MASTRAM
A film by Akhilesh Jaiswal
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OUTLINE
Rajaram,
a bank clerk in a small town, dreams of traveling to Delhi and becoming a
reputed writer. No one takes his
litterateur aspirations seriously, least of all his uncle, who marries him off
to the beautiful Renu. Although a
simpleton, Renu wholeheartedly supports her husband’s ambition. Edged on by her
encouragement, Rajaram starts stealing writing time from his humdrum work
routine, and is eventually forced to leave his job, when his boss publicly
humiliates him, and derides his fancy aspirations.
To his
utter surprise and delight, Renu unstintingly supports his decision, and starts
doing odd jobs from home, while Rajaram begins to focus completely on his
writing. But, being a stay-at-home writer
doesn’t go down too well with prying neighbors, who are quick to pass judgment
on other peoples’ lives. Rajaram becomes
a butt of all jokes in the neighborhood.
Turning
a deaf ear to the all the snubs, Rajaram starts in earnest to show his work to
several publishers. Each time he is
rebuked. They tell him he should stick
to writing text book material, and give up fanciful ideas of writing a novel.
Finally,
Rajaram encounters a fledgling publisher duo – Purohit and his brother-in-law,
Bharti. They agree to publish Rajaram’s
story about the plight of a small town girl.
However, there is one hitch. Rajaram
would have to add some necessary sensational elements to his dull tale – some
`masala’, as they refer to euphemistically.
Rajaram is
initially miffed by this writing brief.
The only meaning of `masala’ familiar to him is the kind that adds spice
to food. He is not sure what it means to
bring that to his writing – till he meets Chacha, an eccentric, old village Idiot. Chacha is an anomaly in the hypocritical
society we live in – he is unashamed of showing Rajaram the spicier side of
life and of saying it out loud. He
introduces Rajaram to the salacious and secret world of soft pornography. It’s on everybody’s mind, but no one will
admit it. Chacha does.
Rajaram,
scandalized at first, accedes to the “compromise”, and thus starts discovering
another facet of literature – erotica.
He adopts the colorful pseudonym of `Mastram’ becomes the first author
of the first pornographic novel seriesin the Hindi language. He
churns out colorful stories about sex that his eager readers voraciously
devour. Yet, Rajaram’s success still
remains elusive to him, as all the glory is due to `Mastram’.
Will the
“real” Mastram finally be exposed? Will
Rajaram’s sudden windfall arouse suspicion in his ever-supportive wife? How will Rajaram face the hypocrisy of a
society that secretly enjoys reading porn, but otherwise treats such matters
with disdain?
Director’s comment
The idea of “Mastram” came to me after I finished writing
“Gangs of Wasseypur”. I was searching
for a unique idea. I also wanted to pick
on an issue that was relevant to contemporary Indian society. Incidentally, that was the time when internet
censorship by the Government of India was being disputed all over. I was highly intrigued by the nature of the debate
considering almost everyone I know surfs pornography on the internet. I wanted to make thatsameissuethe core of my
story. Ironically, I found the
inspiration to the film right next to my bed - a Hindi porn pulp book called “Mastram”. This book is extremely popular in Northern
India, despite its absence in big stores, being available only at in small
dingy bookstalls near bus and train stations.
For the last 30 years, the book has been published as “Mastram”, with the author also credited
as “Mastram”.
What really struck me the most was that despite being so
popular, no one knows the real identity of the author. Is it because we harbor disdain and derision
for such impropriety? Could we really
accept such a person in our society? The
question thatintrigued me was, whether the writer’s family knows that he is actually
“Mastram”. That is the germ for the
character of Rajaram. I – and millions
like me, I’m sure – can relate to Rajaram and his struggle to achieve his
dreams, in the midst of his responsibility to his family. Rajaram’s predicament as a clandestine writer
of erotica, and how he faces his conservative famiy and society - this became
the premise for my film.
Director’s
biography
Hailing from the small town of Bhopal in central India, Akhilesh
came to Mumbai in 2006 to pursue his Mass Communication degree from University
of Mumbai. Only a year later did he
realize that he was ready to launch into his true calling - film-making.
He dropped out after his first year of college, and ventured out in to
the battlefield that film-making is. Akhilesh’s
big break was when he had the opportunity to co-write a seminal film in Indian
cinema – AnuragKashyap’s `Gangs of Wasseypur’, which went on to premier at the
Cannes Film Festival with much fanfare.
`Mastram’ is his directorial debut.
