Adventures of a Writer

    By Jaideep Sen Last evening as I  was watching Indian Idol, I realised it was  a Mothers ’  Special episode which was obviously a tearjerker . Considering how emotional it was I was  instinctively reminded that perhaps after Mother India,  the most memorable Mother written in contemporary Hindi cinema is Sumitra Devi of Deewar . The character of Sumitra Devi was created with   immense   e motional depth by Salim Saab and   his erstwhile partner, Javed Saab . Indian Idol's Mothers' Special Episode Another slightly lesser remembered but equally impactful character is Janki   in Naam.   P enned independently and  individually by Salim Saab with h is back to the wall when h e wrote his first solo script  after a forced four year break following his parting with Javed Saab . But you need to be made of a different mettle of resilience to hit the ball out of the park against all odds and that’s what Salim Saab did with N aam . When after seeing the I ndian Idol  episode I  spoke

By Jaideep Sen The minute I was reminded by my wife Anjali yesterday morning that today is GURU POORNIMA the thought to do an ode to my Ultimate Guru, Salim Khan Saab, popped in my head. I have been wanting to do this piece on the Doomed Characters, Vijay from Deewar perhaps Salim Saab-Javed Saab’s greatest script ever - I say perhaps because Sholay is my personal favorite even in terms of writing - and Vicky from Naam which is unarguably Salim Saab’s greatest script as a solo writer . Today, it found a fresh burst of oxygen. Through the lockdown I have watched both Deewar and Naam a few times and that lurking sense of losing both Vijay and Vicky forever looms large on the films especially through the second half like a predator shark which is on the fringe waiting to attack. It is this feeling which makes both films emotionally so palpable. Both the characters are scarred by life: Vijay by the extreme humiliation his father has gone through, the abject p

On the occasion of Father’s Day Jaideep Sen pens a heartfelt piece for Salim Saab who is more than a father figure to him. Read on…   I don’t remember the context in which I made this particular call to Salim Saab one evening during the interval of a Film that I was watching at PVR Citi Mall, Mumbai. But as usual it was enriching because in the course of the conversation when I mentioned to him that in my understanding, a Love Story comprises of the relationship between a boy and girl, he stopped me and said that it’s a misconception that a Love Story is only between a boy and girl. Now that was a first for me and I immediately felt that some life altering knowledge was going to be imparted by the gifted Salim Saab. He said that a love story can be between a master and servant, between an animal and his master and mentioned Haathi Mere Saathi in that context.  In that very moment my already immense respect for Salim Saab shot up uncountable folds and went through