THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Urmi Juvekar sits comfortably unaffected by the noise all around. Being a prolific scriptwriter may have made her one of the most coveted voices of the profession and won many laurels. Though these may sit pretty on her, they don’t bother her much. Neither does she feel the rush to join any trend.
Urmi’s career began as a documentary film writer and director before her stint in acting (Shyam Benegal’s famed TV serial Yatra that aired on DD in 1986) and as an assistant to filmmakers like Ketan Mehta. Later, after a stint in acting, she began focusing on her true passion.
Her first feature film screenwriting was in 1997 with Kalpana Lajmi’s Darmiyaan: In Between (1997). Later , she worked in films such as Shararat, I Am, Shanghai, and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy.
Now, as a veteran of her craft, she sees her journey as something that went the way it had to, something she enjoyed and chose over what her upbringing in a middle-class family with strong roots in education would otherwise prepare her for. This understanding of herself is evident as she speaks to TNIE about her profession and how things have changed in cinema over the years.
Excerpts:
How do you see the change in cinema over the years?
Looking at others is just calling for unhappiness. It doesn’t concern me if there are 500 people doing cinema differently. All I ask is, does it help me? I am very protective of my happiness.
I think, youngsters especially just add to their misery by thinking of market trends. It is a journey that you have embarked on and you should focus on what you want to do. At some point, you have to sit quietly and be happy. However, I admit, the pressure is also huge now on newcomers to prove themselves.
Sometime after 1991, there came the need for regular corporate success right at the beginning. This has brought a lot of pressure. Then there is the social media. But how all these have changed work patterns, I don’t know.
But has the quality of work taken a backseat?
Who am I to talk about quality? One part of art is experimentation. And quality is very subjective. I once sat on a stage with an important filmmaker who spoke about the ‘middle of the road’ cinema — neither arthouse nor popular. ‘These people will fall in the cracks,’ he said.
Such value judgements get us nowhere. Thoughts on quality would get nowhere if you want to make a movie for the sake of being arthouse, or top do well at the box office, or fetch awards, or all at the same time. With every age and time, the definition of quality will change.
As movies being shown abroad and across India, should writers consider the larger audience?
You may not see the larger trends and seeing those trends is also not your job. Subconsciously, however, we may be influenced by something that is in vogue if it suits our framework of narration. But that shouldn’t be seen as part of a trend.
Has the changing times brought in specialisation in writing?
Each film is different, and this difference should be present in how the script treats the story. So there is no blatant categorisation. But writers are human beings, with their own likes and dislikes. So, scriptwriters also can choose the topic they like to work with. If I am not comfortable writing about blood and gore, why would makers come to me for such a script? It is more a matter of taste than genre.
About your mentoring exercises...
If you come up with a full script, I can mentor your writing. But if you ask me to teach script writing, that would involve academics, history, an understanding of cinema, etc.
But scriptwriting is now a subject of study...
The craft can be taught as it is technical — the script is a technical document. To turn an idea into action is the work of a screenwriter. I cannot help with ideas, confidence, talent, or hard work. But the technique can be taught.
But has the popularity of anime changed the scriptwriting exercise form before?
No, the craft hasn’t changed. But cinema’s language has changed with the digital overtones. We just need to adapt to the new structure. If there is an anime sequence in the plot, the script will have it.
How do you see the changes in filmmaking today?
I can only say maybe society was looking at itself through films and now films are used to look within a person. Even that is important...how can we stand in judgment of a trend?