01 March,2009 07:55 AM IST | | Shradha Sukumaran
When A R Rahman said this dialogue from Deewaar as part of his historic Oscar speech last week, it struck a chord in every Indian heart. Shradha Sukumaran asks Deewaar's writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, just how they created this enduring line and of their short-lived memories of their own mothers
"I watched the Oscar ceremony live and it was amusing for me when A R Rahman quoted, 'Mere paas ma hai.' But beyond that, the moment was thrilling, happy, unprecedented and humongous. It was sweet of him to show such regard for his mother in his moment of glory. Of course, anyone who knows his background (even though I'm unaware of the nitty-gritties of it) knows that he and his mother are very close. She is a big influence on his life and the mother-son were there for each other during turbulent, trying times.
"When Rahman quoted the dialogue, it brought a smile to my face. But whatever I've written in the past, I've always cut the umbilical chord. The piece of writing is like a child you created that becomes an adult and develops a personality of his own.
After a while, just like how you would not take credit for your child's achievements, you don't, for your own dialogues. There are times when I hear a song I've written 15-20 years ago and feel like someone else wrote it. My relationship with it is finished and I don't take much pride or self-achievement in it. My association withers away and it feels to me like a relative doing well.
"I must have written hundreds thousands of lines, but there is something in 'Mere paas ma hai' that makes me remember how we came to it. We knew there would be a dramatic scene in Deewaar's screenplay where the two brothers would confront each other and that this would be the last line. So we wrote the scene in such a way that we came back to this as the punchline.
"I lost my mother exactly after I turned eight years old on January 17. But since I had started registering things since I was five years old, I remember her very clearly. Her name was Safia Akhtar and she was a writer and voracious reader, while my father Jan Nisar Akhtar was a poet. I must have been studying in kindergarten when I used to be eager to come back home. This was because my mother was reading a novel that she would narrate to me like the episodes of a serial. I would long to hear what she would tell me each day.
"I used to read Urdu fluently since I was five years old, so my mother would get me children's storybooks and recite poetry to me. She died at my maternal grandfather's home in Lucknow and I was then brought up by my maternal aunt, but I wonder if anyone can substitute a mother's bond in your life.
"Danny Boyle may have said that Deewaar is one of the key inspirations for Slumdog Millionaire, but I didn't see the similarities. I felt Slumdog Millionaire was a well-edited, well-shot interesting film with a good narrative and strong performances, especially by Dev Patel. There have been many films on two brothers where one goes down the underworld path and the other the straight route, so I didn't see the resemblance. When Deewaar released on January 21, 1975, it was considered a good, intense film but with no 'entertainment values', music on the margins, not much romance and which was claustrophobic because it was shot indoors. No one expected it to become a superhit."
On Rahman
Javed Akhtar says: "Rahman is unpretentious and what he says is never planned, it's more organic, natural and simple. He does not know how to manipulate his relations or his attitude. He's almost careful to not let his life get cluttered by things non-musical and it is this simplicity in life that is endearing. Rahman is a family person who is comfortable before few people and has a close friends circle."u00a0u00a0
"I SAW Rahman's Oscar speech not live, but later as the news channels played it out. When I heard him say, 'Mere paas ma hai', I felt happy. It reminds you of your work. Marlon Brando once said that he worked several times, for several reasons. Sometimes, it was because of a good director or because a role was tempting. But at the last stage in his life, he worked toward appreciation. I've reached that stage. Of course, I've heard those words repeated endlessly, but it did feel different on that platform as everything was focused on that moment.
"My mother, Sadiqa Banu Begum, died when I was nine years old. She was suffering from tuberculosis and the last four years of her life, I was not even allowed to go near her. She lived in a cottage at the corner of our compound and her food, doctor visits, everything was within that place. For six months every year during the summer, she would be taken to a sanatorium in Bhawali near Nainital and brought out to sit in the sun. Once she saw me playing far in that compound and asked her nurse, "Who is that boy?" When she was told it was me, she broke down, saying, "He's become so big."
"When I recall that incident today, it moves me more than the memory of her death. She stayed away in the interests of her children, so she would not pass on her sickness to us. If I get so emotional, how would she have felt as a mother? I have few memories of living with her in Indore and I have always missed her presence. That's why I feel my children are fortunate unke paas ek nahin, do ma hai.
"I was attached to my father throughout my schooling, until he too died when I was 14, just before my high school exams in March. I was brought up by loyal servants who took care of me. I'm indebted to them. I felt a lot of pain at the death of my mother, but nature gives you the propensity to forget and they say time is a great healer.
The other day, I saw a programme on Animal Planet where the mother crocodile lays her eggs, hatches them and picks up the babies with her sharp teeth to put them in the water. When I was growing up near the Narmada, I lived in dread of crocodiles, but see the tenderness that even a mother crocodile displays!
"When we were writing Deewaar, it was all about the three characters a mother and two sons.
There's an unsaid strength in the love of a mother and that convinced us while writing the screenplay. Our dialogues were fixed at that point; we knew that 'Mere paas maa hai' would be the punchline. The rest came after and even that had to have a certain rhythm and meter to work. Amitabh's dialogues would not have worked if they were too long or too short.
"Maybe Danny Boyle felt that Deewaar was an inspiration for Slumdog Millionaire, but there have been many brother stories like Mother India and Gunga Jamuna. In fact, we discussed this one idea with Yash Chopra at first, then 20 days later, gave him the screenplay. I still remember, we rushed to finish the script by 5:30 pm at my house, then went straight to narrate it to Yash at his old house at Girnar Apartments.
"Actually, I feel that Slumdog Millionaire is a mix of lots of Hindi movies and more importantly, it is about human relations. It is a clever screenplay and has been made very well. The stories may be what you have heard hundreds of times before, but it is all about how you present it. I also wonder why people feel this is not an Indian film. To me, if it's Made In India, it's Indian."
