This story is from September 18, 2007

The roar of the loins...

TNN / Sep 18, 2007, 00:00 IST

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Loins of Punjab takes a look at what holds a minority community together, says writer Anuvab Pal.

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Still from Loins.. (TOI Photo) More pics“It is more about understanding the ethos of what holds a minority community together."
Your film is a heart warming comedy about Indians in America with a fondness in their hearts for the country. This is somewhat in contrast to the more critical approach you took towards Indians seeking to live the American dream in your play, The President Is Coming.Why?
For one, The President is my play but Loins... is co-written by Manish Acharya, the director. President was more about how far will ambitious people go for an insignificant contest than our fascination for America, which I think is lesser now than it was in the ’80s and ’90s. Loins... is a different sort of contest, it is more about understanding the ethos of what holds a minority community together. Plus, Loins... was written in ’05 and I didn’t begin writing The President... till ’06.
Of late, there have been a host of films on the American-desi experience. Your film has a refreshing and intelligent sense of humour. What else do you think is distinct here?

It is different for the reason you mention. Also, it isn’t about an individual trying to understand why America doesn’t love her or what her real identity is. Manish feels very strongly about good cinema not being about a personal agenda taken out on an audience but a balanced view of a slice of life.
The film revolves around a singing competition of the variety that Indian television is fraught with currently. Did you also wish to raise a larger question about the lack of a unified cultural identity among Indians and one which Bollywood makes up for?

I don’t think we did, but I think Bollywood is largely our only unifying culture. Whether shoddy or divine, is a cultural argument best left to critics.
You were working in the US too. What made you come back?
I wanted to write original stories about contemporary India. In the US, I was writing plays with Indian characters I saw around me but the expectations of audiences were for something more exotic, and more in line with existing notions of India as a mystical impoverished place.
Today, when even commercial bigwigs are banking on the NRI to make their films work, do you think you would be able to write a film with this kind of humour and appeal purely on the Indian urban experience and find backers if you could not guarantee returns from overseas?
I think one should tell an original good story to the best one’s ability. The job of who will watch this and why is for market researchers. We have tried to create a world from the world we saw around us. We’re hoping our target demographic is everybody who enjoys a good story. Like David Mamet had said once, I am not better than the audience, I am not worse than an audience, I am the audience, so I write movies I like to watch and hope other people will too.

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