Between crass and class

As Miss Tanakpur arrives in theatres, director Vinod Kapri talks about his intentions and influences

June 28, 2015 05:18 pm | Updated December 05, 2021 09:09 am IST

Vinod Kapri

Vinod Kapri

Black comedies often evoke extreme reactions and when the film is set in the Wild West of the country, it acquires a touch of bizarre. It happened this past week with Vinod Kapri’s Miss Tanakpur Hazir Ho . Khap panchayats put a prize on his head, some critics panned his efforts and other saw a bigger meaning in the scatological humour that he conjured up on screen. A journalist by training, Kapri has some sensible documentaries to his credit. “I think the controversy had no meaning. The film is not just about khap. The film is about the whole system which includes our families, panchayat, police and the judicial system. It is a very rooted story told with honesty. We are in a democracy where each of us has a right to express oneself and there is a CBFC which ensures that no one is crossing the line. They have the right to show dissent but they have no right to behead anybody. I retain my right to offend,” says Kapri.

Describing the film as a dark comedy, Kapri says, “We are heading towards 70 years of independence but the common man still has not been able to reap the fruits of this freedom. Two-three years back two jackfruits were stolen from the house of a Member of Parliament and the Delhi police went after the thieves with finger print experts in tow. Imagine if a person called from Monglopuri and Indrapuri would the police have shown this alacrity. I wanted to depict this feeling of alienation from the system in the common man. We get to a read a report of a boy sentenced for sexual assault on an animal and we move on but there is a lot behind that story. I wanted to go into those details which a journalist can’t because of the deadlines and limitation of news space.”

Ravi Kishan, who has a had a brush with politics, plays a muscleman of the local pradhan in the film. “I had seen many of these people around me. The only concern was how we will be able to bring a buffalo in the midst of all this and make audience understand that it is a metaphor.” The superstar of Bhojpuri films says that it is heartening to see Hindi cinema turning to the Eastern and Western belt of Uttar Pradesh. “Finally, actors like me are being allowed to breathe. We are not being to forced to generalize for a pan Indian appeal. There are lot stories waiting to be told in my region. And I am glad that we are returning to what I call Hindustani cinema. Here you will find a lot of people who feel they are the smartest people in the world. The belt has been the hot bed of Hindi literature.”

Kapri agrees. “The place is known for vyang. I have taken a whole episode from Kashinath Singh’s work. As for the characterisation my experience as a journalist helped. For instance, for Annu Kapoor’s character as pradhan, I picked Atique Ahmad’s gamchha, Mukhtar Ansari’s shades and Guddu Pandit’s lingo. I saw a video of Guddu Pandit where he was admonishing bureaucrats and teachers and in between repeating, ‘don’t take me otherwise, I was 10+2. I showed it to Annuji and we used it to shape Sualal Gandass.”

Sanjay Mishra, who has reinvented himself in the last couple of years with a series of heart-felt performances, says that he liked the fact that a journalist was dealing with the subject. “I had a great experience with another journalist-turned-filmmaker Subhash Kapoor in Phans Gaye Re Obama . I am one of those actors who grew up reading Hindi plays and novels like ‘Raag Darbaari’. I realised that he is talking about the ground reality. And I am not comparing him with anybody but he had visualized his film. And once a director could visualize a film, he could, at least, explain it to the actors. On the sets I get a little personal with the cameraman because he is the person showing me to the world. I play a local godman who indulges in tantra. During the shoot of a crucial scene where I call a spirit, I felt if I covered my face with a mask it will look realistic because I have seen such things in the small towns. He didn’t tell me that people come to see your face and not the mask and allowed me to improvise.”

Coming from Aankhon Dekhi and Dum Laga ke Haisha , the film seems to be on the louder side. “This is a different way of telling the story. Those were like if you enter a room and find everybody talking in whispers. Here it is like Haan bhai saab, kya baat hai bolo,” says Mishra. “In a country, where there is an audience which watches Shani baba telling the future of world on television, there is space for both.”

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