MF Hussain on Gajgamini

“It’s nice to know that someone admires you so much. I only thought that he was a great painter. He’s won the Golden Bear Award for his earlier film, Through the Eyes of a Painter. During the making of Gajagamini, I understood the way he made films. He is quite remarkable.”
Madhuri Dixit on M F Husain

Synopsis
This is a film which is being monitored by the media very closely, though they have not got any wind of what's happening. Ram Gopal Varma is said to be ghost-directing it. M F Hussain does not want to talk about the film. "It is a different film," he says. "It has a lot to do with something I have in mind for years."

Madhuri is however very enthusiastic about this venture. "It is an experimental film being made on an international level and standards. It's a woman's journey through mythology and history. The philosophical, literary and religious aspects are dealt with by Hussain sahab in his unique style - highly aesthetic and artistic. You can say it is a celebration of womanhood! It is a uniquely different kind of experience for everybody associated with this project. It is designed for the international market."

Hussain's first film, Through The Eyes of a Painter fetched him a National Award long back. Will this one too?

For Gaja Gamini is more than a tribute to a woman -- it is eons of time, all rolled in one.

In a film that has no story, no hero, no heroine and certainly no plot, you find everything -- the actors, the stage, the plot, the art and the form.

Gaja Gamini is the story of a woman -- all that she has been to man through time. The mother, the beauty, the tease, the coquette, the oppressed, the intellectual, the strong, the powerful, the muse...

All these faces have been portrayed in a state of timelessness -- in a film that has two sections on screen, separated by a black wall.

One is Gyan (represented by Kalidas) and the other is Vigyan (represented by a scientist). It is an irony how the two strongest faces of truth (science and literature) keep bumping into each other at all odd times -- on the ghats of the Benares Ganga, in a jungle of modernity and in the forests where there are strange, leafless bamboo trees, storms, and where the scents of seduction prevail -- and find themselves reacquainting anew, with new wisdoms to impart.

For those better informed, hark back to a film called Insignificance, where Marilyn Monroe, her ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, Albert Einstein and Senator Joe McCarthy all meeting in a sweaty hotel room in 1953. In one bizarre occurrence, Monroe uses toys to explain the theory of relativity to Einstein, and McCarthy has most unsatisfactory sex with a Monroe impersonator...

Similarly, Gaja Gamini is like a series of miniature tablets of life that keep intersecting and interconnecting at all the stages of life that we have known and read about.

Strongly rooted in the principles of Hindutva, Gaja Gamini is the mast that holds all of life aloft -- the elusive walk of the woman, an enchantress, a mystical figure, who has no face, just various avatars.

And all the avatars -- Mona Lisa, the muse; Shakuntala, the inspiration; Sangeeta, the enchantress; Munshi Premchand's Nirmala; the rich, but oppressed, Monika; the friend who sees nothing but knows all; Sindhu, the firebrand who is only engaged in destroying evil; Phulwania, the lady who sells flowers, but nurses a gun beneath the blossoms -- they all strike a chord of deep empathy in the heart of the intelligent viewer.

Despite the beauty of the canvas that Husain has painted, the excellent dances by Madhuri Dixit in every avatar, and the sheer beauty of direction, Gaja Gamini, it is sad, will want for viewers.

At the premiere, held at Bombay's Regal cinema, the huge audience came away feeling cheated.

One, because none of the stars turned up for the show. Another, because they could not understand the inherent symbolism of the film.

Said Usha Shah, a dowager who came all decked out, "This is sheer nonsense! What sense does this movie make? I was looking forward to seeing Shah Rukh Khan. But he has such a small role! Besides, there is absolutely no romance in the film."

Voices of assent were all around her, even as some felt that this was nothing but Husain's way of making an art film in colour to simply showcase his paintings. "There are nore of Husain's paintings of even Madhuri in the film," said Meera Maheshwari, another viewer.

"No proper dances -- all the dance is too traditional, and nothing like what one would expect from Madhuri Dixit's regular film," said Prakash Dadlani, who had stood for hours in the hope of getting a ticket.

The music, by Bhupen Hazarika, is composed and rendered in his own unique style. Nothing unexpected there -- as a matter of fact, it's good music.

What impresses most is Husain's strapping command over Hindu mythology. It is arguable that even the best of them would be able to stand up against his vast well of knowledge, which is applied skillfully applied into every frame of the film.

The film ends on a very positive note -- which, once again, is probably Husain's belief -- that of women leading mankind into the new millennium, which is indicated with a humungous gate of mirrors.

Since mirrors do not lie -- only the fittest shall survive and pass through. Mallika (Shabana Azmi), who leads the rest into the new millennium, was Nirmala in another time-span. She is now head of the planning commission for the new world order.

Beyond a point, one cannot figure out who is leading whom where -- is Monika (yet another Madhuri Dixit in scintillating blue) taking everyone there? Or is it the elusive Gaja Gamini, dressed in a graceful kashta?

Beyond a point, all the women are one, and each woman has all of the others in her.

Watching Gaja Gamini is like being caught in the middle of a Samuel Beckett play: Instinctively and intuitively, one knows exactly what is happening here.

CREDITS
Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Mohan Agashe, Farida Jalal, Ashish Vidyarthi, Shilpa Shirodkar, Inder Kumar, Kalpana Pandit
Special appearance: Shah Rukh Khan
Director: M F Husain
Producer: Rakesh Nath
Music: Bhupen Hazarika

Another Review on Gajagamini

Cast Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Indra Kumar, Shilpa Shirodkar, Farida Jalal, Ashish Vidyarthi
Director M F Husain
Production Rakesh Nath
Music Bhupen Hazarika
Lyrics M F Husain, Maya Govind

If there was an award for the film that's raised the maximum number of conjectures, suppositions and theories even before release, Gajagamini would have won it hands down this year and for the past five in a row.

If anything, as M F Husain's celluloid opus hits the commercial Mumbai screen this week, the anticipation is not so much about its leading lady, Madhuri Dixit or even the fact that Husain, for the first time, has wielded the megaphone on a big scale. Varying theories about its content and presentation have made the film itself the primary object of curiosity.

What's Gajagamini all about? In a nutshell, the film is a manifestation in vignettes depicting Husain's interpretation of womanhood down the ages. The artist's muse, Madhuri Dixit, renders five different facets of womanhood as brought out by five different women from different spaces in time and social strata.

So, Husain delves into the decades that have piled over time to render his ultimate statement: skim beyond physical differences such as time, era, society and status; and you find the inherent thread of womanhood remains the same.

Husain has chosen to describe his film as a celebration of life, deifying chaos and confusion. The film is an artist's interpretation of womanhood and time brought alive on the confines of cinemascope screen, with no special effects or hi-tech sound prop. The crux of Husain's filmmaking seems to lie in assorting vignettes that portray various eras into a homogeneous whole. For this, the director deliberately moves away from maintaining a traditional unity of time, place and action.

Part of Husain's experimentation also lies in using big names such as Shah Rukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi in his cast. Laced in various segments of Husain's celluloid canvas, the reputed actors serve as integral props in his film.

It's a Madhuri Dixit show all along, and if Husain manages to counter the appeal of Bollywood Glamour goddess, it certainly marks a triumph of sorts for his non-conformist cinematic ethos. Clearly, there's more to Gajagamini than a generous focus on Madhuri's bare back as has been suggested by critics, in a lighter vein.

Movie: Gaja Gamani
Director: M F Husain
Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Shabana Azmi, Shah Rukh, Naseeruddin Shah

MF Husain brushes aside most conventions of commercial cinema with Gaja Gamini. Like his paintings, the film is visually enchanting, but open to subjective interpretation.

By and large, the masses will be confused, indeed confounded, by the new kind of cinema that Gaja Gamini presents. Besides coming to terms with a novel, totally non-linear narrative format, one has to be well-versed in ancient arts, shlokas and literature to comprehend the film. The film's ambiguous presentation left me a bit bemused and befuddled at many places, too.

The story of womankind through the ages, Gaja Gamini shows her in various manifestations � a woman from Pandharpur, Kalidas's Shakuntala, Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Premchand's Nirmala, Manto's Sindhu, Abhisarika yearning for her lover, an earthy Noorbibi, a blind singer Sangeeta and a contemporary Monica.

Filmed in surreal set pieces, with a format akin to a dance ballet, time and spatial coordinates are willfully tossed aside here � Kalidas and a scientist meet to debate over soch and khoj. Madhuri plays the manifestation of a poet's imagination, the inspiration of a painter, Kamdev's desire and much more � yet she challenges definition.

Mysterious, multi-faceted, majestic. But the film says that the archetypal aspect about woman, whatever forms she assumes, is that she caries a gathree (burden), passing it on from one generation to another. Simultaneously, she also continues wearing the anklet. Thus she is a blend of everyday chores and extraordinary art, evolving with each generation. The film ends with the woman ready to take on the new millenium.

In one of the many surreal scenes, Shabana Azmi is unable to hear Madhuri, Shilpa and Farida Jalal's voices, emphasising that women down the centuries, want to be heard, but aren't. The film also commends women on their ability to bond irrespective of their differing backgrounds, unquestioningly. The role of women in keeping the cycle of creation going is established through a scene of Shilpa Shirodkar ceaselessly pushing a laden-with-children giant wheel.

Visually, each frame of Gaja Gamini is like a prize painting. The concept wherein a trickle of paint indicates the transitions from one passage of film to another is interesting. As is Husain attempts to dispense with the concept of time by showing Leonardo Da Vinci and Shah Rukh Khan (playing himself) sharing screen space with Monica, a modern-day Madhuri, and Kalidas riding a bicycle!

However, ennui creeps in stealthily, as the surfeit of symbolism and surrealism, boggle your senses. Often, I found myself seeking respite in enjoying the stimulating hues imparted to the frames � each set piece has a dominant colour scheme. For instance, the Shakuntala episode has the colour green as its main motif. Mood cinematography by Ashok Mehta and ebullient music by Bhupen Hazarika heighten the enjoyment of the experience.

Gaja Gamini will delight those who like viewing a kaleidoscope and seeing abstract forms being made and broken. To me, it emerged as a very pretty, but definitely opaque opera.

The Queen of Bollywood has proved herself yet again in M.F. Hussain's 'Gajagamini.'

MUMBAI: One of the most talked-about films in India for the last two years, depicting the mystique and plight of women through the ages by one of India's best known painters, has opened to bemused audiences in Mumbai. "Gaja Gamini" was conceived, written and directed by 85-year-old artist Maqbool Fida Husain, who has courted controversy over the years -- notably for padding barefooted into an upper-crust club and for his run-ins with Hindu rightists over depictions of goddesses in his paintings.

"Gaja Gamini is a woman's journey through the eyes of a painter. It is an extension of his painting," Owais Husain, Husain's son and the film's associate director told Reuters.

The main character, Gaja Gamini ("woman with the graceful gait of an elephant") is played by Madhuri Dixit, one of the top actresses of India's "Bollywood" for nearly a decade and the heartthrob of millions of Indian men around the world besotted by her scintillating dances.

Gaja Gamini is an artistic commentary on the plight of women down the ages, in which characters like blind Sangeeta centuries ago or the new age Monika are portrayed with similar problems -- struggling to find their voice in a male-dominated world.

Husain zeroed in on Dixit after finding her performance irresistible in a family melodrama "Hum Apke Hain Kaun" (Hindi for "what do I mean to you"), a film which he saw nearly 70 times. The silver haired painter, who has exhibited in nearly every major gallery in the world, became the talk of the town for his open fascination with Madhuri after "Hum Apke Hain Kaun".

After 12 short films, Gaja Gamini is Husain's first feature film, a project the artist, who started his career as a painter of film billboards, had been dreaming about for 60 years.

In contrast to the Bollywood's normal fare shot in exciting foreign locales, Gaja Gamini's sets were elaborate installations created by Husain.

Swaying bamboo, rustling leaves, steps leading down to clear water, brightly coloured backdrops and even the characters served as points of reference for the artist.

The film was first screened at the National Film museum in Berlin this September.

It was the closing film of the third International Film Festival of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI), which concluded a week-long festival of 88 films from 27 countries, in Bombay on Thursday.

"They (in Berlin) found my film so sensuous. My aim was to show the female form as sensuous and seductive," the elder Husain told Reuters before the first screening of the film in Bombay.

"I found the film a bit bizzare. The basic concept was good, but it just did not come together," Pooja Singh, a college student said after the film.

Govind Swarup, the managing trustee of MAMI and state cultural secretary had a different view. "It was experimental, imaginative. The expression of an artist."

But for Husain, Gaja Gamini is dedicated to "the woman who gave birth to me, the woman who lived with me and the woman who lives in my works". (Reuters)

Mumbai, December 4: A legendary painter has cheated a top actress but there is no police case. She is sulking and trying to forget the `experience`.

Madhuri Dixit didn't attend the premiere of her own Gaja Gamini, a film that was supposed to be a tribute of a `legend` to his muse! Nor did her secretary and producer of this film Rakesh Nath aka Rikku.

Madhuri and Rikku were enraged when they didn't get `proper` invitations and avoided the show. It seems that it was not M F Husain but Bhupen Hazarika, the Music Director of Gaja Gamini who telephonically invited her.

Earlier, Madhuri had abstained herself from attending a London show organized in connection with Gaja Gamini. It seems that Rikku, the producer of this film, discovered from the bills submitted by the artist that the accounts were inflated by as much as 1500 percent by Husain! It seems that there was a dispute about an apartment in suburbs that belongs to Dixits. Apparently, Husain `borrowed` it for working on Gaja Gamini. Details of the dispute are not being made public.

Like most film people, Madhuri (herself a sort of portrait painter in her spare time) and her secretary Rikku were in awe of Husain. An octogenarian painter, past his prime and considered a has-been by serious students of paintings has always remained in news. His methods have been unorthodox but have always generated media hype. While art critics have been unanimous in slamming Husain's work for over 15 years the old painter has been able to survive on the paintings that he did in sixties and earlier.

Husain watchers could see through his stunt of watching Hum Aapke Hain Kaun over 75 times and describing Madhuri as his muse, his Ma-Adhuri and a complete woman. It was another gimmick by which the bearded Husain was remaining in news, selling his paintings (churned out faster than a photo-copier) for millions and plotting his next move.

A film by a painter. Gaja Gamini by M F Husain. He didn't need to pay Madhuri her market

price that was in the vicinity of Rs 1.5 crores! He didn't have to organize a producer. Madhuri had an adoring Rikku willing to do the entire running around, organize dates of other stars and most important, money.

Osho or Bhagwan Rajneesh, as he was known for a large part of his life, had a clever strategy. During his discourses he would quote Gautam Budhha, Jesus Christ, Mohammad The Prophet, Confucius, Socrates, Plato and himself! By associating himself with greats he acquired greatness. Most stars and celebrities follow the same method. They want to belong; they wish to be associated with contemporaries who seem great�

M F Husain took the advantage of this star weakness.

Now Husain has moved over. His project Madhuri is complete. She is no use to him. Rikku is irrelevant in his future scheme of things.

Madhuri has apparently seen through his game but by then it was too late. And interestingly, she hasn't learned from her mistake. She is now doing a film for critic turned director Khalid Mohammed!

Gajagamini, painter MF Hussain's paen to the beauty of the Indian woman (read: to Madhuri Dixit), is unlikely to ever see the light of a release. If sources close to the recently-married heroine are to be believed, the erotic overtones of the film have offended the delicate sensibilities of Madhuri's husband Dr Sriram Nene, and he has vetoed the idea of wrapping up the movie(which is 90% complete) and releasing it fast. Trade pundits had been sceptical about the movie right from the word go, what with the off-beat (read: extremely weird) story-line and the attitude of the near-senile director who was determined to have the movie shown only to "discerning, intelligent audience" (read: lovers of boring movies!). And now Madhuri's marriage, and the non-enthusiasm of her husband about the movie, may have put the final nail on the coffin of Gajagamini.

Madhuri Dixit is all set to play four roles in M F Husain’s about-to-be-released debut film Gajagamini. “When I heard the script for the first time, I didn’t understand anything, nor did Rikkuji (her secretary). But Husainsaab explained things to us clearly and everything fell into place,” says Madhuri.

“It (the film) has come out very well,” agrees Madhuri, quite delighted about the project.

So now Madhuri has essayed four characters in Gajagamini. And no, the title has nothing to do with her walk. “I am playing four different roles in the film. One is of Kalidas’s Shakuntala, the other is of a blind street singer, the third is of Monica Mathur, a character inspired by Monica Lewinsky, and the fourth is that of the woman of the millennium.”

One of her roles in Gajagamini is almost similar. She plays Madhuri Dixit, the actress who has Kamdev expressing his sexual desires for her, while Leonardo Da Vinci expresses his platonic love for her. Inder Kumar is Kamdev, while Naseeruddin Shah plays Da Vinci. “It’s an artistic film with a series of roles which are interwoven. There are characters picked at random from various spheres and made to talk with each other. Like there is a conversation between C. V. Raman and Kalidas. I think I am talking too much about the film,” says Madhuri before withdrawing into her shell.

Madhuri has clearly enjoyed the adulation she has received from Husain. “It’s nice to know that someone admires you so much,” she says. She talks of her admiration for Husain too. “I only thought that he was a great painter. He’s won the Golden Bear Award for his earlier film, Through the Eyes of a Painter. During the making of Gajagamini, I understood the way he made films. He is quite remarkable.”

Madhuri has no plans to quit films. In fact, she has now signed on a film with Prakash Jha. “It’s a film that follows a system of polyandry. So I have several husbands in the film!”

Gajagamini might make or mar Madhuri’s career which needs a boost after Wajood and Arzoo. “I don’t think I am out of the race. There’s been just two flops. I am a fighter, I’ll be back. Engineer, a bi-lingual film with Arvind will release soon. Then I have another bi-lingual film with Arjun Rampal, plus Hum Tere Hain Sanam. And then there is Pukar which would be released soon.”

As Madhuri waits for her next film to get released, the entire film industry and her fans wait for Gajagamini.

Gajagamini for London film festival

India's most celebrated painter, M F Husain's maiden celluloid venture Gajagamini has been selected for the prestigious London Film Festival to be held in November.

The film will be released in India around the same time, in November-December, Husain told reporters in Bombay earlier this week. Gajagamini is also scheduled for screening at the Berlin Film Festival next February.

Husain said that his "celluloid on canvas" is not made for festivals, but for the elite class. "I am going to take my labour of love to villages as I sincerely believe that I have made a film for the masses," he added.

The film, made under the banner of Dakshaka Films and starring Madhuri Dixit, is already complete, said Husain. ''It is my first and last effort. I have waited for 60 years to conceive the project which is a tribute to womanhood," he stated.

Elaborating on the film, Husain said it is a combination of realism and illusion. The story and dialogues are told in the dance form. It is colourful and is full of folk music set to tune by Bhupen Hazarika. "I am sure people will like it," said Husain.

He plans to release the film through sponsorship, rather than give the distribution rights to anyone. Many industrial houses have come forward to sponsor the film, he informed the Press.

The film has Madhuri playing five different characters. Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin shah, Farida Jalal and Shah Rukh Khan are the other leading stars in the film.

The interview with Hussain

India’s most celebrated artist, the bare-footed M F Husain, is all set to take Gajagamini, his ode to his muse Madhuri Dixit, to the International Film Festival in London. Husain was happy to show a 40-minute capsule on the genesis of Gajagamini to the press here last Wednesday.

Excerpts from a tete-a-tete with the master painter-turned-film-maker on the occasion.

When do you plan to release the film?
Right now, we are taking it to the London Film Festival. The film will be released in November. It will not be sold to the distributors for the usual film release. It will be taken to different cities along with paintings, photographs and books. We are also planning to take it to villages.

What is the narrative?
It is told in the traditional Indian style of burrakatha and yakshagana. Hence, it has music and dance.

Does it have a storyline?
It is presented like yakshagana and burrakatha sequences. The characters do talk to each other, but very few lines. To write the dialogues was very difficult. I used to get up at 4 am and write them, but would change them on the sets. Like my paintings, I kept on evolving on the spur of the moment.

We are told that the characters do not belong to a set time-frame?
There is Kalidasa, the poet, C V Raman, the scientist, Leonardo da Vinci, the painter, who are used as metaphors. They meet at a point in time though they belong to different era in the 5,000 years depicted. Madhuri plays Shakuntala, Mona Lisa and three other women.

What about Shah Rukh Khan?
He plays himself. Shabana Azmi, Shilpa Shirodkar, Naseeruddin Shah, Inder Kumar and Ashish Vidyarthi are also in the cast.

What do you want to convey through the film?
It is the essence of 3,000 years of Indian culture. And I wanted to see to it that it reaches millions, hence, I am taking it to villages. It is not just for festivals or the elite, but for everybody. It is a tribute to women. To the woman I live with and the woman who lives in my canvas — like Mother Teresa, whom I’ve admired from a very young age.

The film had faced problems with the censors for the song Surkhiyan sharaab... and for some scenes.
Was it passed by them? The sets seem to be different from other films. Why?
My sets are two-dimensional. It is the artist’s vision. For instance, when I show the mujrawalis’ ilaaka, the sky is black while the houses are white. Similarly when I show the Banaras ghat, the colours of the set are yellow orange, though it is not sunset.

See, you cannot see reality all the time. So, the film is about illusions. The illusions then become reality.
The film has been passed by the censors with a ‘U’ certificate. There were no cuts.

What about the several controversies associated with the film. Is it true that Rikku, Madhuri’s secretary, did not release the prints of the film, and that Madhuri troubled you when the film was in progress?
No, nothing of that sort happened. The film’s premier was not cancelled because of Rikku. As for Madhuri, I can’t even imagine that she can trouble me. She is very good. All these are rumours.

Why is it that you are usually embroiled in controversies?
Whenever you are breaking the norms and giving a go-by to conventions this happens. Because I try to be different, I draw the flak.

It is being said that Madhuri has changed your dress sense and you now wear Western suits?
(Smiles) Why, when we went to Jaipur for a schedule, papers in Delhi even wrote that when I touched Madhuri to explain a scene, she got furious and stormed out. None of this is true.

Why is there a huge gap between your first film and Gajagamini?
I made Through the Eyes of A Painter in the ’70s, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It was about the five elements — like I have Madhuri playing five roles in Gajagamini. I wanted to be a film-maker. But I did not get the opportunity and anyway, Madhuri was not born then.

How did you find working with Madhuri?
She is a complete actress, and it is not that I say so, but several people in the industry will endorse this view.

Do you plan to make more films?
No, this film has been made for a lifetime. It took three years for me to make the film. It will be kept at the art and cinema museum in Hyderabad. The film has cinematography by Ashok Mehta, art direction by Sharmishta Roy, choreography by Jojo and music by Bhupen Hazarika

Disclaimer: This page is not associated to or endorsed by Madhuri Dixit or any other person associated with her.
Acknowledgements: Click here for the list of people, without whose help, these pages wouldn't have been possible.

This film is my tribute to women: M F Husain

Another Review on Gajagamini

Gajagamini for London film festival

The interview with Hussain