Mor Chhainha Bhuinya 2
- Aniruddh Dubey
Famous Chhattisgarhi cinema director Satish Jain is once again coming up with Mor Chhainha Bhuinya 2. That is, the remake. Part-2 is going to be released on 24 May in entire Chhattisgarh. Everything will look changed in the new ‘Chhainha Bhuinya’. The one who will not look changed is Satish Jain, the director. When ‘Chhainha Bhuinya’ Part-1 was under production, I had a long conversation with Satish ji on behalf of the evening daily ‘Highway Channel’, which was published on 2 March 2000. At a time when there were sporadic unsuccessful attempts to make films for the big screen in Chhattisgarh, Mumbai return Satish Jain performed the miracle of making ‘Chhainha Bhuinya’. What Satish Jain had said at that time that “a complete film industry can be created in Chhattisgarh” seems to be coming true today after about 24 years. Appreciating Satish ji’s foresight, that memorable interview taken from him is being presented once again with editing. Then I present it to you all…
Satish Jain, writer and director of Chhattisgarhi feature film ‘Mor Chhainha Bhuniya’ believes that “It is not long now for Chhattisgarh to become a state. If better efforts are made, a complete film industry can be established here.” Satish Jain has lived in Mumbai and has written stories for films like ‘Dulara’, ‘Aag’, ‘Hathkadi’, ‘Pardesi Babu’, ‘Rajaji’ and ‘Sanyasi Mera Naam’. His upcoming film is ‘Had Kar Di Aapne’ (Govinda-Rani Mukherjee). The production of ‘Mor Chhainha Bhuniya’ has been completed. ‘Highway Channel’ had a long conversation with Satish Jain, which is presented here…
The first question is, how did you get interested in films? Satish Jain says- “Bhanupratappur is a small part of Bastar, where I grew up. I became crazy about films at a very young age. At that time there were no talkies in Bhanupratappur. Sometimes touring talkies used to come in which we had to watch films. Whenever I visited my relatives in Kanker, Bilaspur and Dhamtari, I used to fulfill my passion of watching films. When I came to know at home that my passion for watching films was increasing to the extent of madness, I started getting scolded a lot for it. When I think about why films had such a deep impact on my mind in childhood, then I understand that the element of fantasy in films had an impact on me. The lifestyle of a metropolis shown in films was not even 1 percent of that seen in Bastar. Even after reaching college, I boarded a train for the first time. The amazing love between mother and son, the big mansions seen in films kept revolving in my mind. Due to my father’s pressure to pass my high school exams, I took admission in Durg Polytechnic College. While watching movies continuously in Durg, my perspective started changing. Now I started watching movies from the point of view of a critic. Along with this, I also used to think that if I were the director of this movie, what kind of work would I do. A movie had come out- ‘Solva Sawan’. Because of Amol Palekar, I went to watch this movie. When I reached to watch the movie, my eyes stopped on Sridevi instead of Amol Palekar. At that time, I had guessed that this heroine can do wonders if given a chance. A few years later, when Sridevi did wonders in ‘Himmatwala’, I got the confidence that my thoughts are right. Although it seems like a very small thing to say, but this was the time when this thought came to my mind that I should go to Mumbai Film City and do something. It was the year 1984. I knew that if I told my heart’s feelings to my father, he would never agree to it. So I told them that I am going to Mumbai to give an interview for a job in a newspaper, while I had told my mother that my target was the film city of Mumbai.”
After reaching Mumbai, what kind of efforts did you make to join the film line? When asked, Satish ji tells, “I did not have even an iota of experience related to the film line. All that I had was self-confidence. I went to so many film personalities to ask for work, everyone had the same question – what experience do you have? What they said was also right. After reaching Mumbai, I was lucky in this matter that on the recommendation letter of my mother, I got a small place to live in a Khan Sahab’s house. During that period of struggle, one day I met Vinod Tiwari ji, the editor of the well-known film magazine ‘Madhuri’ (which is now closed). There used to be a story column in ‘Madhuri’. Such stories were given space in it on which films could be made. I had written some stories for ‘Madhuri’, which were published. One day Vinod Tiwari ji asked me why don’t you become a reporter for ‘Madhuri’. I told him that writing is not my job anymore, I wish to become a director. He advised that if you want to do something in the film line, then first prepare the way to reach there and there can be no better medium than writing for this. I liked Tiwari ji’s words and I became a film reporter for ‘Madhuri’. After joining ‘Madhuri’, I got a chance to reach Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Sridevi and many other film personalities as a reporter. When Amitabh Bachchan entered politics, I was in a news program called ‘Do Naav Ki Sawari’ I had written an article on him titled ‘Re’, which became the cover story of ‘Madhuri’. In that article I had written that Amitabh would not like politics and he would only do films. This is what happened. For three years I wrote a lot in ‘Madhuri’. Meanwhile I became very close to actor Suresh Oberoi. It was he who once introduced me to director late Mukul Anand. Mukul Anand was making the film ‘Sultanat’ at that time. He came to know that I wanted to become a director. He made me the assistant director of ‘Sultanat’. Meanwhile I wrote a story on which a film was made – ‘Panaah’. Naseeruddin Shah, Pallavi Joshi, Kiran Kumar and Pran worked in this film. This film was praised a lot. ‘Panaah’ was nominated for the Filmfare Award. Now the work of assistant direction and writing the story of the film started going on simultaneously. During this time I got associated with the group of film actor Govinda. Govinda’s brother Kirti Kumar had directed two films ‘Hatya’ and ‘Radha Ka Sangam’. I was the assistant director in ‘Hatya’ and co-director in ‘Radha Ka Sangam’. Later, the films written by me, ‘Dulara’, ‘Aag’, ‘Hathkadi’, ‘Pardesi Babu’ and ‘Rajaji’ were released. In the coming days, my film ‘Had Kar Di Aapne’ is going to be released. It stars Govinda and Rani Mukherji.”
After coming to Chhattisgarh, you made the Chhattisgarhi film ‘Mor Chhainha Bhuniya’, whose writer and director is you – so are you fed up with the Mumbai film city? On this question, Satish Jain says that “Now the time is not far when Chhattisgarh will become a state. A whole film industry can be developed here. If films can be made in regional languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Oriya, then why not in Chhattisgarhi? Then I am from Chhattisgarh region, so I have some responsibility towards this place. I have made ‘Mor Chhainha Bhuniya’ not for fun but with complete seriousness. In search of artists, I went to places like Raipur, Durg, Abhanpur, Rajnandgaon, Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Arjunda. A team came here from Mumbai for shooting the film. We shot this film in Bhilai, Durg and Raipur. There are 8 songs in the film which have turned out very well. There are three action scenes for which fight master Andlib Pathan had come here from Mumbai to prepare. We paid everyone according to their work in the film. I am repeating this again that if people here learn the art of film making, then a whole film industry can be created.” You are boasting of making a film here, whereas many years ago, the films ‘Kahi Debe Sandesh’ and ‘Ghar Vdar’ which were made in Chhattisgarhi, did not give any very good result? On this question, Satish Jain says – “I have not seen these two films. As I have heard from others- ‘Kahi Debe Sandesh’ was gaining momentum but a controversy arose over its subject. It was opposed a lot. That opposition took a political colour, which had a bad effect on the business of the film. It is said about ‘Ghar Vdar’ that its technical side was weak. As far as ‘Mor Chhainha Bhuinya’ is concerned, neither its subject is controversial nor its technical side is weak. ‘Mor Chhainha Bhuinya’ is the story of two brothers. It is a family drama in which comedy has been given special importance. All the actors have done a very good job in this film. The music of the film is also very melodious. The shooting of the film has been completed, the dubbing work is pending. The producer of this film is my father Shivdayal Jain.
This article has been taken from the Facebook wall of Mr. Anirudh Dubey.