SHOT IN BOMBAY
Posted Fri, April 18, 2008 in Features and Q&As
More films are shot in Bollywood every year than anywhere else in the world. <ahref="http://hotdocsaudience.bside.com/2008/films/shotinbombay_hotdocs2008">SHOT IN BOMBAY is the story behind one of them
by Andrew Brudz
SHOT IN BOMBAY, Liz Mermin’s searing behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Bollywood gangster flick, transcends the typical making-of documentary.
Its subject, Shootout at Lokhandwala, is a stylishly violent portrayal of the deadly real life gunfight between the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (A.T.S) and a notorious group of gangsters in 1992.
SHOT IN BOMBAY tells the parallel stories of the making of Shootout at Lokhandwala and a recount of the incident on which it’s based. So, that’s life…imitating art…imitating life (if you’re keeping track).
“It became about the strange mirroring of fiction and reality, which is particularly complicated in a place where the film industry is the biggest game in town,” says Mermin. The influence of film is not lost, even on those involved in the original incident, as Mumbai police chief (cum movie extra) A.A. Khan defends his actions that day by likening himself to another notorious cop: “Dirty Harry only shot persons who deserved to be shot.” The real star of SHOT IN BOMBAY, however, is Apoorva Lakhia, the foul-mouthed director trying to keep his film from falling apart. Mermin says of her Bollywood counterpart, “with his tattoos and swearing, [he] couldn't have been further from a Western stereotype about the Indian film industry dominated by mushy song and dance.”
Lakhia struggles with a big budget and even bigger studio expectations, on-set egos, greedy producers, and scheduling around his superstar lead actor’s incarceration for illegal weapons charges.
After seeing first-hand how a Bollywood blockbuster comes to life, Mermin saw the similarities in making her own films.
“Things never go as planned, and you have to adapt quickly, and much of the time you work with what you have rather than what you want.”
“The main difference,” Mermin continues, “is that you have hundreds and hundreds of people on your crew, working to make the film. Extraordinary things can be accomplished - like the building of an entire fake high-rise complex. And the actors require quite a bit of attention. To say the least.”
Mermin is no stranger to films dealing with people working against all odds. Her previous documentaries include On Hostile Ground, about abortion workers in the American South, and The Beauty Academy of Kabul, a look at hairdressers in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
“I like to see how people create meaning and humour and keep going against the odds. It gives me perspective on the challenges of making documentary films. I like the kind of people who are drawn to such challenges, and the question of what drives them.”
As for the end result of all those challenges faced by the Bollywood film crew, Mermin says, “the film lover in my head had no problem judging [Shootout], but I couldn't not feel an affection for it having watched it come together. And the audiences in Bombay loved it, which is all that mattered to the filmmakers. They don't care about people like me!”
SHOT IN BOMBAY screens Saturday April 19 at 3:30 PM at the Bloor Cinema and screens again on Monday, April 21 at 4:00 PM at Cumberland Cinemas.
