Nadya had been wanting to film a documentary. I suggested that if she wanted to film in India that the economy there was different, and depending on her budget and interests that she could consider filming there. We talked about different subjects; she settled on Arun Pathak and began talking to him on Skype.
Arun Pathak is definitely an unusual and impressive character. At a young age he began working in political activism as a community organizer, and he quickly proved aptitude in rallying support for all kinds of popular causes. He has a casual way about him that makes people who listen to him like him, and he has business sense to get and manage funding, and people are generally willing to work with him.
In his early career he gained distinction by performing what I would call “suicide artistry”. There is a tradition in South Asia when people want things from the government, then a lot of them threaten suicide and some of them actually follow through. The international media has shown many images of Tibetans protesting Chinese occupation by immolating themselves, and that is one example of this. Other examples include Gandhi’s protests, which frequently involved him taking himself hostage by starving himself and threatening the British that if they did not comply with his demands, then he would kill himself and the Indian people would blame them for murdering him. Following the Mandal Commission, some middle or upper class high-caste students also killed themselves to protest the new barriers which the government created by transferring university admission invitations which they expected instead to low-caste students.
Pathak did lots of such protests. He is a passionate person. I am sure that he loves life and would not want to die, but I also am told and have read that he has stood in high places and precariously waved his body, and that he has jumped in front of politicians’ moving cars, and that he has somehow mangled his arms with some kind of death machine or cutting contraption, and that the poison he took at a barely sub-lethal level is what still makes his hands sweat continually to this day. Most famously and how I heard of him was his protest of Deepa Mehta’s water, in which he tied his torso to a rope and bound the other end to a stone. While she was filming the river, he was in a boat sliding into the background. In a scene which should have only shown two actors talking to each other, the camera was capturing an odd distraction in the distance in which an unnamed character not otherwise in the film was heaving a stone out of a rowboat and consequently jerked into the river’s depths. Pathak has survived all these protests so far.
Pathak worked as a regional contact for Mumbai’s Shiv Sena for years. Sometime later he began supporting BSP, but after that party lost the elections, he has been considering how to develop himself as an activist. Today he is still a community organizer. He is resident in a Jain temple in Varanasi where he occupies several apartments and the rooftop. As the birthplace of one of the Tirtankaras, The temple is one of the holiest in Jain religion, and Pathak has particular oversight over the apartments which are available to the pilgrims visiting the temple. I am really not sure of his relationship with the place; he has not yet ever been interested to talk to me about why he cares to do so much to promote Hindu faith and religion while living with Jains, nor am I quite sure why the Jains see best that he assist them there in their holiest place.
One of his plans for his future was to fund a movie about his activism. When I went to Mumbai I visited his office there. It was then full of people having a meeting about the filming schedule. Nandan tells me that he has read the script (it is Hindi) and that it seems like a professionally written script in accord with Bollywood traditions. He says that he music is appropriate and that it could be as any other popular Bollywood movie. Some controversy in the script includes criticism of particular politicians with whom Pathak has been in conflict in the past.
I asked Pathak what role he was to have in the production of his biography and he told me that he was, “Director, Producer, and hero” and “hero” is the word in India for the male lead. I could not immediately think of another movie in which someone has sought mainstream release and also served all those roles, and I asked Nandan if it was common in India. He told me that Pathak was trying something new.
I met the writer, the videographer, a dancing girl, some song boys, and others involved in the production. There were about 15 people there, and the office seemed quite nice and in a good location. Pathak told me that his plan was to transport about 70 people from Mumbai to Varanasi for filming on February 15, because his astrologer told him that day was auspicious. Something must have delayed filming because that day came and went, and if I understand correctly Pathak would like to start soon otherwise.
Through all this, Nadya has been visiting him nearly daily, filming him for a biography on his life and documenting his process in directing/producing/acting in his film. I love hearing Pathak talk and love seeing him do his daily activities. I look forward to seeing what Nadya produces and how his film progresses.
Very Nice
nice