No such thing as too much spunk, says Habib Faisal

As I wait on the first floor office at Yash Raj Studios for Habib Faisal to arrive, I notice things I do every time I’m at the venue.  An almost loud silence permeates the floor only to be interrupted by the occasional sound of footsteps, while the staff talks in hushed tones and with an air of noticeable stiff upper lip-ness. It’s unlike a typical filmi setting, with the all-too-professional attitude of the place a little intimidating for an outsider. Faisal laughs when I tell him. “Teesre maale par aaiye. Wahaan gadar macha hota hai (Come to the third floor, it’s a riot up there),” he tells me.

The third floor Faisal is referring to is where the creative forces behind Yash Raj Films — its directors — work to put together an annual bouquet of films. “It’s like a mini-Delhi up there,” he says, referring to the roots of some of YRF’s young directors. “Shaad (Ali), Kabir (Khan) and I studied at KM college, while Maneesh (Sharma) is a Hansraj product.”

Faisal’s Delhi ‘connection’ is well-known: In 2010, his directorial debut Do Dooni Chaar, about a middle-class family in the capital and their struggle to buy a car, won a national award. A few months later, came the entertaining Band Baaja Baaraat, written by Faisal and directed by Sharma, capturing the boisterous wedding culture of the north. Not surprisingly, Faisal’s first memory of a romance unfolding onscreen includes watching Dev Anand serenade Nutan as they walk down the steps of the Qutub Minar in the song Dil ka bhanwar kare pukaar in Tere Ghar Ke Saamne.

LOVE IN A SMALL TOWN
Old-world romance has almost vanished from Bollywood’s scheme of things. The ‘rom-com’ is what most filmmakers are comfortable with, a good dose of humour infused in stories about boys meeting girls, realising there are conflicts, and then going about resolving them, all in a span of less than two hours — a far cry from the classical love story format.

“Kissi ko be-intihaan pyaar nahi hota aaj kal,” Faisal says dramatically. “Urban characters are a little too pragmatic. Even the conflicts have changed — they have to do with everything but your love for the other person. Career choices, for example.”

This is probably why Faisal set his next, Ishaqzaade — a love story between a young boy and girl (played by newcomer Arjun Kapoor, and the one film-old Parineeti Chopra) — in a fictional small town called Almod, somewhere near Lucknow. Faisal says that the story is universal and could have been set in any of the metros, but the small town setting lends the plot a kind of intensity missing in big cities. “Your attraction towards love is that much stronger in a small town — it’s all that you have to live with.

Simultaneously, the opposition is stronger too. Forget caste differences, familial enmity or regional division. Just the fact that someone is in love is enough to create conflict,” he says. He rules out any influence of Romeo & Juliet on his story, though. “They were idiots. My characters are much stronger.”

BALANCING THE STORY
A striking poster of Ishaqzaade has Arjun holding a gun to Parineeti’s forehead, a wicked smile on his face as she stares back at him, defiant. You can’t help but ask Faisal if he puts in more effort into creating his female characters. He grins and replies, “I can say without any modesty that I write the best women characters. For me, the balance of a story is ruined unless both your male and female protagonists are on an even keel.”

In Salaam Namaste, Faisal’s first stint as a writer, the character of Ambar is a radio jockey, while her boyfriend Nick, a chef. “I wrote a scene about how Nick prepares an elaborate breakfast for Ambar. Sidharth Anand, the director, was horrified. ‘How can my hero make breakfast for the heroine!’ Eventually, I won the argument,” Faisal smiles. In Band Baaja Baaraat, Shruti is the one calling the shots, while Bittoo plays sidekick to her for most part. ‘Isski packing phaadke dekho, andar se dus mushtande niklenge,’ he describes her at one point. In Ishaqzaade too, Parineeti seems as spunky as Ambar or Shruti. “My wife is spunky. My daughter is spunkier.”

Coming back to the small town sensibilities of his films, Faisal says that his movies only reflect the India that he understands. For five years as a cameraperson with news channel NDTV, Faisal travelled across the country to smaller villages that most people haven’t even heard of — a period he says educated him most.

“Development is greater in smaller towns. When I go to Bhopal (his hometown), I am jealous of my cousins there. They have better infrastructure, and the space to make bigger malls, multiplexes. Yet, the small town laziness and humour is intact.”
Wanting to appeal to a pan-India audience has resulted in the small town setting becoming a regular feature in the mainstream, says Faisal. “Vishal Bhardwaj started it. Then it became cool.

Then we put a big star in a small town and it became a blockbuster. Now, it’s become a sort of trend. And this presents filmmakers like me with interesting options.”