Tejal Sinha
Cinema is much more than entertaining and educating. Movies can be a way for people to tell their own stories, communicate a message, or get some point across. We’ve all heard this numerous times, but here today we bring to you filmmaker Prawaal Raman, who is a living example of making movies to communicate a strong message.
Well, in his recently released film Sergeant, starring Randeep Hooda, Adil Hussain, and others in prominent roles, Nikhil (Randeep Hooda) pays a high price in his pursuit of justice. The botched drug and murder investigation not only shatters his peace of mind but also dashes his ambitions of rising through the ranks of the police department. To make matters worse, Nikhil loses one of his legs in the line of duty. The film delves more into Nikhil’s personal troubles, particularly his continuous feud with his father (Arun Govil), whom he blames for his mother’s death. He also finds himself in an ongoing conflict with Inspector Haider Ali, played by Adil Hussain, who takes over the post that Nikhil was ready to take.
Without further ado, we immediately dive into knowing the idea behind a film like Sergeant. He believes that it’s not just about one particular thought but multiple factors that, when combined together, bring up an interesting plot. “If you ask me about the very idea, this had to do with certain writings and quotes that answer the basic question of ‘where do I stand as a hero in any society? The society has a structure where there will be an angry young man who will emerge as a hero. In that way, every society and structure has a place for a hero system, which has a script for a hero system. Keeping that idea in mind, I thought of a character who was a hero, but a sudden incident makes him totally a non-heroic character.”
The film has been shot in London, and through the film, Prawaal wanted a character who is uprooted emotionally with his fathers and previous generations who belong to India. “My idea was to build a bigger hero and bring a character that’s become heroic to a different country. So he merges himself into their culture by becoming a cop, and then a sudden
accident happens in everybody’s life. This film is about such a situation that people have dealt with or know people who have been through it, which in turn changes your entire thought process and your social structure.” The story focuses on the concept of nihilism. Symbolically, the character solves the murder mystery, but he never intended the story to be called a thriller and made it a study of a character.
“Fortunately, there are people in our country who can see a film like this; otherwise, with this limited knowledge of cinema, people these days view the film as being in sync with the short attention span of the audience. It is not meant for such people because you need to be educated mentally and emotionally to watch a film like this. It is not always about entertainment. I do not make movies keeping in mind how much the audience will like them. There is a character that an actor is playing, and we have to do justice to that character. My scenes will be written on the basis of how much the character will like it or how the character will go with the scene, and that it should be some comedy scene so that the audience will like it,” shares the filmmaker, adding that he’s blessed to see cinema not just as a factor of entertainment but as a way to deal with people suffering mentally and unable to deal with society.
Sergeant not only deals with how an unfortunate incident changes the protagonist’s life but also how a second-generation person, by joining the police forces of a different country, goes through being uprooted. Initially, he highlights, “When it comes to the London police, we had to consult the London Police Department there, and they were very supportive. We had a certain guideline when it came to what could be shown and what could not. In our case, there was no hassle as such. The officer who guided us on how a cop can be reinstated when one has an accident on duty, what the timelines are, and the compensation process Randeep had an accent coach there, and there were also police officers who guided him with body language and all.”
For the uninitiated, Prawaal began his career as an assistant director to Ram Gopal Varma and assisted him as the second unit director in Jungle and Company. Post Company Ram Gopal Varma assigned the project Darna Mana Hai to him as the director. Prawaal feels grateful for RGV to have judged him right away, and he exuberantly says, “If he wouldn’t have judged me today, I wouldn’t be talking to you (we laugh out loud). After that, I carried on with my films, and he’s always been the one I look up to, ever since my assistant days.”
Coming back to Sergeant, the team has done complete justice in highlighting mental health in the best way possible. Highlighting about the mental health sequences, he opines, “It is not about a sequence but a problem that a few characters are dealing with. The accident made him go through his dormant issues, and then came the other girl whom he met, who was dealing with her own bipolar issues. I’ve personally not been able to understand certain issues that people who have been going through depression or people going through medications have. It was more of a sympathetic approach towards these characters and also dealt with them in a dramatic way. Unfortunately, cinema is looked at as a drama, and certain things should not be made just for the sake of entertainment. It’s so serious that I put a disclaimer ‘if it affects certain mental patients’. It is not a disease. People are dealing with their issues—their dormant mental issues. Some could resolve and some could not, and that’s how life is.”
When talking about the films Prawaal is known for, something that doesn’t go unnoticed is his cast. He’s mostly collaborated with actors like Adil Hussain and Randeep Hooda. So, what’s the math behind it? Did you wonder too? Let’s hear what he’s got to tell us: “I don’t purposely repeat. It’s just like discussing the ideas, and if they like it, I’m like, Let’s just do it. I love the idea of working with different actors. There are fine actors all around, and if given a chance, I might be working with them even more, but it’s the moment and the script.”
