For 27 days in 2009, filmmaker Jai Tank was a permanent fixture in Borivli-Churchgate locals, going back and forth repeatedly as bemused commuters looked on. Tank even made his actors learn the art of hopping onto a crowded train and catch a particular seat before it was occupied. Tank also filmed in Kandivli chawls, where production assistants would deal with missing props by popping next door and borrowing whatever they needed from construction workers’ homes. Costumes were purchased from stalls next to Churchgate station for Rs100 a piece. For these reasons and more, Tank’s soon-to-be-released film Madholal Keep Walking is perhaps the most authentic Mumbaiyya film ever made.
Tank feels the film deals with a rare subject — a middle-class man who happens to be perfectly happy with his life. Madholal lives in a chawl with his religious wife and two spirited daughters. He goes to office every day and has a close-knit group of friends. But a tragic event halts Madholal’s contentment in its tracks. Yet, he refuses to let this event change his life and with the help of family and friends, goes on to personify Mumbai’s undying spirit — he keeps walking.
Tank lived in a Matunga chawl for the first two decades of his life. He now operates his production company Dream Cuts out of a sunlit office in Prabhadevi. The two-room workplace is dominated by a five-foot tall poster of Madholal, while the walls display the various accolades the film has already won, which include the best actor award that Subrot Dutta won at the Cairo Film Festival for his portrayal of Madholal.
Incidentally, Tank’s film was chosen over Kaminey, the other Indian film in the running for the Cairo Festival competition. “The film was received extremely well,” beams Tank, “There were foreign people watching my movie. I was totally zapped!” Madholal... was also compared favourably to Slumdog Millionaire by festival audiences. Bollywood stalwarts such as Madhur Bhandarkar and Irrfan Khan have lauded the film, which is releasing on August 27.
Tank still remembers the incredible sense of community from his chawl days, one he believes was recreated during the filming process. “We were really like a family,” he reflects. Tank credits Mumbai for its undying spirit which he says is the driving force behind the film. “Mumbai is full of people just living their lives happily without stealing or aspiring for riches,” says Tank. “Their story is such that everyone, regardless of how much money they have in the bank, can relate to.”
d_apoorva@dnaindia.net
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