The Bipolar Lawyer

AN EXTRACT FROM THE RECENT BOOK ON THE MAKING OF THE CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED AND AWARDWINNING AMITABH BACHCHAN STARRER PINK.

- Gautam Chintamani

QUESTIONING THE CASTING of Amitabh Bachchan in the role of (lawyer) Deepak Sehgal, critics argued that the presence of the superstar was tantamount to sermonising, which appears to be the opposite of what the creators of Pink hoped to achieve. (Creative producer Shoojit) Sircar categorically states that he was not making a film on women’s empowerment and, therefore, it never occurred to him or (director Aniruddha) Roy Chowdhury that there ought to have been a lady lawyer instead of Bachchan. “It’s not lecturing,” responds Sircar to the question “Why was a man giving a lecture?”, adding, “A man is arguing a case in a film that was about three girls who were helped by two or three people.”

“I wanted to make this film for men,” asserts Roy Chowdhury and goes on to say that as an artist, it is his responsibility to make the viewer feel responsible. (Screenplay writer Ritesh) Shah’s response to the presence of Amitabh Bachchan in the film is: “People read too much into people involved with films. People feel that it’s because we have Mr Bachchan in the film, we have such and such dialogue, but it was always there. It was there from day one.” He goes one step further when he articulates that it never occurred to them that only women should fight women’s battles just like no one insists on getting children to make children’s films. “The thing about eventually a man winning” was actually “a person” delivering, and it could very well have been an old woman, a younger woman, or, in the case of Pink, a washed-out bipolar and troubled older man.