The city of dreams, tinsel town, commercial capital, maximum city Mumbai with its several monikers has played muse to several artistes, literary figures and of course, filmmakers.

And writer-activist-pedagogue-filmmaker Madhushree Dutta, too, is no different. This National Award winning filmmaker has been in love with the city ever since she shifted base here and has  flirted with its every facet.

A testimony to this is her extensive documentary feature 7 Islands and a Metro which premieres on TV tomorrow. Madhushee discusses her ambitious project and the magic of Mumbai.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind at the very mention of Mumbai?
Mumbai, for me is like a conveyor belt. People are coming and going in a continuous circular motion, depending on external factors such as schedule, opportunity, compulsion, adventure but the belt never ceases to move. Arrival and departure of people to the metropolis is the true representative of the history of Mumbai.

The Jews post Second World War, the Japanese during First World War, the Marathi speaking working class during the industrialisation in the early Twentieth century, the German technicians at the beginning of cinema, the European 'item numbers' in contemporary filmdom, the Arabs and the Chinese in the port city, the Portuguese words in the city lingo and the British architecture everybody is a migrant in Mumbai and nobody is aboriginal. The conveyor belt has started moving since the Sixteenth century and still running.

7 Islands and a Metro follows a vast scape. The research must have been
rigorous.
The research was vigorous but not independent. I decided the premise first and then initiated the research. For example, when it came to the film industry I wanted it to be represented by a character that is invisible within the industry of visibility, that of popular cinema.

Accordingly, we launched the research and then chanced upon the stuntwoman Reshma. In short, I first chose the categories, as I wanted my film to be a compilation of tales from the citizens who are in the fringe.

Why Mumbai and not any other city?
Firstly, I live in Mumbai and so I know this city. Secondly, I was a migrant in this city and I still remain a migrant, in some sense or other. That position gives one some vantage point of view on the city. But the most important point is what Mumbai is in reality and in people's imagination. This could be true of any metropolis in the world.

But for us, in this subcontinent, it is only Mumbai. The conveyor belt movements, the layers of history, the conflicts, the multi-linguality (the film itself has Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarti and English the most pedestrian languages in Mumbai), the multiple ways of being that Mumbai preserves in its day to day existence cannot be found in any other land in this subcontinent.

You narrative with legendary writers Ismat Chugtai and Sadat Hasan Monto is distinct.
Ismat Chugtai and Sadat Manto were the part of Bombay cinema at its inception. Both were migrants to Bombay. Manto left Bombay/India in 1950 to go to Pakistan. He died in 1954. In the intermediate four years he wrote obsessively about Bombay and even tried to come back but was denied visa.

On the other hand, his dear friend Chugtai lived all her adult life in Bombay and died here in 1992. She was very critical of Manto's decision to leave India. Yet she never wrote about Bombay despite the huge volume of works that she had produced. This aspect fascinated me. I wanted to explore the concept of 'being' and 'leaving' based on these two narrators Chugtai and Manto.

I Live in Behraampada and 7 Islands... is to be followed up by yet another Mumbai based film to complete the trilogy. Have you stated working on it?
(Smiles) Well, maybe. Let's see. I would love to make another film on Bombay. The city has thousands of them in it.

Any suggestions for budding filmmakers?
Don't listen to the seniors who say it is tough to make films. It is actually quite easy. Just go ahead and make them. But make your own films and not somebody else's.


7 Islands and a Metro airs on NDTV 24X7

Part I and II: Tomorrow, July 23 and 24 at 9.30 pm

Repeat telecast on July 27 at 1 pm

Part III and IV: July 30 and 31 at 9.30 pm

Repeat telecast on August 3 at 1 pm