Starring: Neha, Jatin Garewal, Yash Pathak, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Mahesh Thakur, and Gulshan Grover. Bedi, Jeff Loften Screenplay: Anuradha Tiwari / Farhan Dialogue: Farhan Edited by: Anirbaan Audiography: Rakesh Ranjan Art Director: Smita Gupta / Saleem Syed Choreography: Nimesh Bhatt / JoJo Khan Cinematography: Arvind K Production Controller: Sudhirbhai Mishra Lyrics: Anand Bakshi Music: Anu Malik Directed by: Prakash Jha

Synopsis

Home was where Rahul and his father Akash lived, cooked, sang, exercised, fought, laughed, and cried together. Theirs was a complete family. A place where two men, and Rahul was definitely a man at 5, led a life of complete harmony. Rahul could toast bread for his father, lay the table and even polish his shoes on his own. Every morning he saw his father off to work at the bus depot, for Akash ran a travel agency by himself, and walked off to the school. He had Jumbo and a 9-year-old Isha for friends while his drawing kept him company at other times. Isha amazed him with her 'magic' and Rahul was slave to her every idea, every piece of advice Isha had in store for him. His world didn't seem to need a mother. A heart-warming story that pits a child's innocence against adult problems makes the most impossible love story on earth rekindle. A refreshing look at the ordinary adult world from a child's point of view, thus coloring it with extraordinary hues. A small tribute to the victory of innocence and true love...

We had a chat with Prakash Jha in the midst of a myriad of interventions including lunch, an "oh-you-are-so-great-mr-jha-will-you-let-my-son-assist-you," an interview by a "dotcom" (darn those undeserving folk sitting on the misdirected pots of money), and of course, his edit (which we were quite all right with as it gave us an insight into Rahul). One couldn't help but think of what simple lives we mortals lead.

Prakash Jha has tried it all - his repertoire of films certainly covers a great many genres of filmmaking. His last three films - Mrityudand, Dil Kya Kare and now Rahul - deal with subject matter that are completely dissimilar to each other and yet all mainstream. With Rahul, Jha does a complete 360 from the message-oriented Mrityudand and the stylistically inclined Dil Kya Kare, and the focus now is on emotions. And not just any emotion, a first person perspective of a 4 year old, is what Rahul is about. Jha is very clear on the intentions of this film - its commercial, its got to make money - but you know what, it's a good film.

Jha had tremendous success with his first few films, including Damul, picking up 6 National Awards and also several international awards. That was a time, he says, that he did not care much who watched his films or what they achieved financially, as long as he felt the film was, simply put, good. But one had to continue making films and with further work came expectations from the market to work for it. This essentially meant that his films needed to make money and an audience needed to be satiated. Mrityudand, a film Jha is particularly proud of, managed to achieve both, critical acclaim and a reasonable run at the box office. Its definite message was packaged in every shot, scene and dialogue, says he. However, the only point common with Rahul is its box-office objective. There is no underlying preaching, only an upfront idea of responsibility. And it certainly does not have any autobiographical element.

The idea came from several discussions between Subhash Ghai (who is producing the film) and Jha and the final script was a collaborative effort of a team of writers. There was no single inspiration for the film, ideas were tossed about between several people before the concept came about and further developed. Jha isn't of the opinion that a film is at its best only when the director writes it. "Give me a scene on paper and I'll shoot it 20 different ways and you may interpret it in 20 different ways. After all, it is the director who is the final author of the film."

The film was shot on location in Mahableshwar and Panchgini in a 50-day stretch. It's a mid-budget film with costs under two crores. Stylistically, it is a very simple film. Jha loves the long shot, and employs it well in Rahul. There is little camera movement, as Jha believes that in this film, the content does the talking. Upperstall was shown a sneak preview of a complete song from the film. The music and visuals were quite energetic.

Casting the boy was quite a task. 1300 kids were screened from cities all over India. From the list, 120 of them had a tête-à-tête with Jha as he informally got to know them better. Next, a final 20 were put through a week-long workshop where he passively observed them and picked out Yash Pathak for the lead.

Working with this 4 year old was a very cute experience recounts the director. The kid was very focused despite his distracted nature. There was very little "acting" involved, as he was a complete natural. In one of the scenes, Yash actually fell asleep on the bed while Jha continued filming sequences with him in the frame. When it was pack-up time for little Yash at the end of the schedule, he could barely stop crying and refused to let-go of Prakash uncle, continually buying time to stay till the end of the shoot.

The aim of the film, asserts the director, is to make it memorable. Scenes should have a high recall value and the audience should be able to remember the film well after a while. Using Mohabattein as an example, he illustrated the fact that bad cinema may work with the audience, yet one cannot underestimate the audience's intelligence. It is the one mistake that all filmmakers do. If anything, overestimating it might work. Subtleties (surprise!) might work.

Rahul's overall plot, while not exactly Shyamalan, is a linear tale with a long climax that makes the point of an innocent thought of a five-year-old overpowering the problems of adulthood. A simple thought and a simple film, Rahul releases on 30th March.