Gandhi was complex: Feroz Abbas Khan

Director Feroz A Khan, who has earned himself two National Awards for debut film Gandhi, My Father, shares his experience with Spicezee.com.

At the forefront of Indian theatre today, Feroz Abbas Khan is recognized as much for exploring new forms, as for bringing Hindi theatre, mainstream recognition. In a career spanning more than two decades, he has directed some of India’s finest acting talent, both from stage and cinema.

For his directorial debut Gandhi, My Father; Feroz has bagged two National Awards for Best Screenplay & Best Film. In an exclusive chat with Shashank Chouhan of Spicezee.com, Feroz reveals his obsession with Gandhi and his jump from theatre to films. Shashank: This is your debut film and you have won the National Award which has also been a controversial award. Feroz: I am delighted and honoured to win the National Award in my first film. Its two awards actually so I am doubly delighted. It’s an acknowledgement which encourages me no end. As far as controversies go, I haven’t been involved in them! We didn’t lobby we just did good work. Shashank: How did you zero in on Harilal as a subject? Feroz: You see this is as much a story of Gandhi as it is about his son Harilal. We have known the public and political side of Gandhi. This is his personal side and an interesting subject. Shashank: How difficult is adapting a book like Harilal: A Life to a full fledged film? Feroz: Quite difficult. Gandhi and Harilal communicated with each other in letters and this book is made from letters between Gandhi and Harilal. That is the technical difficulty, then there is the enormous task balancing the Mahatma aspect with the Gandhi aspect. That is more difficult. Shashank: You seem to be impressed a lot by the idea of Gandhi. Your play Mahatma vs Gandhi is a sensation and then this film…. Feroz: Being in India, it is impossible to escape the idea of Gandhi. He is the moral conscience of this country. You have to deal with him all the time. Shashank: Do you think Gandhi was a misunderstood icon and/or a misunderstood father? Or was he, simple, a human being? Feroz: I don’t know about the political ideas of people about Gandhi. He was married at a very early age. And became a father when he was 18. So there were immaturities on his as well as his son’s end. His life was a complicated one and it’s difficult to simply categorise it. Shashank: The film has won two National Awards but not popular acclaim… Feroz: No, a film like this has a shelf value. It’s different from other films. It’s got archival value, its DVDs and CDs and other material keep selling. So there are various revenue streams. It is a successful film actually! Shashank: You have been a theatre person all along. Why and how did this switch happen? Feroz: I have been getting offers for films for quite some time now, but I passed them over. But when this subject came up, Anil wanted me to get involved then I could not say no. Films are a very wide reaching medium. For a drama, the actors always need to be there but this limitation is not there for films. So the jump is to carry forward the message to a wider audience. But I will do both theatre and films. My play Salemsman Ramlal with Satish Kaushik begins tomorrow. There are some more film offers and I am reading some scripts. Shashank: And how difficult was it? Feroz: The grammar of both the mediums is completely different. It’s a totally different ball game and you have to play it to know about the challenge it poses.