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73-year-old writer Kiran Nagarkar is an angry old man. The celebrated novelist, playwright and screenwriter, who will be awarded the lifetime achievement award at the Tata Literature Festival 2015 on November 1, has a warning for the powers that be while backing the writers who are protesting the increasing intolerance in the country.
In my interview with Nagarkar, the writer was more interested in talking about the current socio-political scenario in the country, but I started the Q&A session by asking him about his books:
(You can watch the VIDEO of the interview below or scroll down for a TEXT version)
Q: Your writing has this cinematic quality about it, especially if I could refer to how Ravan and Eddie begins, it’s so visual. Is that something that comes naturally to you? Do you think of your stories in such a visually detailed manner?
Kiran Nagarkar: I think I do, I have always said that – I used to be absolutely nuts about cinema, despite the fact that we were too poor to watch too much of cinema. But it has definitely played an important part not only in my life but also in my imagination I think. So I would go along with what you are saying entirely.
Q: You have written about 3 to 4 screenplays, and you’ve spoken about your brush with Bollywood, you said that they made you slog but nothing came out of it. Honestly, how was that experience?
Kiran Nagarkar: The fact of the matter is by the grace of God, I am not so far at least dependent on my screenplays being sold for just filling my stomach.
Even Ravan and Eddie, when someone came over and said they wanted me to write something, I had already started writing and he didn’t have the courtesy to say – I don’t think we see eye to eye about what should be written. The same thing happened later on. Big time producers and directors have approached me. With the first Ravan and Eddie director, I am truly grateful to him that he ditched, never mind that he didn’t tell me, because I think he and I come from very different places.
Q: Talking of Ravan and Eddie and the character arc that the two characters take over 3 books – the first book was very optimistic, it had a lot of irreverence and then coming down to the third book Rest In Peace, it’s more dark and you’ve been stingy with the humour and irreverence. Does that also reflect the writer’s mood over the years that you’ve spent writing these three books.
Kiran Nagarkar: You know, I don’t know if I can equate it so clearly. I wish to God I could have been just free to write the way I wrote Ravan and Eddie.
Q: Coming to your love affair with Mumbai city. In a recent interview said that you felt literally suffocated in Mumbai today, but your play Bedtime Story was brutally censored back in 1978 and right wing groups banned the play from being staged. And now with the Ghulam Ali and Sudheendra Kulkarni episodes, you realise nothing much has changed or as the old adage goes, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Kiran Nagarkar: I don’t think I would take such an extreme stance on the 1978 time.
I mean, Emergency is what? There are no freedoms, no constitutional rights, yes Bedtime Story got into serious trouble, but by and large there were not too many things which were banned, dissent was not entirely banned at all, during Emergency – yes, after that you know what a mess we made of things.
But when you think of what is happening today, and I am sorry to say this, and I am sorry because I am really tired now. This morning while I was taking a shower I was saying to myself, can we have an end to this daily situation of incidents and crisis, because somebody had called me and told me that there was the threat of another attack (on a lady writer, Chetana Thirtahalli, in Bengaluru).
You’ll have to grant that however horribly corrupt the Congress government was and they were the ones who got this current government in, because there was absolutely no way that anybody could ignore what they were doing. At the same time, I have to say, I did not feel threatened every day. Yes, there was the naxalite thing, we behaved appallingly with the naxalites, I am not siding with them, I am entirely against their violence but I also know the desperate straits there are in. But it was not a complete daily matter. And you know to say that it is a state matter, yes it is true if it’s Karnataka it’s not the centre’s thing, but you are the central authority.
They say – “It’s sad, it’s a shame”. Yeah? A murder is a shame? Why don’t you just do – “Tsk tsk tsk, what a shame”. You cannot take away the right to life.
Q: Do you also see a decline in the quality of political culture over the ages, earlier if there was a train accident, a minister used to take moral responsibility for it and resign. But nowadays you see ministers come out and make completely irresponsible statements and the parties just distance themselves from it, saying – this is his or her own personal view, we have nothing to do with it or just keep silent. Do you see that change in the culture of politics?
Kiran Nagarkar: I think I see it very seriously. It’s one thing for someone to take it upon himself to be horrendously brutal or even the kind of comment that the minister made about the dog, two children are dead and you’re talking about dogs. You know for an absolute common man like me it is intolerable. But you are sitting in a position of responsibility, right? As we say in Hindi… kahan hai lagaam yaar?
That is exactly what you are seeing now. A time, god forbid might come, when these very fine people who are doing these terrible things are going to say – “Let the Prime Minister say whatever he wants, we know that nothing is going to happen to us”.
Q: On this whole issue of writers’ protesting and returning their awards as a symbol of protest, the popular argument being given is - but where were you when the 1984 riots took place? In your understanding, can a writer choose which battles he wants to fight, or choose which injustice he wants to stand up for?
Kiran Nagarkar: Of course they can.
But we did this in 1992, we did this in 2002. So you know, what do I do with my anger apart from writing?
Many of these writers are young people, they are now standing up for our constitution and we are ashamed of them? What is wrong with us? It is again because you don’t want to face up to it and not facing up to it is going to have horrible consequences. And I am saying this advisorily. Don’t forget the world is going through some of the worst times possible in terms of the ISIS menace and ok, there is no question who started all of it. America started all of it.
But the point is, we have a neighbour to the Northwest, we have a difficult time with them, Bombay is there favourite city, we have gone through a lot of it. We have always had a problem with them, but I hope to god we’ll have back channels which will ultimately cure the disease. Now the point is this, why am I so concerned, to put it mildly, because I fear, if we continue like this, Hindutva is going to be the biggest recruiter for the ISIS clan. If you are going to have a minority which is continually being made to feel that it is not part of the polity, then what do you think is going to happen?
Q: Moving away from politics, as a veteran writer, have you been able to embrace technology? In the 70s you were writing on paper, then the typewriter, the computer, laptop, now you have handheld devices.
Kiran Nagarkar: I still don’t know how to type yaar. I have to write emails, but per sentence I am making 12 mistakes, who wants that? The computer is a terrific instrument, the point is, I am from a previous time, your way of thinking is attached to your fingers and your hand. It’s not that I am critical of the computer, no, it’s a blessing but it was not my time, so when I switched over, I misused the computer. Barring writing emails and the occasional writing of my novels, I don’t use it for anything at all.
Q: Over time do you see physical books getting obsolete, with libraries and book shops already closing down around you?
Kiran Nagarkar: Oh yeah, they’ll go away.
Q: You have won so many awards and honours, but a Lifetime Achievement award has a special ring to it. So how did you react when the Tata Lit Fest guys approached you with the Lifetime Achievement award, did you want to tell them - go away and come back after 10 years maybe?
Kiran Nagarkar: By and large the older authors don’t make money, so I was telling the organisers that a daily award is a better idea. Give me five lakhs every day. But what you are saying is true, lets hope that I don’t live up to your expectations but on the other hand, I do write.
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