Bhatt's films were largely inspired by his own turbulent experiences in lifeMahesh Bhatt is about as coy as a shark that's smelt blood. Picking his toe, chewing hispaan (the rumours that he chews his toe are unfounded), he thunders, "I'm a workaholic. That's an illness. Earlier I was an alcoholic." Okay, fine, take it easy, all you wanted to know was did he actually work 22 hours a day. He does. So it's a good thing he's retiring.Retiring!!! Spittle gushes forth as he barks: "Please. I'm going to scream from the rooftops. I am not retiring. I'll just be enlarging my role, writing, overseeing, putting projects together, identifying writers, directors, actors and pushing them to the forefront. I just won't be directing any more." So Zakhm, the story of a mother and son set against the backdrop of the post-Babri Masjid riots, is going to be his last film as director. Bhatt might as well quit, pack up that chair with DIRECTOR stencilled on it, for with Zakhm (predictably in trouble with the censors) he's come full circle. From Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain, his radical debut film inspired by the hedonistic years of living dangerously as a flower child - a film which incidentally was locked in a duel with the censors for almost 14 months - to the last one based on his own relationship with his mother, Bhatt has been uninhibited about borrowing from his own life. The autobiographical thread runs right through the melodramas about illegitimate children and extramarital affairs, peaking in films like Janam and Arth.Bhatt, with all vehemence, may declare, "I won't be party to my own myth-making." Yet, knowingly or unknowingly, the man fuels controversy, often drawing critics by the droves. Says film critic Maithili Rao: "He has validated miming his own life, sometimes coming close to exhibitionism. In him you see a drive to rise above the mass market through intensity and shock value." .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Shobha De, one of his harshest critics who claims to "unconditionally adore him", agrees. "The man has an original take on life. But as a director he has no oeuvre. He is a none-too-brilliant filmmaker who has cannibalised his own life once too often," she says. Real to UnrealMovie: ZakhmDirector: Mahesh BhattCast: Pooja Bhatt, Ajay Devgan, Nagarjuna, KunalIn Mahesh Bhatt's Films, life merges with art once too often. So, we now have Zakhm, the story of the relationship between a mother and son, set in the backdrop of the '90s Babri Masjid riots. One that draws its essence from Bhatt's memories of his own mother, Shireen Mohammed Ali.With a storyline that drones on about secularism, Bhatt uses the usual flashback device to narrate. Brothers Ajay Devgan, a music composer, and Akshaye Anand, a rabid politician-in-the-making, keep vigil by the deathbed of their mother who is set on fire by a mob of miscreants during the riots. Flashback. An illegitimate child craving for a father figure strives to unite his Muslim mother (Pooja Bhatt) with his father (Nagarjuna), a reputed Gujarati Brahmin filmmaker. So far so true. But hereafter the film goes awry.Unfortunately, with Zakhm Bhatt's impatience with directing - a trait lately acquired - is evident in the craft. What saves the day for this otherwise typical Bollywood melodrama is the sparkling chemistry between Pooja and young Kunal. M.M. Kreem's music score is lilting and hummable. To be fair, Zakhm, unlike a large chunk of Bollywood churn-outs, is not a strain on the viewers. Yet, it is not one that will be remembered as a milestone in Bhatt's long filmmaking career.Much of Bhatt's turbulent past was spent grappling with excesses - a string of relationships, alcoholism and workaholism as an escape from pain - and a misguided search for the self. A former Oshoite, Bhatt then in his mid-20s "wasted" three years of his life within the spiritual bazaar of the Rajneesh ashram "in a spiritual coma, leashed to the Bhagwan with a dog-collar". Till he met the radical godman U.G. Krishnamurthy. "It was as if I was touched by a livewire." Life was never the same. Flushing his half-broken Rajneesh mala down the toilet, Bhatt put an acrimonious end to this chapter in his life."In retrospect," feels Bhatt, "it was a watershed event in my life." Two decades and two book - U.G. Krishnamurthy: A Life, and The Taste of Death: Days Spent with U. G. - down the line, he has deified UG, as the spiritual guide is fondly known. When he told Bhatt "I will never forgive you if you do not become famous", Krishnamurthy perhaps unknowingly laid the foundation for this deification. Today at 50, Bhatt is emphatic that life would have been very different without the influence of UG.Much to Bhatt's credit, the years of turbulence have consistently nurtured personal growth. Never the frog-in-the-well, he has always let himself open to new experiences with a singular lack of pretension. Not a perfectionist by any standards, he also never deluded himself into thinking that film-making was anything other than making a living. "Cinema is about businessmen out to make money. People do cater to the lowest common denominator." Volatile, verbose and erudite by turns, Bhatt is seen as the media's delight - often the ultimate quotable quote. He, on his part, exploits words as a means of power. "Words have a tremendous control on culture and as such wordsmiths have a legitimate place in the scheme of things," he says. Often described as a pulp-filmmaker, Bollywood's counterpart to De, Bhatt's legacy is still under debate. There are accusations of being constantly influenced by Hollywood as well as oscillating between calculated shock value and playing on safe turf. Yet, as Shyam Benegal puts it, "Some of his more memorable films like the angst-ridden Saraansh and Arth, among others, have stood the test of time."Others like critic Ashish Rajadhyaksha are a bit more stern. Says Rajadhyaksha: "Bhatt owes the new Indian cinema a lot more in terms of aesthetics than he is prepared to admit. There is a pronounced amorality and anti-intellectualism in his films which actually puts the moral element in sharp relief. He takes a position on art and life and makes an ideology out of lack of principles." Yet, in this double-take lies his trademark.Anti-intellectualism apart, Bhatt's trademark also extends to the calculated casualness he projects. Virtually living in jeans and unbuttoned shirts, at the sets he sometimes lolls in his director's chair barking orders at the unit hands while a masseur goes to work on his hands. In contradiction, as longtime friend actor Anupam Kher testifies, "He's open to suggestions from even the spot boy because that boy forms a part of the audience and his opinion matters. Bhatt's legacy is his honesty about himself."Over the years, the man has mellowed considerably. The fire that in the early years didn't know where it was going is more controlled today. Now he gets his highs playing God. Call it the Pygmalion complex if you like, but he easily slips into the role of mentor. Says Bhatt: "I can boast that most people who have come in contact with me have benefited from that interaction. The potential was entirely theirs, I merely fanned it." Director Tanuja Chandra, a Bhatt protg, is inclined to agree: "He is a great teacher because he is not insular to new experiences."In filmdom, if there are directors whose life experiences could be collated from those of his screen characters, Bhatt stands at the forefront. And knowing the calibre of this scriptwriter and storyteller, rest assured, this is only the intermission, certainly not the end. As Kher says, "It is like an actor having a bag of tricks. When he exhausts this, he has to go out and learn new ones. The time has perhaps come for Mahesh Bhatt to do that." Right ho, Mr Bhatt, we are awaiting the twist in the tale.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 16, 1998--- ENDS ---
