Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is making his acting debut in forthcoming ‘The Dark Side Of Life: Mumbai City’ helmed by Tariq Khan, who is relatively new in Cinema world. Bhatt says he wanted to support the new and honest talent, who is brave to make films on sensitive issues, which most filmmakers are afraid to approach.
He said, “Tariq Khan has handled the plot of the film successfully; this is a very unusual plot and has been handled beautifully. The filmmaker doesn’t make films like this, they just cannot get over the entertainment genre. So when someone comes up with a different kind of cinema, it is essential that we support him and I have supported Tariq Khan”
Further adding, Mahesh Bhatt said, “Tariq Khan is good and decent human being. He came to me with this role, and he insisted that I take up this role. And I have always supported new and honest talent, and Tariq is one such guy. I liked him immediately; he came straight to the point in a very simple manner”
“He explained the character to me, I am playing a Muslim father, whose is living alone and his son lives in the USA. And he keeps a Hindu boy in his house a tenant. Tariq has treated this relationship very sensitively, especially in a city where people reach that point of giving up on life, commit suicide. So there was this message for these people, to keep on living and struggling with life. I liked that message a lot because suicide is such a reality which society hasn’t deal with. I think we are in danger from ourselves, so I liked this core as well”
Further adding Mahesh Bhatt expressed that Tariq Khan guided him on every step of the way, as he is not an actor. He said, “Tariq Khan made me do everything. I am not an actor, he told me what to do and I did it. He said jump, I jumped. The entire credit goes to Tariq Khan. I think I really can’t take any credit”
The movie also stars Avi Pardasani, KK Menon, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Neha Khan and Allisha Khan. This movie has been backed by Rajesh Pardasani.
Newbie Avi Pardasani plays the role of Hindu Boy, who lives with Mahesh Bhatt’s character Zulfikar in the film. Talking about working with the newbie, Mahesh said, “He is such a sensitive child. I liked him the moment I saw him. I really wanted to hug him the moment I see him. He is such a sweet child”
The film is slated for 5th October 2018 release.
Tariq is a genius!
He was working on this plot since the year 1999-2000. Several times he narrated the story and asked questions; very-very relevant questions, for example, what the main goal of the story should be or how the problem should be treated in the beginning of the story. He defines cinema in the simplest way. Rather I would say that, he explains in a telegraphic way, “There must be a grave problem in the beginning of the story which should be solved in the end”. This is called Filmy, Very Filmy!
He was continuously looking for the inputs about this theme. Day and night, he was busy developing ‘this’ plot. After a few years, his wife got pregnant, his responsibilities started surmounting him but he never gave-up.
So, I asked him as to why do you ask so many questions about the plot and its sub-plots and then he said, “Inputs help me add events to the story in a structured way; it gives me ideas from which I can start to develop a scene list.”