Bajirao Mastani

Bajirao Mastani

This blog is written as a part of my online discussion at Department of English, MKBU.

Dilip Barad Sir, 

Ref: Interview of writer of Bajirao-Mastani Prakash Kapadia.

We can learn 

1) How long it takes in making of Historical films. 

2) How extensive Research is done by writer?

3) Converting History into Literature is difficult task.

4) When writer says that it is an attempt to see past through today's spectacles/goggles;  we remember the relevance of Eliot ' s concept of Tradition which involves Historical sense which involves past ness of past and it's presence, consciousness of past, timeless n temporal, contemporaenity etc. Not merely protector or the one who lives in Past but the one who sees past through present.

5) the controversy is bound to happen , and there is nothing wrong in  controversy. Literature, through "imagination", tries to answer questions left unanswered by History.

Share your views on the small interview attached. Try to connect it with the study of literature ans literary criticism / theory.

After reading this interview I realize how difficult  work it is to prepare a movie from history. Because history is something which generally remains most controversial issue. And it took 12 year to do research just to make a single movie, it shows writer’s dedication and determination. Prakash Kapadiya tells that since 2002 he was reading, watching other T.V. serial made on this  topic, meeting other historians etc. took a long time to write a script of the movie.

Yes, converting history into literature is difficult task, because  chief characteristic of literature is that it is imaginative, where as history is factual. So there is constant debate goes on this movie or book or TV serial is lying, telling a thing which is far away from reality. BUT WE’VE TO REMEMBER THAT THIS IS ART/ LITERATURE. LITERATURE IS ALWAYS IMAGINATIVE. IT NEVER SAYS WE ARE SPEAKING TRUTH. SO, WE CAN’T CHARGE IT FOR SPEAKING LIE.

They have poetic liberty  and they can change it. As a audience/ reader we have to grow.

Eliot says that pastness of past is not important but its present is more important. Means HOW PAST IS STILL ALIVE TODAY is more important. It is a habit of mind to  see anything by keeping in mind present   time.

I still haven’t seen the movie or I   I don’t know much about history of Bajirao , so it is difficult to say what is reality and what are changes made by movie maker.