Why am I not surprised? I was ready for the vicious attacks on Department. The hatred was guaranteed. It always is when you tread off the beaten path. I have stopped paying attention to what the critics say. These days they are mostly there to bury the baby even before it is born and kill its mother for giving it birth. The reviews are personal, sadistic and clueless. I am accused of “chaotic self-indulgence”, whatever that means. Would someone enlighten them that cinema is a matter of self-expression? For Department, I chose a stylised graphic pattern: the angles and movements were in sync with the mind-sets of the characters.
A photographic image is a combination of the atmosphere of the location, the lighting, the costumes, the make-up, the actor’s look and other elements. A camera will only record what is kept in front of it. Then there are other things like lensing, angles, movement and perspectives. The rapid swish-pans and some never-tried-before movement perspectives in Department may have bothered some people. Conversely, they were liked by lots of others.
I cannot spoon-feed the viewer, that is being patronising and regressive. The point was to do a realistic story with intriguing characters portrayed in a tense, visual manner.. This kind of experimentation is done the world over. But when someone at home attempts to break the rules, the neighbourhood dogs are the first to start barking, “Not done, not done.”
Next, I would emphasise that there’s nothing more dangerous than altering a film’s screenplay midway, whatever the reasons may be. All involved including the director can be thrown totally off-balance. Since I was stuck and I had a professional commitment to finish the project, I had to succumb to various coercive tactics.
I have worked with Sanjay Dutt in Daud and had a great experience. But to my surprise during Department, I found him grossly unprofessional and erratic. He would report late by hours for the shooting, he would cancel schedules at the last minute and under the guise of “creative discussions”, change the content of scenes drastically, threatening to leave the shoot if I didn’t comply. And such mindlessness by Sanjay Dutt is encouraged by his hangers-on who pander to him for their personal benefit.
Now coming to the point made by some people, that I am making films carelessly. Whether any XYZ believes it or not, I devote an equal amount of passion on every film. Why some of them turn out to be good and some bad is because a film is made by a series of decisions taken over a long period of time. It’s pretty difficult for any filmmaker to maintain an objective consistency till the project is completed.
That’s why I say that all my good films are by accident and my bad films are by intent. I seem to have a higher count of bad films only because I make a higher number than most directors. Those who work with me know how focused I am. I would sincerely advise those who think I should be more focused to rather focus on their own focus. Mine, I can handle.