Blush Of Colour In Monochrome

When Vikas Khanna is not wearing a toque blanche in a steamy kitchen, the Michelin Star chef is probably wearing another hat—and the latest rabbit he pulled out of it is a full-length movie, The Last Colour, his directorial debut that has been short-listed for the Oscars. The film is about a nine-year-old rope walker and a widow, and how they bring hope and happiness to each other. Khanna speaks to Lachmi Deb Roy before the movie’s theatre release in India.

How did ‘The Last Colour’ happen?

First off, I wrote a short story that people rejected and it didn’t go forward. People rejected the story saying it is strange and only talks about a widow who wants to play Holi. Probably the people of India found it too foreign and were unable to figure out what I was trying to say. In 2012, the Supreme Court endorsed a law for rehabilitation of widows. Next year, widows (of Vrindavan, Varanasi and elsewhere) played Holi. I opened the Yahoo! home page and there were beautiful powerful images of widows playing with colours. My short story was titled The Colourless because they remained colourless throughout their life. That particular Holi was an inspiration and you saw those widows smeared in colour dancing and crying with happiness. The colour was a symbolism of rebirth and it depicted the season of change. After winter you welcome spring by playing with colours.

I went back to my story and felt that we can actually make it a happy story. It was supposed to be only a single widow’s story and then I went to Varanasi, which is very close to my heart. So, whenever I visit India, I make it a point to visit Varanasi. When my father passed away, I visited Varanasi and this was right after Kumbh Mela. There I met a little girl, a tightrope walker. When I spoke to her, she told me she wants to become a police officer because she wants a better society. And that’s why she is saving money for her education. When I heard her, I knew she was going to be the hero of my story.

What are your expectations and how do you think the Indian audience is going to respond to the film?

This is going to be history in the making because there is no chef who has taken such a big risk and that too at the age of fifty. In 2011, people said I was at the peak of my career when I got the Michelin star.  People said being the Master Chef is the peak. When I started working on this story, one of the writers who helped me with my book, said it is worth a screenplay. The book followed by the film is an original work of art. The story is simple and real and it talks about a little girl who promises a widow that they are going to play Holi together.

How India is going to respond to it is a tough question as we were planning to release the film right after Holi (in 2020), but the quarantine happened and everything was shut down. But I didn’t want to give up because the movie is on hope. I said the movie should be released in theatres and let the people enjoy the Varanasi we created. I wanted to see the brilliant craft of Neena Gupta and Aqsa Siddique, who plays the role of the little girl. This I feel is one of Nina Gupta’s best performances. When Shyam Benegal saw the film, he mentioned that the film has the best visuals of Varanasi. So, these people kept saying that the film needs to have a theatre release. I am emotional about this film. I feel that my child needs to be celebrated, even if the world decides not to celebrate.

Favourite Scene from the film…

When the little girl asks the widow why she doesn’t wear colours, why she always wears a white sari and she insists that she is going to look beautiful in colours. To which Neena Gupta says there is a tradition in our country that widows only wear white and no colour. I once asked my grandmother the same question, to which she said ‘Taaki woh hamesha berang rahein’, meaning they are meant to remain colourless. Those words remained with me. The little girl again asks the widow about her favourite colour, to which the widow says ‘gulabi’ (pink). She says she likes the ‘gehrawala gulbi’ (deep pink) that is worn by the ranis of Rajasthan.

There is another scene where she says she has a dream of going to Calcutta and she has a book of Rabindranath Tagore, which she can’t read because she is illiterate. I can relate this scene again to my childhood when my grandfather left me a book in Urdu. I can’t read it, but it is extremely precious to me. I picked up bits and pieces from my life and weaved it into my story.

How did you convince Neena Gupta?

I had Neena Gupta on my mind because I feel other than being a fantastic actor she is an extremely brave woman. She makes her own rules. I went to her home in Delhi and tried to convince her and told her that the film is extremely close to my heart. When Neena Gupta came on board it was a great help for me because she was a director of a TV show. There are many places in the film where she doesn’t have dialogues and she is saying everything through expressions. I totally see that this movie belongs to her and I am just a guardian.

How did you visualise the character of the widow?

I was at the Banke Bihari temple during Holi and remember being completely drenched in colours. As I was coming out of the temple, I spotted a lot of widows standing in the balcony overlooking the people splashing colours, but they were absolutely colourless. Something surreal was happening to me and the universe was telling me this is an important moment of your life, so don’t overlook this. It is when you see something so majestic like this, your brain retains it. So, that’s how the character of the widow was born in my film.