'Bambai Meri Jaan' premiered on Amazon Prime Video on September 14. The 10-episode series is created by Rensil D'Silva and directed by Shujaat Saudagar.
'Bambai Meri Jaan' premiered on Amazon Prime Video on September 14. The 10-episode series is based on the rise of Mumbai’s mafia in the '70s. Rensil D’Silva, the man behind brilliant scripts like 'Rang De Basanti' and 'Aks' among others is the showrunner and creator of the show. Ahead of the release of 'Bambai Meri Jaan', Garima Das had a conversation with Rensil where he spoke at length about the show.
He said, ''It was a very challenging show to put up because it's quite voluminous, it has so many characters and it pans three decades and it's period. And also doing it on an emotional lens which is a father-son story, a cop who is a father and a son who is getting into the underworld and we chart their story as a tension between them and at the same time we are also seeing the impact it has on an organised crime, how organised crime was set up in the city of Mumbai, how it went just being ordinary thugs on the streets to smuggling and whatever. It's also the gang war, the city group. It was a real challenge to get it on paper and it took time. It's a 10-episode show and you can imagine.’’
'Bambai Meri Jaan' shows all facets of crime. Asked Rensil what aspects he keeps in mind while writing so that people don't take offence. To which the 'Kurbaan' director said, ''I believe people can take offence if you sneeze also. Before getting so fearful the first thing you can do is ask yourself if you are happy with the material or have you done your job well. Yes, we are all mature people and we know we live in India and we know that egos get bruised sometimes very easily. So, we take great care that when we do a show like this the morality of it is in place so that no one can come and say that we are glorifying violence or gangsters or things like that. A show causes an effect. If a person does bad, he needs a bad end and all those things are written in the show.''
He added, ''But I also think that creative people can't be writing with fear. Then you can't do your best. You do what you feel is right because if a person wants to take offence, they can take offence to our conversation also. There is no end to this. We are all mature people and have been doing this for a long time. We will not step into too many toes.''
Rensil was also all praise for director Shujaat Saudagar. He said, ''Shujaat is an ad filmmaker also of great calibre. One of the things of advertising is the level of detailing and precision and the look of the final piece. If you see the show what is really very heartening is the visual quality of the show whether it is the cinematography or the production design or whether it's even the soundscape, it is not only being made by a feature film director, it has got the eye and detailing of an ad filmmaker also. You can expect that. That is an added benefit when you are making something like this, especially period. It's tricky and you have to have the sensibility which Shujaat has.''
‘Bambai Meri Jaan’ has got positive reviews. Actors like Kay Kay Menon, Avinash Tiwary, Kritika Kamra, and Jitin Gulati are getting overwhelming responses for their nuanced performances.