His film has made it to the Oscars Library and director Rahhat Shah Kazmi cannot contain his joy. Country of Blind has received rave reviews in the US and praise for the Kashmiri director who shot the film in Kashmir with local artists. The film is an adaptation of An HG Wells story and that’s what makes its success all the more sweet feels the team. In this exclusive chat with TDG, director Rahhat Shah Kazmi decides the film which is releasing in India soon.
TDG: Why did you choose to adapt this HG Wells story? What attracted you to it?
It’s such an irresistible story that you cannot ignore it, the relevance of the story is very high in today’s time. I belong to Poonch, the last town of India on the border of Jammu and Kashmir, when I was studying there during high school, I read the story ‘The Country of the Blind’ by H G Wells and this story stayed with me always. At that point in time, I had no idea that I would ever become a filmmaker. And years after this, when I became a filmmaker I always wanted to make this film. The problem was that it was such a difficult film that I was unprepared. Then a time came when I completed the script and my partners (Tariq Khan and Zeba and Namita) and my wife Asiya really pushed and encouraged me to make this film.
TDG: It’s not easy to adapt a novel on screen – what were you most conscious of?
True. A lot of expectation exists when you adapt a novel or story from literature. Country Of Blind is such a difficult story to adapt into a film, the most difficult for me was to show a world of blind people, who are cut off from the outer world and do not have any idea that people can see, they don’t know anything about the outer world. They have built a socio-economic system within their society and they call it a world. There was a lot of discussion as to how should their eyes be sunken and should show whether they are normal or abnormal.Then finally it came to the conclusion that their eyes should be very beautiful, not like how we see blind people. It’s a different kind of film, which awakens us as human beings, and we realize that there is so much more than what we see or know in our lives.
TDG: Country of Blind has received rave reviews and has been invited by the Oscar Library. What are your thoughts as the director?
Honestly, I am not thinking of it as of now because when I think about it, I get very emotional. The journey of making the Country of Blind has not been easy. Making the film was difficult, and not having a studio behind getting a proper release and platform was another challenge. And then when we received an email from the Oscars library that they wanted to acquire the script of the film, it was such a wonderful feeling. Two days back I received a quote from Christian Jeune (Jury head of the world’s leading film festival), he saw the film and he mentioned that Country of Blind is a spectacular adaptation of H.G. Wells’ short story proving his writing matches the cinematic vision of a contemporary filmmaker, wherever from the world he is. This is no less than an Oscar for me.
TDG: You shot the film in Kashmir with local artists… What was the whole experience like?
Kashmir is my home, I was born and brought up there (At Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir), so I have a deep connection with the land, plus it is considered as the most beautiful or one of the most beautiful places on earth and filming there was an amazing experience. The local crew members and artists were very supportive and everyone from a spot boy to a lightman used to say while filming ‘Sir this film will go to the Oscars’. So this is something which everyone has manifested, and this used to come naturally.
TDG: What are you looking forward to next?
I have finished one film script and am working on a few more, trust me there are three or four such scripts that will have immense importance in cinema. I don’t yet know which is going on soon, but those will start one after the other.
