What do award-winning actor and film director Mel Gibson and Father Geo George of the Indore-based Society of the Divine Word have in common?
What do award-winning actor and film director Mel Gibson and Father Geo George of the Indore-based Society of the Divine Word have in common? One is known the world over, once had women swooning at the sight of him and was most recently praised for having handled a beaver puppet with elan. The other works among the poor and needy in Indore. Both, however, have made a film on the life of Jesus Christ. Mel Gibson’s version in the The Passion of the Christ had the strongest audiences squirming in their seats with how realistically Gibson portrayed the trials that make up the Passion. Fr George’s take on Christ is a little different.
Take, for example, the last supper in Fr George’s Christaayan (Journey of Christ). Christ (played by 25-year-old Ankit Sharma) sits on a mud floor and tears a roti, instead of breaking bread, and shares it with his disciples. A few scenes later, a dying Christ, asks for something to drink. In the Bible, he’s given vinegar. In Christaayan, he gets sherbet.
At six hours, Fr George’s Christaayan is an attempt to imagine how Christ’s life would have been like had the son of God been born and raised in India. Hence, Christ is called guruvar or prabhu. He speaks Hindi, wears a maroon kurta, meditates and breaks into bhajans when praying.
“Fr George wanted to ensure the film is as Indian as possible. The script he wrote was given to 23 Hindi scholars to read before being approved,” says Fr Jose Arayathel, director of Mumbai’s Urban Community Development Centre and member of the Divine Word Society (better known as SVD). Fr Jose was part of the film’s core team and played the role of Andrew, one of Christ’s apostles. It took Fr George seven years to complete this film and he was involved in every aspect, from casting, writing the script to penning the lyrics.
It’s not just Christ who undergoes a desi makeover. The high priests in Christaayan are sadhus with foreheads smeared with ash and vermillion. Christ’s apostles wear saffron robes and carry beads. The villages Christ passes through celebrate festivals of harvest, and light with much song and dance, accompanied by the harmonium and veena. The traitor Judas being bought for 40 pieces of change (instead of silver). Joseph is shown as a Keralite and some of Christ’s followers are shown wearing lungis. Mary is rechristened as Maria (played by Jeslin John) and is an independent woman who relies on her own judgment when making decisions. It may be odd to see the young Maria playing with her friends, breaking into song, and blushing coyly around her betrothed Joseph, but it’s rather heartening to see she has a distinct identity. The director introduced these elements because he wanted the film to “show that men and women are equal”.
Christaayan in some ways is a Bollywood film. There is romance (between Maria and Joseph), drama (when Maria learns she is pregnant before marriage), betrayal (Judas revealing Christ’s identity) and song and dance. It stars a hero who performs miracles, breaks into song when needed and loves his mother unconditionally. And Christ, as everyone who’s ever been inside a church knows, always makes a good hero.
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