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Talking Films: Conversations on Hindi Cinema With Javed Akhtar
This book features the well-known screenplay writer, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar in conversation with Nasreen Kabir on his work in Hindi cinema, his life and his poetry. An original thinker and a brilliant conversationalist, Akhtar's sharp mind and unique skill in analysing films and his
own work will bring a new and rare insight into Hindi cinema. The volume includes a number of photographs.
own work will bring a new and rare insight into Hindi cinema. The volume includes a number of photographs.
- GenresNonfiction
150 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 24, 2018
A scholarly interactions between two people. Javed Akhtar is a famous poet, lyricist and screenplay writer. Nasreen Munni Kabir lives and works in London as an independent film producer/director. She has made over 100 documentaries on hindi cinema, and has written several books on it. Javed Akhtar talks about his early days, his struggles in Mumbai, his relationships with his parents, his life and work in films where he began as a clapper boy and his successful partnership with Salim Khan. You can feel his enthusiasm when he talks about Urdu poetry and of course Urdu as a language. If you have any interest in Hindi cinema then this book is definitely a must read.
My favourite quotes from the book:
1. Conversations have three levels: people, incidents and ideas. The lowest form of conversation is about people. When we go up one rung we reach incidents which have a slightly larger spectrum than talking about people. But the conversation which really matters is when we talk about ideas, because they are universal and live beyond time and space.
2. I consider film dialogue as edited and directed conversation. You shouldn't be allowed to meander. Good film dialogue is not conversation but a kind of representation of it.
3. I believe words are like people. You scrutinize them carefully.
4. Books. Books. In my formative years, I hadn't seen many films; books were more easily available. And there was a tradition of reading in the family, everybody read. There would be lots of books and magazines in the house and people would discuss them. So I read a lot. films were expensive, one could see two films in a month, oh no, perhaps one film in a month, But we could read as many as we wanted.
5. Both things have helped me in my life: my deep interest in literature and my extreme fascination for films - I was glamour-struck by cinema.
6. Life is strange. Sometimes if you look back, Munni, you feel like editing your life, re-writing it, you change scene 12, but the story is so well-knit, the moment you change scene 12 which is less pleasant, you realize that scene 32 which is the highlight of the story will have to vanish. it is not possible to retain scene 32 because it has some connection with scene 12. I understand that this present would not have been possible without that past.
7. He (Javed's father) once made a remark that left deep impression on me. He said, "It's very easy to write in difficult language but it's very difficult to write in easy language - because you have to have tremendous command over language to put an intricate or complicated idea into simple words."
8. One could say in art we need four things: to observe, to feel, to understand, and to communicate what we have felt.
9. What's important is that you should work from your heart with total sincerity and involvement. Do what excites you, don't do things that you think are the right to do.
10. There's a saying in Urdu, if you want to know somebody well, either live with them for fourteen years, or travel with them. But there's another way: observe a person when he or she is very angry. People drop all their guard in a moment of anger, their real self is revealed. No matter how angry you are, if you are a decent person, you won't say or do things that you believe to be unfair or below the belt. That's where your class will show.
11. I have a weakness for people who are bright and have a good sense of humor. I have respect for nice people, but I'd rather spend an evening with an interesting person.
My favourite quotes from the book:
1. Conversations have three levels: people, incidents and ideas. The lowest form of conversation is about people. When we go up one rung we reach incidents which have a slightly larger spectrum than talking about people. But the conversation which really matters is when we talk about ideas, because they are universal and live beyond time and space.
2. I consider film dialogue as edited and directed conversation. You shouldn't be allowed to meander. Good film dialogue is not conversation but a kind of representation of it.
3. I believe words are like people. You scrutinize them carefully.
4. Books. Books. In my formative years, I hadn't seen many films; books were more easily available. And there was a tradition of reading in the family, everybody read. There would be lots of books and magazines in the house and people would discuss them. So I read a lot. films were expensive, one could see two films in a month, oh no, perhaps one film in a month, But we could read as many as we wanted.
5. Both things have helped me in my life: my deep interest in literature and my extreme fascination for films - I was glamour-struck by cinema.
6. Life is strange. Sometimes if you look back, Munni, you feel like editing your life, re-writing it, you change scene 12, but the story is so well-knit, the moment you change scene 12 which is less pleasant, you realize that scene 32 which is the highlight of the story will have to vanish. it is not possible to retain scene 32 because it has some connection with scene 12. I understand that this present would not have been possible without that past.
7. He (Javed's father) once made a remark that left deep impression on me. He said, "It's very easy to write in difficult language but it's very difficult to write in easy language - because you have to have tremendous command over language to put an intricate or complicated idea into simple words."
8. One could say in art we need four things: to observe, to feel, to understand, and to communicate what we have felt.
9. What's important is that you should work from your heart with total sincerity and involvement. Do what excites you, don't do things that you think are the right to do.
10. There's a saying in Urdu, if you want to know somebody well, either live with them for fourteen years, or travel with them. But there's another way: observe a person when he or she is very angry. People drop all their guard in a moment of anger, their real self is revealed. No matter how angry you are, if you are a decent person, you won't say or do things that you believe to be unfair or below the belt. That's where your class will show.
11. I have a weakness for people who are bright and have a good sense of humor. I have respect for nice people, but I'd rather spend an evening with an interesting person.
November 10, 2024
सिनेमा पर लिखी गई किताबों को मैं पूरे मन से पढ़ती हूं और यही कारण है कि मैंने बिना कुछ सोचे यह किताब खरीद ली थी। लेकिन पढ़ते हुए ऐसा लग रहा था कि मैं कोई पुरानी फिल्मी मैगजीन पढ़ रही हूं। इसका कारण यह हो सकता है कि यह 2001 में लिखी गई थी। कमजोर अनुवाद के कारण यह किताब उतना असर नहीं डाल पाई। इसी की तरह एक और किताब है जिसे मैंने बहुत एन्जॉय किया था, वो है जिया जले, जिसमें नसरीन मुन्नी कबीर, गुलज़ार से गीतों पर बात करती हैं। जिया जले एक बेहद ही खूबसूरत किताब है। अफसोस कि यह किताब जिया जले जितनी बेहतरीन नहीं है।
November 30, 2021
इस पुस्तक में नसरीन मुन्नी कबीर ने जावेद अख्तर से सिनेमा पर लंबी बातचीत की है। जावेद ने सन ६५ के आसपास क्लैपर ब्वाय के तौर पर अपना करियर शुरू किया और एक बेहतरीन डायलॉग राइटर और गीतकार के तौर पर मशहूर हुए। इस बातचीत में उनके प्रारंभिक रचनाओं पर पड़े प्रभावों, उनके पारिवारिक जीवन, सलीम खान के साथ बेहतरीन साझा लेखन और उनकी संगीत और अदब की समझ का पता लगता है।
हिंदी सिनेमा की परंपरा, गीत लेखन और कथा तत्त्व के विभिन्न पक्षों को उन्होंने उद्घाटित किया है। पटकथा लेखन, फिल्मी शायरी और अपनी हिट फिल्मों के डायलॉग लेखन पर सारगर्भित चर्चा की है। उनके हास्य व्यंग्य का अनोखा अंदाज, प्रखर बौद्धिकता और तकनीक पर गहरी पकड़ ने उनके इस साक्षात्कार को उन सबके लिए महत्वपूर्ण बना दिया है, जिनकी फिल्म और कला में रुचि है।
हिंदी सिनेमा की परंपरा, गीत लेखन और कथा तत्त्व के विभिन्न पक्षों को उन्होंने उद्घाटित किया है। पटकथा लेखन, फिल्मी शायरी और अपनी हिट फिल्मों के डायलॉग लेखन पर सारगर्भित चर्चा की है। उनके हास्य व्यंग्य का अनोखा अंदाज, प्रखर बौद्धिकता और तकनीक पर गहरी पकड़ ने उनके इस साक्षात्कार को उन सबके लिए महत्वपूर्ण बना दिया है, जिनकी फिल्म और कला में रुचि है।
April 17, 2016
A 140 page interview with Javed Akhtar who is great at conversation. Javed Akhtar is such a delight talking on life and films that I m tempted to give this a 5* !
This was my 2nd book by d author who does a good job making herself invisible and has minimal comments. Despite being short, d books have substance and r satisfying and I have already started third by her on Gulzar back-to-back.
This was my 2nd book by d author who does a good job making herself invisible and has minimal comments. Despite being short, d books have substance and r satisfying and I have already started third by her on Gulzar back-to-back.
Read
February 7, 2017Excellent introduction to how the screenplay, dialogue and story departments in the Bollywood work. Javed Akhtar takes you through a guided tour of his own life and also the different phases of Bollywood. Excellent content though the translation could have been better.
May 21, 2019
जावेद अख़्तर के हिसाब से बातचीत तीन स्तरों पर होती है: वयक्ति के, घटना के और विचारों के। ये बातचीत विचारों के स्तर पर हुई है, और बेहतरीन है। असगर वजाहत ने अनुवाद में उर्दू की नफासत को कायम रखा है। जरूर पढ़े।
July 18, 2013
Quite an interesting book for Bollywood movie buffs, but does not have anything much for other readers.
A little more about this book @ http://bookwormsrecos.blogspot.in/200...
A little more about this book @ http://bookwormsrecos.blogspot.in/200...
March 11, 2021
Javed Akhtar is an interesting conversationalist. That is one of the Hindi film industry's absolute truths. That his conversations are peppered with humour and self-deprecation is another inviolable fact. That he is brutally candid about the flaws in his work as he is of others' is a third indisputable fact. So when Nasreen Munni Kabir sets out to pick his brains on the process of writing, we know we can sit back and enjoy the conversation.
In the vein of her other books, Ms Kabir's questions are fashioned to draw out deeply thought-out answers, not sound bytes. She gives her subjects the time and space to marshal their thoughts and articulate them in a way that makes sense to the average reader who may not know the intricacies of the subject they are discussing - in this case, film stories and scripts.
From Javed's childhood to his entry into films to turning into one part of a powerful script writer duo who could - and did - call the shots at one point, the conversation takes detours into analysing how dialogues and the correct emphasis on certain words make the difference to a scene.
If you want a master class on script writing, tossed off half-humorously as if it is no big deal, then you would do no better than to pick this slim book and read it a few dozen times.
I wager you would find something to astonish you each time you do so.
In the vein of her other books, Ms Kabir's questions are fashioned to draw out deeply thought-out answers, not sound bytes. She gives her subjects the time and space to marshal their thoughts and articulate them in a way that makes sense to the average reader who may not know the intricacies of the subject they are discussing - in this case, film stories and scripts.
From Javed's childhood to his entry into films to turning into one part of a powerful script writer duo who could - and did - call the shots at one point, the conversation takes detours into analysing how dialogues and the correct emphasis on certain words make the difference to a scene.
If you want a master class on script writing, tossed off half-humorously as if it is no big deal, then you would do no better than to pick this slim book and read it a few dozen times.
I wager you would find something to astonish you each time you do so.
December 1, 2017
Fantastic Book on Javed Akthar. Full Book Interview. One comes to know about him, his personal life, his thoughts as well as philosophy about different topics. I loved this one. I will surely keep this as collectible .
January 28, 2018
Captures much of Javed Akhtar's wit, insight, and expertise on topics ranging from Hindi film, lyrics, writing, art, poetry, literature and society (from a 1999 interview). Luckily much of it is available in YouTube now.
September 29, 2018
One of the best interview from the legendary script/songwriter of Bollywood . in this book Javed talks not only about script and films but also language, songs, music and many aspects of films or cinema.
February 17, 2025
2.5/5
My expectations were a little high for this book.
My expectations were a little high for this book.
January 15, 2017
An intimately detailed look into the creative process of uniquely singular intellect of the Hindi Film Industry. The books tells you how Javed saab works, how get's there and how gets back to the life he lives. Well done, Ms Kabir. Her books are the only resource on the Hindi Film Industry.
June 21, 2013
JA was candid about how he grew up as a legendary screenplay and dialogue writer and a lyricist. Enjoyed it a lot.
November 29, 2014
Javed Akhtar, as he's nicknamed Jadoo, is Jadoo both in life's wisdom and that of writing it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews