“Chamakte chaand ko toota hua taara bana dala…meri awaragi ne mujhko awara bana dala,’’ this Ghulam Ali ghazal summed up Awaargi, Mahesh Bhatt’s ode to futile love, sometime in the eighties. The film was about how a henchman (Anil Kapoor) discovers his conscience through a woman (Meenakshi Sheshadri). Mohit Suri’s Awarapan is similar in premise but with an emotional core all its own. Something about Suri’s work takes you by surprise everytime. Who expected Kaliyug to address pornography with sensitivity or Zeher to actually have a woman as its real hero? One can argue with the premise of Woh Lamhe but Shiney Ahuja’s almost insane love for a woman over the brink, was both bitter and sweet.
A Mohit Suri film works through ugliness and pain, without sparing you either and then leaves you feeling purged somehow. Suri’s latest is his most emotionally intense work. You may not agree with the violence in the film that is primarily about a journey back to faith but you cannot wash the film off your memory either. Awarapan has come from a personal place because the pain steeped songs linger as do the tortured silences of  Emran Hashmi whose underrated talent gets played like a high strung guitar through the film.
On the eve of his film’s release a few months ago, the twenty something director spoke over a long-distance telephone line about his kind of cinema.
About the edginess in his films, he says, “You would not be talking to me if I was making bubbly, candy floss cinema. My films stand out because they are edgier than the films made by other directors of my age. It is not that I don’t like happy films. I loved Lage Raho Munnabhai and Rang De Basanti but I make films I  would enjoy watching.’’
Suri stands out also because unlike a lot of products from Vishesh Films, his films are not slip-shod copies of foreign DVDs.
He loyally defends Mahesh Bhatt who was at one time accused of sleep walking through a dozen films on the floor despite giving Indian cinema  two of its most startlingly original works, Arth and Saraansh. Says Suri, “Mr Bhatt often says originality is all about hiding the source of your inspiration from everyone. When he was working on simultaneous films, that was the need of the hour, the prescribed path.  There are  time constraints under which people sometimes borrow ideas. I am lucky that I have the liberty and the time to work with ideas. And I don’t think Mahesh Bhatt does not have it in him anymore. I could not have asked anyone but him to write Woh Lamhe.’’
Does he think the industry is divided between producers who rule the  multiplexes with marketing blitz and those who struggle to get smaller films noticed? He responds, “I don’t believe in creating films with marketing gimmicks around big stars. I don’t mind if the money is spent on genuine films like Rang De Basanti and Munnabhai where stars have added to the film. I can’t imagine Munnabhai being played by anyone but Sanjay Dutt. But if an actor is being used only to package a film which is in turn being passed off as a serious film, I have a problem. At the end of the day, there is no division except between  popular films and unpopular films.’’
His take on cinema? “I believe in having a point of view. In starting with a quest, working through a conflict and ending with an answer. I want to take my audience from one plane of feeling to another. They should take something back with them. Whether it’s a scene, a message, a tune or the memory of having laughed, cried or being entertained. Also for me, communication with my actors is very important, star status notwithstanding. I should connect with them because without communication, an actor cannot deliver. I also know for sure that you cannot preach to an audience. You can’t  teach them anything and they may agree or disagree with what you say  but yes, you can let them discover something new through the journey  they take with you. Awarapan is about one such journey. I have always questioned the belief in God. The story of  a murderer who became Valmiki has always fascinated me. The idea that a protagonist has to face his past and learn from the consequences of his actions interests me.’’
Most films he says, go wrong in their climax. He recalls, “Once the great Rajkumar Barjatya walked into the office and asked me what I was doing. I told I was working on a  film. He asked me, “Have you written the last scene?’’ I told him I hadn’t. He said something I will always remember. He told me, “You must always write the last scene first. Everything else should lead to it and whatever doesn’t, should be left out.’’ I make sure now that I write the last scene first. I know now the importance of clarity.’’
He is already working on the sequel of Raaz, a film he once assisted Vikram Bhatt with. So has Mohit Suri’s journey come full circle too? He says, “I would rather not draw my arc now. There much more to come.’’ We agree.