Looking in good shape
Nonika Singh
They are quite a team… Neeraj Pandey, the director-producer of hugely successful films such as Baby, Special 26 and MS Dhoni, Manoj Bajpayee, the brilliant actor of Aligarh and more, and finally the star and heartthrob — the good-looking Siddharth Malhotra. In Chandigarh to promote their latest offering Aiyaary, a political thriller, the trio is exultant, with Manoj Bajpayee calling it one of his best performances, and Siddharth only too excited to play an Army officer and a spy at that!
Pandey, however, is reticent and doesn’t quite go to town; he only explains his fascination with the word Aiyaary that literally means shape-shifters — someone who can change shape at their will. No doubt Bajpayee is a natural shape-shifter and can fit into any part. Here he takes the onus to talk about the film in glowing terms; how it breaks stereotypes in mainstream, how his character - that of a colonel — is multilayered; coldblooded yet meek, resolving into one harmonious whole, a task the gifted actor is all too equipped to handle.
Fit the bill
Indeed, Pandey and Bajpayee have worked together before but if you think comfort level is the deciding factor in casting you couldn’t be more wrong. “It’s always about who fits the bill,” says Pandey. Since he writes his own films, he elaborates, “While writing the script somewhere the face begins to fit into a character and no doubt Manoj Bajpayee it was for this particular role.” Living in such a politically charged atmosphere…is he mindful of the possible backlash, especially in the face of Padmaavat controversy? “I began writing nearly a year-and-a-half back when things were different but of course there is always a precedent of a film getting into trouble.”
However, rather than letting extraneous factors weigh on his mind he chases his material as honestly as possible, “even if it’s a journey which I don’t know where it would end.” Of course, now that it has culminated in a “nice and positive way” he can only hope for the best. Given the context and content of the film, 26th January would have been the perfect release date. But then Padmaavat’s delay had a domino effect.
Even now it’s clashing with his favourite actor Akshay Kumar’s film Padman. He quips, “Isn’t that beautiful?” Seriously? “Well, for one, both films are in a different space.” Besides the man whose success record far outweighs the failures has no reason to worry. “A Neeraj Pandey film has all that it takes; thrill drama and message. So much so that my wife, an avid fan of mainstream cinema, is truly looking forward to watching it!” Once again the spirited defence ensues from his actor, Bajpayee making even Pandey admit how his setback ratio, even as a producer, is rather negligible.
Bull’s eye
So what is the key to hitting the bull’s eye? “Not to be in the please-all mode, simply reach out to audiences as storytellers,” is Pandey’s cinematic formula, of course, arrived at as a result of cumulative learning. But whether the face of Indian cinema has changed, all thanks to makers like him or evolving tastes of audiences, he would let others do the analysis. Just as Bajpayee would rather have others map his journey that began all too gloriously with Satya. For him it’s always one moment at a time. And right now, it is Aiyaary…all set to hit the screens on February 9.
nonikasingh@tribunemail.com
