Payal Kapadia: ‘Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan is a moment in Indian cinema'

Indian Express

2 days ago

When Neeraj Ghaywan-directed Masaan created a buzz by winning two awards — FIPRESCI award and the Promising Future prize in the Un Certain Regard section — at the Cannes Film Festival, 2015, director Payal Kapadia, then a student of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, candidly recalls her initial reaction to the film's success, marked by what she termed 'film school arrogance' and skepticism. 'Is Masaan really that good? We wondered. However, after watching it, I was moved by the way Masaan talked about caste and gender. Masaan is a moment in Indian cinema,' she said.
Kapadia, the writer-director of Cannes-winner All We Imagine As Light (2024), was in conversation with Ghaywan after a special screening organised by Versova Homage Screenings (VHS) on Thursday evening as Masaan turns 10. Talking about Masaan's significance in Indian cinema, she said: 'It is not often that you see characters in Hindi cinema that (give the impression) we might have met them at some point or capture feelings that we must have experienced at some point in our lives. That's why Masaan is both universal and specific to a particular place. There are so many themes in the film. As cinema students, we were inspired by how this film had used a unique cinematic language — long takes and off-screen sound — in the mainstream space.'
A compelling exploration of themes of love, loss, caste, guilt, and ambition, Masaan parallelly follows the stories of its lead characters — Devi (essayed by Richa Chadha) and Deepak (Vicky Kaushal). Ghaywan's initial idea was to explore the story of a man who works at a ghat and can't muster enough courage to speak to a woman he is drawn to. 'Later on, I developed a couple of other tracks. The concept of two people, who were slowly navigating towards each other, completely oblivious of their journeys ending together, was always there.' says Ghaywan.
The special screening of Masaan was organised by Versova Homage Screenings (VHS), a community viewing platform created by two brothers, writer-director Rohan K Mehta and actor Prayrak Mehta. They started VHS in April 2024 with the screening of Avinash Arun-directed Killa (2014) and this was their 25th screening.
For Payal Kapadia, one of the powerful scenes of Masaan is the ending, when Devi and Deepak meet at a ghat in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) and go on a boat tour of Sangam, which is the confluence of rivers: the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati. 'The ending is powerful. It is about two people who don't know each other and have impacted each other. It goes so well with the metaphor of Sangam of the rivers,' she said. In response, Ghaywan said he always wants to end a story with hope. 'That was also the last shot that we took as the sun was about to set.'
Masaan, which boasts of an impressive ensemble cast, features Shweta Tripathi, Sanjay Mishra and Pankaj Tripathi. When Kapadia mentioned how 'its characters are complex', Ghaywan said, 'I don't like unidimensional characters who are honest and sincere. As humans, we are flawed.' Ghaywan's second feature Homebound premiered at Cannes Film Festival's 'Un Certain Regard' section and will be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.
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Even though a decade has passed since its release, Masaan still stands out for its magnificent use of music and Hindi poetry. 'For Masaan, I wanted a different kind of music. The inspiration was Udaan, which used rock music in a coming-of-age film so beautifully,' he said. The songs of Masaan were composed by Indian Ocean and the lyrics were written by Varun Grover, who also wrote its screenplay. The script deftly weaves references to Urdu & Hindi poets such as Akbar Allahabadi, Basheer Badr, Mirza Ghalib, Dushyant Kumar and Nida Fazli.