Dibakar Banerjee on defunct Netflix film ‘Tease’: A society gets the culture it deserves

With the way production houses and streaming platforms are scrutinizing content with a political background, soon we will have a separate column in the annual assessment listing the films that could not reach the audience due to self-censorship. One film that could not make it to the year end in 2024 is Dibakar Banerjee’s tease What he calls “accidental suppression of freedom of expression”. One of the most original and influential voices of Indian cinema – who began his career with the story of a Punjabi family’s struggle to get back their land Khosla’s nest (2006) has been chosen to tell the story of three generations of a Kashmiri community set in a dystopian India – from a real estate shark.

Dibakar – starring Naseeruddin Shah, Manisha Koirala, Huma Qureshi, Shashank Arora and Divya Dutta – is screening the Netflix original after it was surprisingly pulled by the streaming platform. tease In a non-ticketed show at film societies for cine lovers and students, with the hope of finding a new home for his labor of love, it was titled “Originally HomeScreened to thunderous applause at the Dharamshala Film Festival, the title is taken from a future date when some deeply painful events unfold. However, those who know good Hindi will realize that tease It also reflects the anguish of the characters in the film, and now it also reflects the pain of stillbirth that the filmmaker is grappling with.

Set in a digitalized space, where the idea of ​​a united India has almost come true, the fictional tale reflects the emotional truth of the world we live in. Linking the exodus of Pandits from Kashmir in the 1990s with the growing intolerance against Muslims, the film shows various shades of majoritarianism. From the appropriation of cultures and the stifling of creative expression to the suppression of desire, Dibakar blends satire with realism to paint a worrying yet entertaining picture of the situation. “I recently told a friend of mine that I now know a little bit about what it feels like to be a minority,” Dibakar says in the middle of a deep conversation.

Dibakar believes it is impossible to bracket it tease to the audience of Khosla’s nestAnd, in a way, it’s his We people, The first Indian serial based on the daily struggles and aspirations of a middle-class family., “The film is about a quintessential middle-class Indian family. We are all connected to our families. We carry with us not only their blessings but also their burden. We carry the sorrow and guilt they left behind in our heads. We never use them, but they are reflected in the faded black and white photos we keep in our family albums.

Dibakar, who grew up in a traditional Bengali family in Delhi, says he also has a family WhatsApp group called Hum Log. “We don’t discuss politics, but thankfully I come from one of those lucky families where everyone agrees on whatever path you take. Repression is not right and religion is personal.”

He recalls how, at the age of 10, he watched his Hindu Bengali grandmother spend 70% of her day Prayer. ,But this was completely personal. My father and I had the freedom not to offer flowers at the puja pandal during Durga Puja celebrations. Also, I will be the cultural secretary of the puja committee and organize drama or sanction funds to decorate the idols. Dibakar remembers how in his adolescence and early adulthood he would apply vermilion paste on his forehead and climb into a truck to go. Visarjan (immersion of idols) Chanting ‘Durga Mai Ki Jai’ despite being a complete atheist. “This is my personal belief. Many North Indian and Muslim families came to welcome us. I can see it as a social ritual that is not meant to exclude anyone.”

Edited excerpts from an interview:

How did you know that ‘Tease’ has been discontinued?

In 2022, while we were waiting for the release plan, Netflix told me that, in their opinion, it was not the right time to release. teaseLater, a media report suggested that it did not match his slate. Looking at the slate today, I have to admit that tease Doesn’t fit! The platform has the legal power not to release the film. However, those who have seen the film have found it charming and entertaining.

From ‘Shanghai’ to ‘Ghost Stories’, your films have always been subversive with a political backdrop, but they received support from mainstream producers. What could be the reason behind the possible extinction of ‘Tease’?

Every mainstream Indian producer I meet wants to keep a door open to a variety of subjects. From commissioning to completion, I got full support from Netflix. However, once the troll mob and the state enforcement branches come after you, the producer is pushed into a corner and forced to remove certain films from the slate. Gaurav Solanki has written tease, When faced with serious threats and FIR Tandav (2021) Was streamed. The risk of a global company stepping out of line appears high because its connections and relations with power centers determine its survival in the Indian market. The new and worrying thing is that this repression has become normal. Streaming platforms are run by people who enjoy high salaries. There seems to be on the one hand a lot of positivity that can be extended to tried and trusted methods and on the other hand a lot of discouragement for doing anything out of the ballpark.

How do you explain this ‘normalization’ of self-censorship?

The current regime did not invent censorship. This is a colonial hangover. i made lsd (2010) During the previous regime and I had to cut the part where the film says the hero was killed because of his caste. However, the current system has succeeded in making censorship techniques surprisingly effective. I have a kind of deep respect for him for turning large sections of the middle and upper middle classes into psychopaths. We can see a disdain for the anarchy and disruption of plurality that is necessary in democracy. These are the concerns that made me do this tease But that’s why I also see it not being released As a kind of poetic injustice. Just as a society gets the government it deserves, it also gets the culture it deserves.

How did you deal with the impact of possibly your most important film not releasing?

This feeling can destroy you if you are not careful, strict and realistic. I had to undergo therapy. I could do this because I am also part of the small upper middle class that can afford it, but those who know me understand that I am not exactly a withered willow.

The film provides an insight into the pain of Kashmiri Pandits at the height of the insurgency when their culture was almost casually appropriated by friends and neighbors under the guise of sympathy…

It is exactly like the Indian elite going for culinary tourism in Shaheen Bagh (during anti-CAA protests). We prefer to embrace cultures that we can suppress. The anger of the Pandit woman (played by Divya Dutta) in the film is the anger of every community that is feeling oppressed, neglected and appropriated. At a screening, a 25-year-old Kashmiri Pandit girl said she wanted her entire family to watch it because it was the first film about the flight of Pandits that made her feel seen and treated with respect.

File – Mumbai, Maharashtra, 15/06/2018: Bollywood film director, Dibakar Banerjee speaking to The Hindu in Mumbai. , Photo Credits: Photo: Karan Saraf (Intern)

You are also playing the voice of a Kashmiri Pandit in the film. How did this happen?

We wanted the unique voice of a man in his 40s who would grow up to be a typical WhatsApp uncle. We tried out three actors, and they were all acting well, but in my mind, he was an English-speaking suave guy who used to discuss Muslim birth rates during dinner table discussions; Someone who throws out his other stuff after a few pegs of cheap booze.

Then there is Gasha, a Muslim domestic help played by Naseeruddin Shah, who perhaps represents the ordinary innocent Indian surviving on direct benefit transfers…

Gasha is a perennial character. He existed in ancient and medieval India and exists even today. Superficially, he is a domestic servant coming from an underprivileged background of most traditional Indian families. Usually, he is someone from the native place of the lady of the house who grows old with the family. However, deep down, he represents the majority of the country’s voters and portrays the most disempowered class who is also the most populist. The governments of all crumbling democracies where there is inequality, want this class to remain forever. You can find a reflection on this class shanghai Very.

How was it working with Naseer?

grew up watching movies like Nishant, churnand even DreamsNaseer has always been my star and working with him has been one of the most fulfilling things of my career. After a long time, people will see that Naseer has not been pushed into roles of seniority and superiority. Once we started shooting, we started treating this character with the same respect that Naseer should have got. But Naseer’s greatness lies in the fact that despite his seniority and superiority, he can portray a character who is neither senior nor eminent – ​​someone who is irrelevant to the scheme of things mundane but important to the story. Is relevant to.

Dibakar Banerjee Photo Credit: Solaris Images

Have you considered reframing your approach and taking the foreign funding/festival route, like some young filmmakers, to perhaps avoid state scrutiny?

Everyone takes all paths. Those working with foreign grants have also looked for Indian funds. When we talk about a film made with foreign funding, the invisible picture that comes to our mind is of a better and deeper film, which caters to the needs of the international audience and caters to the frivolity of the Bollywood audience. Doesn’t give. I’m always interested in talking to the audience Khosla’s nest First, because this is where my meaning-making is most powerful. After being in the film world and seeing my films play around the world, I have learned that every culture has its own ways of identifying good and bad and applying the law of good and bad. So there are foreign grants but you can see a bias in their minds towards a particular picture of India and, sometimes, you don’t want to give in to that bias and go away.

Therefore, you do not want to submit to the traditions of a foreign point of view…

No way. I have no interest in preaching to converts. Only by talking to my audience can I realize my vision of bringing some change in my films. What will change if my film gets some applause and some awards in Paris or Berlin? But if my film is shown in India, I have at least a .001% chance of changing someone’s opinion.

How do you connect with the mainstream?

I don’t make a big distinction between mainstream and non-mainstream cinema. I should be exposed in a film; There is joy, connection and all that in that revelation. What I have decided is that I will not be moving forward…

This non-conformist approach may get you labeled a troublemaker!

I never wanted to be a rebel. I always wanted money and fame (laughs)! Somehow life gives me something else. The intention is not to create trouble but to keep the concept of equality and the spirit of asking questions alive. Otherwise how will we survive as a society?