Filmmaker Prashant Nair keeps coming back to exploring the theme of social hierarchy in his films, the recent example being Tryst With Destiny, which revolves around caste and wealth discrimination in society. He tells Chahak Mittal that it might be because the extent of inequality is outrageous
Success certainly finds a way to enter our lives irrespective of the circumstances. Well, filmmaker Prashant Nair, who directed two episodes of Amazon Prime Original series Made in Heaven, found it again with his recent film, Tryst With Destiny. Though the film couldn’t be premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival 2020 in April, as scheduled, due to COVID-19 outbreak, it was judged by an online jury and won the award for Best Screenplay.
Wondering what’s the story? Well, for Prashant, it was not even an official project. He says, “I wanted to work on something that was a bit bolder and allowed me to explore some of the things that frustrated me about the country at the time. I actually wrote it for myself. I never thought anyone would produce it. Before tossing it in the back of a drawer, I thought I’d send it to Manish Mundra (producer), so that I had no regrets.” Well, two days later, Prashant received a call from him, saying, “Let’s do it!” and off they went. “Manish tends to make huge decisions like that very much on instinct,” he adds.
Named after and inspired by the landmark Independence Day speech by country’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the film is a triptych, which narrates three different stories of inequality in society — wealth, caste and gender. It presents three characters who struggle to find a control over their destinies in contemporary India — a billionaire who learns money can’t buy everything; a lower-caste couple in pursuit of building a new life; and a corrupt cop who finds himself far outside the pale of law attempting to secure the apartment of his partner’s needs. It’s conceptualised on the lines of Nehru’s words, “There is no resting for any of us until we make all the citizens of India what destiny intended them to be.” Talking about why he chose the theme and the title, he says, “In the speech, Nehru talked about the goals for the newly-formed nation. And hence, the film explores how far we have come as a society vis-à-vis those goals but in a playful way.”
So how far have we as a country actually come to realising our ‘Tryst with Destiny’ as a nation since 1947? “I think this is something I’d ideally like the viewers to question at the end of the film. To each his or her own answer. And for me, the idea of India has never been more in jeopardy than it is today,” he laments.
A fun fact? Incidentally, Prashant’s first child was born on November 14, (Nehru’s birthday), while he was working on the film.
The triptych, he says, was originally conceived as four stories but found its way to three, which, to Prashant, “felt right” as each one lightly emphasises a particular colour of our national flag — saffron, white, green — and also deals with the three “classes” — upper, middle and lower.
Discrimination and inequality aren’t a new subject around which films revolve. So what is the new thing that this film offers? For him, “this isn’t a heavy narration,” rather it conveys its message through dark humour and sarcasm woven with some loving stories, car crashes, robberies, arson, fist fights and dancing. “And the way everything is connected is a bit unusual. I feel, the Tribeca jury awarded the screenplay because of its originality, so we’re hoping that the audience feels the same,” adds he.
Continuing with the discussion, the filmmaker feels that shutdown due to COVID-19 is certainly a great disadvantage for films this year, however, the Tribeca award turned it around for him by giving it the recognition it would have otherwise gained. He says, “Everything has come to a halt. There are a lot of films that finished shoots or production or were close to being finished but now their future is uncertain. We don’t know how the theatrical market will be like when things resume. Perhaps, only the OTTs are doing well and are hungry for new content. I feel, the Tribeca award was a huge blessing for our film as it has generated interest in it. Now we hope we can have an actual physical premiere of the film soon.”
Manish says, “This year has been tough on everyone, hence, this positive news means a lot for people like us whose passion lies in art and cinema. We’re happy Tryst with Destiny is getting recognised on an international platform.”
This isn’t the first time Prashant’s films have received an international accolade. His 2015 directorial, Umrika (translated as America) won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film showcased how a small village in India hears tales of life in America through letters sent home by one of its residents. Given that Prashant has resided in various countries across the world, it would have certainly taken inspiration from some of his life’s instances. He agrees and says, “Yes, very much! As an Indian kid growing up abroad, I had always been confronted by ridiculous stereotypes and questions about ‘exotic’ India. I wanted to turn that around and portray America through stereotypes and clichés as a place equally exotic. I mean, what is more exotic — Thanksgiving or Holi? In some ways, I made Umrika for the international audience, especially European and American, which is ironic because it ended up releasing, getting a lot of recognition there but never had a proper release in India.”
Prashant’s other works like Delhi in a Day and the episode of Made in Heaven (A Marriage of Convenience), which showcased the marriage of an NRI guy with a local girl in Ludhiana — have revolved around social hierarchy, gender and individuals from different walks of life struggling to secure a better future for themselves. And so it seems to be a subject that Prashant has explored extensively in various ways. He agrees and says, “Yes, it’s a theme I keep coming back to somehow. I guess I just find the extent of the inequality outrageous. The pursuit of wealth at the expense of others bothers me. If there’s anything this outbreak should’ve shown us is that a society is best judged by how it treats its least fortunate.”
Well, having said that, there’s a new theme climbing into his portfolio of films — historic drama. The filmmaker is currently working on a web series that revolves around the 1997 Uphaar Cinema tragedy — Trial by Fire. So what led to this new venture? He tells us that it was his friend, “Sidharth Jain of Story Ink,” who introduced him to the eponymous book written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy — Trial by Fire: The Tragic Tale of the Uphaar Fire Tragedy — who lost their two children in the fire. He says, “I was quite moved by it. Apart from being a harrowing story of their personal loss, I also felt it was quite important as it dealt with subjects I feel are integral to progress. We are in the early stages of research but I am very excited to tell this story.”
