecting every compartment, Abhay throwing the bag away ..and then getting it back …
almost being run over by train ..was strecthed.
“Then what do you think should have been there ?”
I didn’t know what to say ….
“I know Sanjay Khanduri..He’s a good friend. In fact he even showed me the first cut of the film. Before that
he had tried to make a short film on the same idea … gone on railway station at night and shot it.. I had
suggested it to him to make it into a feature … because the concept of the film is brilliant…
After watching the first cut, I suggested him to focus on the love story between Neha and Abhay. That’s why
the accidental kiss was kept in the film.All the kinky characters, shady people, him getting 2 1/2 crores is
fine ..but also try and focus on the love story. Because the love angle will touch the audience… so what if
she’s a prostitute ? Audience will still want the guy to get the girl as well …”
ON KHOSLA KA GHOSLA
“Loved it …. Brilliant 1st half .. the scene at the police station was too good ….. But the 2nd half was a
letdown for me..it became a con game …a play …What’s the difference between them and Boman Irani
then ?? ”
ON DIL CHAHTA HAI
“Nice 1st half …2nd half focused a lot on the romantic track between Aamir and Preity … so felt slightly let
down …
They(the trio of Sid,Akash,Sameer) have their problems too ..except that they have to deal with them while
driving a mercedes ..and we have to deal with ours’ driving a Fiat”
ON CHACHI 420
nice film ..but a copy of Mrs Doubtfire … OM Puri was brilliant as usual in it …
ON MITHYA
Liked it ..but somewhere along ..it became a little philosophical and intellectual ….
ON JOHNNY GADDAR
very good film .. liked it a lot … brilliant writing ….but all in all a thread of invisibility is missing. Something is
missing .. Why does he want the money ?
We’re both (me and Sriram) are big fans of JAMES HADLEY CHASE ..if i don’t have a novel then i will ask
him ..and if he doesn’t have one he asks me ….
ON MAIN MADHURI DIXIT BANNA CHAHTI HOON
I think an audience doesn’t wanna see a film on a filmmaker … Why would i care if a Kartik Krishnan wants
to make films and what struggles etc he goes through ? Why would anyone care about a film which shows
the sacrifices and struggles Kundan Shah faced ?
The film should have been about Rajpal Yadav …and Antara Mali ..It’s more about their relationships …Rajpal
was the hero for me .. He marries Antara only to take her to Mumbai and fulfill her ambition … The film
should have focused more on the relationship ….
ON ONE OF HIS FAV FILMS - TEESRI MANZIL
Vijay Anand and Naseer Hussain .. two BIG guns ..uniting and making a brilliant film - Teesri Manzil …
Suspense film with great music ..choreography …dances … characters…performances …everything is so
engaging !!!
It was a wonderful evening ..perhaps the best spent 30 minutes of my life … and i could only jot down
snippets of the conversation we had …. and most of it is memory based … So if i have
misrepresented/misquoted him somewhere…. I’m sorry
He also spoke about concept of “foil” in a comedy .. but i want to save that for himself to talk about …when
HE SOON BEGINS BLOGGING ON PFC !!!