''Goodfellas' teaches me something every time I watch it'

Namrata Rao, the editor of films like Ishqiya, Love Sex Aur Dhoka and Band Baaja Baaraat talks of five films that influenced her craft.

True Lies (1994)
Hollywood films are all about adrenaline rush — like in True Lies — and the editor has a lot to do with it. The thing about True Lies is: it gives you no chance to breathe; there’s so much happening and yet you can’t get enough of it. There’s the relationship between husband and wife, there’s humour, and there’s action. All of this is packaged in a short amount of time, so there’s never a dull moment. The editor must have had to tie up all those strings together and yet let the story flow seamlessly, which has been done beautifully. Along with Casino Royale, True Lies is one film you can watch again and again and yet find something new in it with every viewing.

The Chaser (2008)
The Chaser is a Korean film, about a serial killer who murders prostitutes. The film traces two characters — the murderer himself, and the prostitutes’ pimp who’s on his trail. You find out the killer’s identity in the first 10 minutes of the film, so there’s no suspense to keep you hooked. Yet the film is riveting for the rest of its running time. There is a scene, which I don’t want to describe because you have to watch it to enjoy it, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat — you keep waiting for something to happen and therein lays the thrill.

Goodfellas (1990)
As opposed to True Lies, the editor of a film like Goodfellas has a different task at hand — it’s a long film and the viewer’s interest has to be kept alive over three hours. I learn something new about my craft every time I see the film. The sound; the cutting between scenes; the journey of the character, all come together beautifully. Many scenes in the film have lengthy dialogues and the scenes are shot with the ‘real time’ technique. You have witnessed real time scenes (where conversation between characters is as long as in real life) in recent films like The Social Network, but it was a novelty then. Today the audience has evolved; you don’t have to spoon-feed them like you had to earlier, but Goodfellas was ahead of its time in many ways.

Dil Chahta Hai (2001)
Like most Hindi films, Dil Chahta Hai is a long film too. Plus, there are three tracks running parallel to each other. The film was a pleasant surprise to many when it came out and it captured the spirit of youth exceptionally well. It’s been a decade since it released and editing in our films have undergone some change since, but if I would have been given the same matter to edit today, I would not do things too differently. May be, I’d shorten the length, but not too much.

Parinda (1989)
The way sound was used in Parinda was radical, to say the least. The sound of pigeons flying, the machines grinding in a factory; all of it helped to create the perfect atmosphere. A lot of scenes were shot on-location, and the climax where Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit are gunned down remain with you much after you’ve seen it. I have heard lovely stories about how the late Renu Saluja went about editing the film, although I didn’t have the good fortune to meet her personally. But she has been a source of inspiration to many young editors like me. 

— Namrata Rao spoke to Aniruddha Guha