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ANOKHI goes in-depth with the woman behind the riveting portrait of the 2008 Noida double-murder case.
Whenever a South Asian superstar like Irrfan Khan comes to TIFF, his presence alone attracts a fair share of attention from the international media. But the film he arrived with this year, Guilty (Talvar), built up plenty of buzz on its own, for the mere fact that it’s a dramatization of the now-infamous 2008 Noida double-murder case, in which two married physicians — Rajesh and Nupur Talwar — were convicted of killing their teenaged daughter. Despite the conviction, the case remains shrouded in mystery and controversy — which led director Meghna Gulzar to sign on for this uniquely engaging account, which weaves together three separate theories of what actually happened to young Aarushi that night. At TIFF, we spoke to Gulzar about turning this real-life mystery into a crime drama, and the challenge of crafting a neutral account of such a divisive, highly publicized case.
Matt Currie: What made you want to dramatize this already highly publicized case?
Meghna Gulzar: I think it’s a story that needs to be told. The coverage has been spread over such a long time, that a lot of information is fragmented. Putting it all together and consolidating it into a complete picture was very important because, in spite of everything being over and done with and the trial and the verdict, there is a lack of closure, still a lot of unanswered questions. And I think [my motivation] was to explore these unanswered questions — not even dare to answer them.
MC: In your research, did you end up forming an opinion on exactly what happened in this case?
MG: The thing is, if one could make that opinion, it would mean that the people who were handling the case also knew what happened, and there would be clarity. What we discovered in the course of our research was that there were differing stories and they never, ever met at a common point. And still don’t. So therefore you can’t form an opinion, really.
MC: Is it difficult to maintain that sense of ambiguity, and not colour the viewer’s perception in one direction or the other?
MG: I would use the word neutrality — because there’s no point in making an investigative thriller if it’s going to be ambiguous. What we decided to do was portray each investigation and its theory with utmost equality and fairness. Like Vishal [Bharadwaj, the film’s screenwriter] said in a press conference, [our film has] similarities with Rashomon . . . there were differing points of view on the same incident, and so organically it lent itself to the script being written like that. And so what we tried to do was portray all versions with as much neutrality and objectivity, stringing all the facts together . . . and present it to the audience and leave them at a point where then they have to make their own decision.
MC: What was the most challenging part of making this film?
MG: We wanted to be completely neutral and represent all sides with equal fairness. Sometimes you are shooting sequences which tend to kind of sway you, either emotionally or psychologically; it was almost as if I had cocooned myself away from the fact that this is a true story, that these people are actually alive, that this really happened. For me this was a story, this was my screenplay, these were my characters and this was how I was supposed to break down the shots and execute the production; from time to time, it would come rolling back to me that this was real; and then you process it and you learn to deal with it.
MC: Irrfan Khan is obviously a living legend in the Indian film industry. How did he come on board as your lead CID investigator?
MG: We were all completely unanimous that there was only one person who can play the part of the investigator. We gave him the script, and then he asked for a meeting [at which] we were having a conversation about the film, about the case, about how I want to go about it, and the next thing we knew, he immediately agreed. Because he believed in the script, he believed in our integrity, our conviction in making the film. This part couldn’t have been played overzealously or overdramatically; we knew that Irrfan would deliver it in such an evolved way, which he has done. He takes underplaying and raises it to the level of an art form. And it was such a nuanced performance as an investigator with his own personal tragedy, and it’s quite a complicated role. Plus we shot with significant breaks in between [filming], but even then, holding onto the nerve of the character the way he did, he’s just brought Ashwin Kumar to life completely on this film.
Main Image Photo Credit: TIFF
Matthew Currie
Author
A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...
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