M S Sathyu at 90: Salute to a master

Sathyu is a rare director who explored how politics plays out in the lives of ordinary people

In India, political cinema is not so common. What purports to be political cinema is often moralistic documentary or formula cinema with corrupt politicians being the villains. However, some filmmakers — Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen John Abraham and M S Sathyu — have created political cinema of distinction.

Sathyu, the last of these greats, celebrates his 90th birthday on Monday. He burst onto the stage in 1974 with ‘Garm Hawa’. Based on a short story by Ismat Chugtai, the film told the story of a Muslim family in India during the Partition era.

The man of the family, in perhaps his greatest performance, is played by Balraj Sahni. The film was co-written by Sathyu’s wife Shama Zaidi with Kaifi Azmi.

An Agra-based family begins to leave for Kashmir as unemployment is on the rise and Muslims are viewed with suspicion and their business goes down. Women are among the most affected.

In Mumbai, Bal Thackeray had threatened to burn down any theatre screening it. He calmed down after a special show showed him that the film spoke about Muslims who did not wish to leave India, but whose livelihood got difficult as a result.

The film was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for the Oscars.

‘Garm Hawa’ remains Sathyu’s most famous film after all these years, and according to some, his best. Sathyu was awarded the Padma Shri just a year after the film’s release.

Over the years, Sathyu has continued with his brand of political cinema. His Kannada film ‘Chitengu Chinte’ (1978) was a political satire that took a dig at the Emergency. ‘Bara’, based on one of U R Ananthamurthy’s stories, was about famine in a northern Karnataka district, and Galige was about the Khalistan movement. The last feature film he made was Ijjodu in 2009, and it explored the Devadasi practice.

He was soothing: Anant Nag

It must have been 1974-75. I was in Mumbai (then Bombay) when I received a note: ‘Come and see me at Samovar, Jahangir Art Gallery.’ The message was from M S Sathyu. His Hindi feature film 'Garm Hava' had been a great success.

I was full of trepidation as I was new to cinema. Sathyu calmed me with his soothing words. That was his second nature, I discovered by and by! Soon I was acting in his Kannada film 'Kanneshwara Rama', produced by Moola Bhaktavatsala. Scripted by his wife Shama Zaidi, the Kannada dialogues were by Ramaswamy. The film was a success and ran for 50 days in Bangalore.

Backed by the National Film Development Corporation, Sathyu turned producer and based his next film on a short story by U R Ananthamurthy. It was called 'Bara' in Kannada and Sookha in Hindi, with script and screenplay by Shama Zaidi. It was the first political film in Kannada and ran for 100 days in Bengaluru.

Invited to make a mega-serial for Doordarshan, Sathyu selected Maasti Venkatesa Iyengar’s Chikavira Rajendra. It is a Jnanpith-winning novel about a Kodagu king who refused to capitulate to foreign rulers. The script, screenplay and dialogues were again by Shama Zaidi.

Sathyu has such an inspired aesthetic of sets and costumes that he mounted the nearly 15-hour film (serial they called it) on a magnificent scale. The exteriors were realistically shot in and around the fort in Madikeri. The interiors were shot inside the Mysuru Palace.

Sathyu had assigned the role of the king to me. Time and time again, I had seen the film 'Becket' based on a play by Jean Anouilh, starring Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. For some strange reason, I was very nervous as an actor. For almost every shot, I found myself rushing to the director.

One evening, Sathyu sat me down and said, among other things, “Take it easy". I was talking to a man I had met in 1974. This was in 1989! And that’s how I know why Sathyu is an actor’s director.

To such a guru on his 90th birthday, to my Sathyu, my pranams and best wishes.

The sets were lively: Anirudh

In 2008, I received a call from his office asking if my sister Arundhati and I were available to act in a film he was directing after a long time. We jumped with joy.

When we met the legend, he blessed us with memorable roles in his film ‘Ijjodu’ (The Incompatible). I had the good fortune of travelling with him in his car to Hassan, where the movie was to be shot. At 78, he drove the car himself.

He worked with energy and passion all through the shooting. The atmosphere on the sets was always lively.

I had the opportunity of seeing his brilliance from close quarters. In a scene, I was to enter a temple with a colony of bats brushing across my face. The crew started talking about computer graphics, but Sathyu had a simple solution. He cut a few pieces of black-coloured paper and threw them against a fan. The bits flew and the effect was achieved.

Sathyu was the production designer and art director for our film, but that role wasn’t new: he had done it for many famous films and plays before. His knowledge of filmmaking is vast.

As my father was a member of the Chitra Film Society in Dharwad, I was introduced to world cinema early. But the thought of studying the works of the great masters had never occurred to me until I worked with Sathyu. Being associated with him changed my perspective towards cinema.

He has always encouraged young talent. There was a scene where I felt I could modify the dialogues a bit. I mustered the courage and asked if I could work on them. He said, “Go ahead. Change whatever you feel like changing.”

I rewrote my lines and delivered them before him. He just smiled with his eyes. That was the first time my writing had received such appreciation. It encouraged me to start writing and continue to express myself.

For the climax, I had to do a long scene with pages of dialogue. When I enacted it, he asked our cinematographer to put in a 100 mm lens and take a close-up. A close-up captures an actor’s expressions minutely. This was his way of complimenting me. I feel blessed to have worked with a luminary like him.