Knotty Love Triangle:
After a story narration by a director in Ranjish Hi Sahi, he is told that he has just joined together bits and pieces of other films. This is what Mahesh Bhatt has done in this Voot series, only the pieces are from his own films, for which he took inspiration from his own rather colourful life. He is credited for creating the series, written and directed by Pushpdeep Bhardwaj.
Many films that Bhatt has written, directed, produced – Arth, Janam, Aashiqui, Woh Lamhe, Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi, Zakhm—have taken incidents and characters from his life, most of which was also covered by the gossip magazines of the time. The highpoints being his parents not being legally wed (“I am a bastard,” he had announced to the media back then), his brief infatuation with Osho, his intense affair with Parveen Babi, which were all scandalous in the Seventies and Eighties, but would not cause any ripples now. So on the one hand, the series is a pointless rehash of facts (and fiction) that is well-known by people of an earlier generation, on the other it is a nostalgia trip for those who lived through the era of loosening moral shackles in the hypocritical, image-conscious film industry. The Juhu Gang of Mahesh Bhatt, Danny Denzongpa, Kabir Bedi, Parveen Babi, Vinod Khanna and their cohorts were experimenting with breaking taboos and following the Rajneesh Ashram brand of spirituality.
The series begins with Shankar Vats (Tahir Raj Bhasin) chucking the beads and robes of the guru and leaving the ashram. Son of a filmmaker (Rasik Dave), who abandoned the family, Shankar hates him and lives in a decrepit old house with his mother (Zarina Wahab), brother Ganesh (Paras Priyadarshan), wife Anju (Amrita Puri) and schoolgoing daughter Anju (Ayesha Vindhara), and is struggling to make a career after three flops. That is the age of commercial, multi-starrer blockbusters—a giant hoarding of Ajay Anwar Albert (guess which?) dominates the city landscape.
Shankar’s eagerness piques the interest of top actress Aamna Parvez (Amala Paul—a dead ringer for Deepika Padokune!), who has a history of mental problems and money-grubbing mother. Despite the constant ministrations of her loyal help Mary (Naina Sareen) and driver Abdul (Madan Deodhar), she starts to unravel when her actor boyfriend Zubair (Rajat Kaul) dumps her for a rival.
At first Shankar is flattered by Aamna’s attention, but soon realizes her neediness could destroy him. However, when he tries to leave her, she attempts suicide and he feels impelled to stand by her. His long-suffering wife watches with anguish as her marriage strains against the Aamna whirlwind.
The story may not be able to explain Aamna’s mental illness very well, but it takes a fairly accurate look at the filmmaking environment of that period, when a nasty distributor, Jagmohan (Saurabh Sachdeva) holds the reins to many a career. The dinghy studios, rundown single screen cinemas, rituals like the ‘muhurat’ shot, trade magazines, snoopy gossip journalists all hark back to the era before spiffy multiplexes, foreign locations, bound scripts, talent managing teams and corporate control of film production.
By the end of the last episodes and much emotional turbulence Shankar finds the story that will save his career, just like Mahesh Bhatt did with the semi-autobiographical Arth.
Amala Paul has the toughest role, and she delivers on the volatility and vulnerability of the mentally disturned Aamna. Tahir Raj Bhasin, Amrita Puri and Zarina Wahab stand by and let her walk away with every scene in which she appears.
If there is a Season 2, it will probably take off from how Mahesh Bhatt constructed a successful and controversial career, from a film that laid bare the pain of love and betrayal.
(This piece first appeared in seniorstoday.in on January 14, 2022)
