M.F. Husain's giant bookM.F. Husain, artist and filmmaker, returned to the studio this Tuesday in Hyderabad after a long gap of 31 years. Not many remember that McBull - as Husain likes to be known these days - won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1967. Figurative and semi-abstract, his new film,Gaja Gamini, is a vintage Husain. It follows some Bollywood idioms like dance, drama and passion.As if to make up for lost time, Husain wants to capture 5,000 years of Indian culture on celluloid: "I will take you down history, its memorable women and lovers. Again, there will be no attempt to relate it to facts. Capturing the essence of Indian culture is my only intention." Gaja Gamini is the Sanskrit term for "walk of an elephant". Madhuri Dixit plays the timeless guide. And with a little help from Birju Maharaj and choreographer Saroj Khan, she walks seductively down the corridors of history with a gathri (bundle) on her head and a child clasped to her breast. The filmmaker, M.F. Husain with Rakesh NathHusain's delight at this picture is evident from his lyrical outpouring: "Ek gathri taj ki tarahUs aurat ke sarJisse duniya ne abhi pehchana nahin(Her grace makes a humble bundle seem like a crown on her head. The world is yet to gauge her merit)." Madhuri's walk is a vision of beauty for Husain: "It's about visual equations. My version of Einstein's theory of relativity."Produced by Madhuri's secretary Rakesh Nath, under the Madhuri-McBull banner, the film's cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Shilpa Shirodkar and Mohan Agashe. Instead of the straitjacket of a single role, Husain's venture has actors running riot in multiple roles. Naseeruddin appears as Vishwamitra, Tansen and Nawab Mirza Hashmat, and Agashe as Kalidas and Kamdev. With Kamdev as her eternal lover, Madhuri figures in various roles. As for Kamdev, you guessed it, it's McBull himself, says Husain wryly..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Madhuri is the sole link in the narrative's rather loose structure. The film is woven around four sub-plots, each with a female mythological heroine at its centre - Premchand's Nirmala, Tagore's Abhisaria, Manto's Sindhu, and a blind singer, Sangeeta. Madhuri takes the complex role in her stride: "It's looking at women through generations, history and literature. It's something different, experimental." But there is the all too familiar Madhuri obsession, a phase Husain says he can't get over. About Husain's unconcealed obsession for her, she says, "It's the media that makes much of it. I find nothing uncomfortable in it."Madhuri is the timeless guide who walks down the corridors of history.Husain's time machine is far more eccentric than H.G. Wells'. He mixes time, characters and places as if in a mixer. The result can be bizarre. In one scene, Kamdev as Kalidasa lands at Ujjain and rents a bicycle to go to the India Coffee House to meet Tansen and poets Mir, Daag and Muktibodh.The film, which Nath describes as "Husainji's dream", is just a part of McBull's plan to end the storyteller's stranglehold over the medium. In this, Husain is trying to do what painters like Cezanne, Picasso and Dali had done. His ambitious project, however, does not end with the film itself. It includes a 100-ft canvas which makes up a storyboard and a giant book comprising random selections. "I will continue dabbling with cinema," says Husain, "for we artists can contribute much." No fade-outs for Husain.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Mar 9, 1998--- ENDS ---
