Meet the Director Behind the Detective
It's not an activist film or intended to be a didactic one, however there are strong social issues present. So says Philip Cox, director of The Bengali Detective - a story of a simple man, love and crime.
Cox follows a dance-obsessed private eye Rajeshji in a unique film that fuses traditional Bollywood musical scores with the conventions of documentary. It unfolds as an observational documentary led by the subjects and dramatic cases set on the backdrop of Kolkatta, India. Cox says, “There is simply nothing like this [Kolkata] wonderful crumbling jewel and its charismatic people.”Co-presented by MyBindi.com, The Bengali Detective is screening at the Hot Docs festival kicking off on April 28th, 2011 to May 8th, 2011 in Toronto. See below for screening times.
MyBindi.com’s Ashna Singh speaks with Director Philip Cox in an exclusive interview about the documentary.
Q. How did you locate “The Bengali Detective”?
A. After deciding to make a film about a detective in India, I knew everything would hang off finding the right person. I believe a director’s job is 50% about the casting – that’s the key. So we took our time and looked at private detectives across the country. Usually, we came up with rather square and rather dull ex-military men who ran detective agencies. I wanted to find an ‘everyman’ – someone who could connect with the audience and who also had qualities that would allow me to mix up the Bollywood and documentary observational styles.
Also, the central detective had to act as a catalyst – he was the window in the lives of the clients whom I wanted the audience to come to know and empathize with. The film was always to be about the client’s dilemmas as much as the detective himself. Eventually, we had a contact find Rajesh and his crew in Kolkata, and I shot a long test period with them. He was a fantastic and wonderful character - also very upbeat and positive which I really wanted from the leading man. Originally from a village, he was a self-made man who came to the big city and created his own business. I sensed there was also a deeper love story at the centre of the film within his own family and this was a factor that kept me with Rajesh. From my first moment in Kolkata, I also knew this city was the backdrop for a detective film. There is simply nothing like this wonderful crumbling jewel and its charismatic people.
Q. What were some of the challenges in filming this documentary?
A. Filmmakers don’t like uncertainties – they can be an awful lot of work and then end nowhere. So this project was very precarious as we did not know which investigation would lead somewhere and which would fall through. But that’s why documentary is such a great medium – it can respond to and thrives off the ever changing and surprising reality that happens before the camera each day.
Following this detective, I had to have certain parameters. These being that once one started an investigation one had to take the audience on a journey to see the case to some sort of conclusion, which in two out of the three cases in the film happened successfully. We had lots of frustrating false starts though - people refused access many times of course. What was just as important for me though was not only about revealing the ‘who done it’ end scene, but more placing the audience into the emotional core of what each subject in each case was feeling. I wanted to drop the audience into the lives of various very different people across Kolkata in their moments of great dilemma.
We don’t have to know any peripheral details about these subjects and only respond to their emotional journeys: one young man suspects his very own family of a homicide; another is a middle-aged woman who must make a decision about her adulterous husband; and the other is a poor shopkeeper caught up in the world of corporate muscle flexing and counterfeiting. They are all small yet powerful and relevant journeys that reflect wider issues in India today.Q. The film is sort of a juxtaposition between crime and Bollywood dance. What was your reasoning behind this strategy?
A. Dance and humour had to be in the film. I wanted to make something entertaining as well as poignant and wanted to steer clear of being didactic or preaching - a style which has killed the documentary dead for many Indians for many generations. Yet everything for me had to start in the real – be rooted in reality – and then we could take it elsewhere and have fun with it.
So the dance sequences would come from real dance classes. Dance and song, I came to learn holds a special place for all Indians. It is a form of release and escapism and access to joy and in this film, the detectives use it as a release from the darker side of their work. Yet it was precarious to balance this next to real tragedy and death but in a way, that was the Indian reality before me. It was a difficult balance but I think we managed it...just!
Q. There are various scenes that portray echoes of Bollywood cinema. How did you use this as a method to appeal to your audience?
A. I always wanted to make a film that could marry classic British observational cinema with some Bollywood song and dance. And as a director, I feel we should always be looking for ways to bring the experience and life of the subject to the audience in distinct and powerful ways. In this case, my lead character had a dance fantasy and the cultural context of Bollywood allowed me to take something real - the dance classes - and then elevate them into something more fantastic and stylish.
Q. What was the most shocking discovery you made while filming this documentary in Kolkata India?
A. I have worked in India many years so I’m used to working in the culture. However, I find the resignation by much of the population to the failure of a coherent social justice system always depressing. What we often take for granted in first-world societies' - such as demanding our 'rights' and 'justice' etc. - is beyond the reach of much of the Indian population - however much the economy is booming.
Q. What fascinates you about the Indian culture?
A. It's not my own but there are so many links and connections. My father was born in India and along with being a GP, practiced Ayuvedic Medicine. He sent my brothers and me to a school in London that taught the Bhagavad Geeta, Upanishads and Sanskrit. So, I was connected to Indian culture and tradition from a young age but did not travel there until I was much older. As a group of multi-skilled filmmakers, the Native Voice Films collective work around the world – but I am always drawn to stories or issues in India. These have been from Orissa to Kashmir and now West Bengal.
Q. What is the lasting impression you want to leave on the audience?
A. Cinema for me is all about giving an ‘experience’ to the audience. If people feel nothing or leave indifferent then you have failed in your job as a director. That can be anger or laughter or tears – it doesn’t matter. So I hope they respond to Rajesh, his boys and the dilemmas of the subjects up there on the screen. I hope that the central character Rajeshji is proud of it as it shows the strength, fortitude, love and resilience of the simple everyman. That people from many different countries will see it and see themselves in it somewhere – and that they just have a good movie experience for 90 minutes!
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THE BENGALI DETECTIVE SCREEN TIMES
Fri, Apr 29 9:15PM TIFF Bell Lightbox 1, 350 King Street WestSat, Apr 30 1:30PM Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West
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