Books

Saeed Mirza

Celebrated filmmaker on his debut novel <i>Ammi—Letter to a Democratic Mother</i>

Advertisement

Saeed Mirza
info_icon
How did you get around to writing a book?

This wasn’t begun as a novel, rather a response to 9/11 when people like George Bush started using words like "democratic" vs "undemocratic" without an idea of what it meant.

What about that did you find so offensive?

How badly people are misconstrued and misperceived. Just because a person wears a business suit doesn’t make him a liberal.

And the name of the book comes from that?

Very much so, I wanted to rescue those words to show how the term "democratic" could be used for people like my mother, who fitted none of those preconceived ideas.

Advertisement

How long did the novel take to write?

Over four years and a lot of travelling.

Tell us about the structure of your novel.

I’m not sure I can. It’s made of many parts—screenplays, diary entries, memoir and events I witnessed, worked into the overall structure.

Any other book we could compare it to?

I haven’t seen one. I had no benchmarks with which to compare when I started, and now, when I’m finished, I still don’t see one.

You are associated with Progressive, New Wave cinema, is the novel a continuation?

"Progressive" isn’t the word I’d use, rather "cinema with integrity". Whatever I’ve done I’ve tried to do with passion and integrity.

Advertisement

Is there still scope for that type of cinema?

I don’t know. You just do your best. Nobody knows what will work with the audience.

With the new writing on India, is there scope for "literature with integrity"?

I hope so.

What do you find disturbing about cinema and literature in New India?

Less than 2 per cent of the population are affected by the stockmarket, but recently 80 per cent of the stories are about that. Cinema and literature will follow suit, but that’s a very small part of India.

Tags

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement