An interview, on an interview!

Smriti Mundhra, creator of the Netflix documentary series The Romantics

I'm curious to know where the US-based filmmaker Smriti Mundhra stands, generally, on the debate between documentary - which is an independent narrative - and PR pap, or hagiography, that is a story controlled by a fan, if not the subject himself: Where does one draw the line?

Surely, she's faced this critique with The Romantics (2023) - on Yash Raj Films (YRF), Bollywood's most loved studio, which you'll end up loving even more, once you watch the four-part series on Netflix.

Frankly, I can't see what's wrong in anything, so long as it's not half-truth (propaganda), or plain lie, passed off as non-fiction. And that people are entertained!

It's a valid debate, Smriti concedes, to point out how it depends on the motive/purpose. Given that the ‘specific' is more the cone through which to expound on something larger/universal, Smriti was interested in exploring Bollywood, through the prism of late, great producer-director Yash Chopra (1932-2012).

The intention wasn't an exposé; it was something "celebratory," without, of course, "hiding the hardships" beneath. So, she approached YRF, much before she became quite the global name in the doc circuit - as creator of Netflix's superhit, unscripted series, Indian Matchmaking (IM, 2020). Also, importantly, an Oscar nom for her short doc, St Louis Superman (2019), a fine film on gun-violence and #BlackLivesMatter (available on YouTube).

Producer Aditya Chopra. Pics/Twitter

Smriti's forthcoming release - besides, obviously, IM, S03 - is the story of a man on death row, seeking forgiveness from the family he harmed. "It's light stuff," she jokes, and therefore the short doc will be no longer than 30 minutes.

In fact, The Romantics is the only doc she's done that's purely "talking heads" + "archival material". To me, that often equals tedious + academic, having slept through this tic-tac format, over decades.

What Smriti found, instead, to sail her through this kinda set-up is actually the story of a father (Yash Chopra), and his son/s (Uday; but more so, Aditya).

She says all her works somehow concern the parent and child. Including IM, starring the now-famous ‘Sima Taparia, from Mumbai'. Sima Aunty, by the way, was Smriti's own matchmaker, who briefly featured in A Suitable Girl (2017), her directorial debut, that took seven years to make - basically between Smriti, age 30, to 37!

Also Read: What you are saying, bhai?

Having worked on production at offices of the Coen Bros, Oliver Stone and the like - she favoured documentary as a stepping stone, because unlike with feature films, "no godfather required; all you need is to open your camera!"

But, really, what timing! Her admired doc debut coincided with an ongoing, global "non-fiction boom", thanks to streamers, chiefly Netflix, that have wholly mainstreamed the genre.

Speaking of parent and child, Smriti is daughter of LA-based director Jag Mundhra (1948-2011). I had once bumped into Jag at an event in IIT Bombay, to realise only before chatting with Smriti, that he was an alumnus.

He moved to the US as an engineer - deeply enchanted by cinema still - slowly homing into Hollywood. He's best known in India for the Aishwarya Rai female-in-jeopardy film, Provoked (2006).

There's been a wave of nostalgia over YRF romances, with The Romantics. Fact is, those of my vintage - effectively '90s VHS generation - owe a bit of their boyhood, also to the under-loved Jag's racy/erotic thrillers, Tropical Heat, Wild Cactus, Irresistible Impulse, Monsoon (Gulshan Grover, Helen Broadie), etc.

Before Smriti was born, her dad and mum, Chandra, ran possibly America's first theatre exclusively for Hindi films. This is where several Bollywood pictures, like YRF's Kabhi Kabhie (1976), played for desis.

This must have also warmed up YRF folk to allow her rare, full-access to movie stars, along with copyrighted footage, without which there really is no ‘The Romantics'.

And, of course - the YRF boss, Invisible Man, Aditya/Adi Chopra's first interview, before camera! Smriti had strict instruction - everything allowed for the screen, but there won't be Adi, anywhere.

She would chat with him for "background" info throughout. He'd give her all the time in the world. She requested to record his conversations, for YRF's personal archives/posterity.

"No video!" "Audio? Okay." But the video team was there. "So why not?" With all that footage, Smriti cut the final film: "Anybody who understands editing will know what a risk that is."

"You've weaved a narrative. If he disapproves - eight to nine months' mehnat is gone! I knew he's moved by creative integrity," she tells me. He let it go. Which means we now know what he looks/talks like!

Smriti had started off with a film/series on Yash Chopra - ended up with one that's fuller, and beyond his lifetime. That's how docs work - "you explore" - as against fiction, which is absorbing reality, to reflect on it thereafter. The Romantics also ended up showcasing Rishi Kapoor's last interview - "he just spoke for hours!"

Specifically, about what? Is there stuff she wishes she could keep from all that she shot - "possibly, an episode on Deewar", "actually, an episode on choreography"… "We call it, ‘kill your darlings'; amnesia sets in for what you couldn't use. But it's there in the archives for, maybe, another filmmaker to work on?"

I get this dilemma. That's why we've also recorded this hour-long, lovely chat with Smriti, as an episode for a podcast titled ‘The Bombay Film Story' - that's what The Romantics is, isn't it?

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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