Magical for its spectators and creators, alike. Cinema.

To abscond from reality, a world beyond,

Magical for its spectators and creators, alike.

Cinema comes forth to tell stories, as we correspond,

‘Directors’ Diaries’ takes you through those storytellers’ psych. - Review by Aayushi Maheshwari.

‘Directors’ Diaries, The Road to Their First Film’, by Rakesh Anand Bakshi, is captivating, in all ways possible. Rakesh, a director himself, was reading books on some of the greatest foreign directors’ when he realised that the Indian Film Industry doesn’t have enough of such books. What he also realised was that these books are not just stories’ of directors’ but also a source of inspiration for many. And thus his intention to be the medium that connects the upcoming generation of directors’ with the ones that have already established their niche in the industry lead to the birth of this documentation.

In the beginning of the book, he introduces himself, his intention of writing it, to his readers’ and ends it with, “I hope this effort can help someone make a film someday.” Well, it did inspire me enough. He’s interviewed twelve directors and each director’s chapter has affected me to take action towards it and this is coming from someone who doesn’t even intend to be a director. Now you can imagine the intensity of its impact.

The twelve directors that he had a dialogue with include, in alphabetical order: Anurag Basu, Ashutosh Gowariker, Farah Khan, Govind Nihalani, Imtiaz Ali, Mahesh Bhatt, Prakash Jha, Santosh Sivan, Subhash Ghai, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Vishal Bhardwaj and Zoya Akhtar.

Each director has been given an entire chapter space which is divided into slots of Filmography, Sneak-Peak, Rakesh Bakshi’s own take, The Conversation between the respective director and him and the final word of a cinematographer that the director has worked with. Through these subheads, Rakesh makes the understanding of a director’s journey as easy as connecting dots.

In his conversations with the directors, Rakesh has, very sensibly, asked some common questions and some that are relevant only to a particular director. Some of these questions give us answers to how the director reached wherever he did or whether direction is a physically and mentally exhausting job or does the director prefer being next to the camera or at the video-assist monitor or is filmmaking a journey or a destination.

Through these rounds of questions and their answers, you realise how Rakesh is directing his subjects too, by establishing a relationship, empathising with them and then getting them to share a few stories that we probably didn’t know before, exactly like a director would work on his film and the various provinces that function together in its making.

The point that I am trying to make is that this book creates a nexus between the “Behind the scenes” of a director and his profession that keeps you hooked on to the book. It makes you realise that their success is only the tip of the iceberg and there’s so much under it that we will never fully be aware of.

Sing a song and gather an audience around you. Sing a song and go. – Mahesh Bhatt

- https://wordscrit.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/directors-diaries-the-road-to-their-first-film/