An interview, on an interview!

Irsquom curious to know where the USbased filmmaker Smriti Mundhra stands generally on the debate between documentarymdashwhich is an independent narrativemdashand PR pap or hagiography that is a story controlled by a fan if not the subject himself Where does one draw the lineSurely shersquos faced this critique with The Romantics 2023mdashon Yash Raj Films YRF Bollywoodrsquos most loved studio which yoursquoll end up loving even more once you watch the fourpart series on NetflixFrankly I canrsquot see whatrsquos wrong in anything so long as itrsquos not halftruth propaganda or plain lie passed off as nonfiction And that people are entertainedItrsquos a valid debate Smriti concedes to point out how it depends on the motivepurpose Given that the lsquospecificrsquo is more the cone through which to expound on something largeruniversal Smriti was interested in exploring Bollywood through the prism of late great producerdirector Yash Chopra 19322012The intention wasnrsquot an exposeacute it was something ldquocelebratoryrdquo without of course ldquohiding the hardshipsrdquo beneath So she approached YRF much before she became quite the global name in the doc circuitmdashas creator of Netflixrsquos superhit unscripted series Indian Matchmaking IM 2020 Also importantly an Oscar nom for her short doc St Louis Superman 2019 a fine film on gunviolence and BlackLivesMatter available on YouTubeProducer Aditya Chopra PicsTwitterSmritirsquos forthcoming releasemdashbesides obviously IM S03mdashis the story of a man on death row seeking forgiveness from the family he harmed ldquoItrsquos light stuffrdquo she jokes and therefore the short doc will be no longer than 30 minutesIn fact The Romantics is the only doc shersquos done thatrsquos purely ldquotalking headsrdquo ldquoarchival materialrdquo To me that often equals tedious academic having slept through this tictac format over decadesWhat Smriti found instead to sail her through this kinda setup is actually the story of a father Yash Chopra and his sons Uday but more so AdityaShe says all her works somehow concern the parent and child Including IM starring the nowfamous lsquoSima Taparia from Mumbairsquo Sima Aunty by the way was Smritirsquos own matchmaker who briefly featured in A Suitable Girl 2017 her directorial debut that took seven years to makemdashbasically between Smriti age 30 to 37Also Read What you are saying bhaiHaving worked on production at offices of the Coen Bros Oliver Stone and the likemdashshe favoured documentary as a stepping stone because unlike with feature films ldquono godfather required all you need is to open your camerardquoBut really what timing Her admired doc debut coincided with an ongoing global ldquononfiction boomrdquo thanks to streamers chiefly Netflix that have wholly mainstreamed the genreSpeaking of parent and child Smriti is daughter of LAbased director Jag Mundhra 19482011 I had once bumped into Jag at an event in IIT Bombay to realise only before chatting with Smriti that he was an alumnusHe moved to the US as an engineermdashdeeply enchanted by cinema stillmdashslowly homing into Hollywood Hersquos best known in India for the Aishwarya Rai femaleinjeopardy film Provoked 2006Therersquos been a wave of nostalgia over YRF romances with The Romantics Fact is those of my vintagemdasheffectively rsquo90s VHS generationmdashowe a bit of their boyhood also to the underloved Jagrsquos racyerotic thrillers Tropical Heat Wild Cactus Irresistible Impulse Monsoon Gulshan Grover Helen Broadie etcBefore Smriti was born her dad and mum Chandra ran possibly Americarsquos first theatre exclusively for Hindi films This is where several Bollywood pictures like YRFrsquos Kabhi Kabhie 1976 played for desisThis must have also warmed up YRF folk to allow her rare fullaccess to movie stars along with copyrighted footage without which there really is no lsquoThe RomanticsrsquoAnd of coursemdashthe YRF boss Invisible Man AdityaAdi Choprarsquos first interview before camera Smriti had strict instructionmdasheverything allowed for the screen but there wonrsquot be Adi anywhereShe would chat with him for ldquobackgroundrdquo info throughout Hersquod give her all the time in the world She requested to record his conversations for YRFrsquos personal archivesposterityldquoNo videordquo ldquoAudio Okayrdquo But the video team was there ldquoSo why notrdquo With all that footage Smriti cut the final film ldquoAnybody who understands editing will know what a risk that isrdquoldquoYoursquove weaved a narrative If he disapprovesmdasheight to nine monthsrsquo mehnat is gone I knew hersquos moved by creative integrityrdquo she tells me He let it go Which means we now know what he lookstalks like Smriti had started off with a filmseries on Yash Chopramdashended up with one thatrsquos fuller and beyond his lifetime Thatrsquos how docs workmdashldquoyou explorerdquomdashas against fiction which is absorbing reality to reflect on it thereafter The Romantics also ended up showcasing Rishi Kapoorrsquos last interviewmdashldquohe just spoke for hoursrdquoSpecifically about what Is there stuff she wishes she could keep from all that she shotmdashldquopossibly an episode on Deewarrdquo ldquoactually an episode on choreographyrdquohellip ldquoWe call it lsquokill your darlingsrsquo amnesia sets in for what you couldnrsquot use But itrsquos there in the archives for maybe another filmmaker to work onrdquoI get this dilemma Thatrsquos why wersquove also recorded this hourlong lovely chat with Smriti as an episode for a podcast titled lsquoThe Bombay Film Storyrsquomdashthatrsquos what The Romantics is isnrsquot itMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper