Finally, she hits the high notes

Mona

Turning a filmmaker for Shefali Bhushan was a natural progression. Armed with a Mass Communication degree from Jamia Millia Islamia, she was a part of theatre groups and later made documentaries and series that centred around music. When she finally took a plunge into film, it had to be something weaved around music. 

As Jugni has a theatrical release on Friday, Shefali feels elated having made it to the finish line through a journey fraught with challenges. A fan of Guru Dutt, Raj Kumar Hirani and Pedro Almodóvar’s cinema, this debut director opens up to the road to Jugni.

Musical journey

Music has always been my passion. For a series Beats of India, I travelled the length and breadth of the country. A story about a man and his mother stayed with me. When I finally decided to make a movie, it became part of it. Jugni’s story is by me and I put in my money along with Karan Grover and Manas Malhotra and we raised some more. With three of us coming together with similar passion, this project had to see the light of the day. Jugni is someone like me, a single woman in search of a music artiste. I have picked up a canvas that I know well, music and a woman doing her best to strike a balance at home and the world single-handedly. But then you got to fictionalise it a bit. It is primarily a relationship drama where music plays the significant backdrop. 

Story telling

The protagonist is Vibs, a music director, working on her first big break in the Hindi film industry. When work and her relationship with her live-in boyfriend hit a high tide, Vibs hits the road to find music. Mastana is the voice and man who makes his way into her heart. From here on, Jugni is about finding the place which one can call home; home of the heart, where the jugni (firefly) is at her brightest. I needed an intense cast for the stories I had in my mind. I found my muse in Sugandha Garg. She has done some films earlier. Siddhant Behl, who was part of the same theatre group as I, fitted into the mould of my protagonist. I would be labelled partial but both have given stellar performances. Music is the soul of our film. It’s done by talented Clinton Cerejo, while one Sufiana Qalam is composed by AR Rahman’s spiritual guru Kaashif Sahib and sung by Rahman. We have the who’s who of the industry giving their voice to Jugni— Vishal Bharadwaj, Rekha Bharadwaj, Javed Bashir, Nakash Aziz, Bianca Gomes and Neha Kakkar. Lyrics and dialogues are from Shelle.

Try try again

I moved to Mumbai in 2007 with a quest to make a film. It was not easy. So many projects were initiated and fell through. Over the years there were so many times I almost gave up. There was pressure from the family too to pack my bags and get back. I would sit and visualize what would I do if not this. Nothing seemed to enthuse me. So, I stayed put and started all over again. I am a person who cannot go and mechanically do it; good, bad, ugly whatever it is, it has to come from the heart. 

See the culmination of Shefali’s journey in Jugni.

mona@tribunemail.com