Bang Bang Galore!
A Filmmaker’s BLOGELLA
Written by Steve Rosenberg
Blog 32 (Character Assassination)
Sent: April 19, 2007 11:18:29 AM
Before I begin this attempted character assassination, I should warn readers that my feelings towards Born Free artistic director John Deveraj change daily, sometimes hourly. Who knows? By the next blog entry, I may be canonizing him as a saint. Let’s rewind back to the first day I arrived here in Bangalore. When I first met John I found him to be bright, engaging and articulate. I loved his Anglo Indian accent and his commanding baritone voice. He is fifty, but with his smooth skin, he could maybe pass for thirty- five. He’s tall for a Tamil man, maybe six feet, his hair is thinning slightly, his jowls are round and his stocky football build is still intact, if you discount his large gut which he is still able to hide under his loose fitting dark cotton Indian shirts. In T-shirts, that feat is harder. He is handsome-ish if you factor in his charisma.
John, the architect/engineer/sculptor/painter/child rights activist, photographer is full of grandiose dreams; he wants Indian children to write the word’s biggest love letter to the children of Pakistan. Maybe then, these two nuclear neighbours will lay down their arms and play nicely. He has the idealism of a Miss Teen America beauty pageant contestant who vows to help the starving children in Africa. The main difference from the pageant contestant is that he puts his words into action.
A few years ago, John developed his own stylized font which he has branded everywhere from computers to T-shirts. “Childrenize The World” is his own clever political slogan. It is easy to be swept up in John Deveraj-mania, me included.
Last year John mounted a theatrical high school production of Spartacus and cast himself as the lead. “Who is Spartacus?” bellows John from centre stage. A chorus of young teens reply: “I am Spartacus” It’s hard not to be wowed by the sheer number of children carpeting the lawn of an outdoor stadium, perhaps five thousand, each one hanging on John’s every word. Who is Spartacus? Spartacus was a gladiator-slave who became the leader of an unsuccessful slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Now the only thing worse than sitting through a high school musical is watching it on a low resolution stop and go computer in a language you do not understand. Such was my fate last week.
John’s aura with kids is almost cult like. The message he preaches again and again is hard to refute. He wants to end child labour. Don’t we all. Distilling the entire issue to one slogan “Ban Child Labour” Sounds straight foreword, something akin to “Banning The Bomb” At the end of each show, John asks the audience s if they know any other child labourers; a trickle of hands slowly rise, followed by a second wave of hands. “Are there any working children in this school?” Taking a page from the evangelical theatrics of instant miracles, a pair of young children arrive on stage to tell their story. He invites them to join his school and liberate themselves through education.
Just Google his name, John Devaraj and your high speed computer will have a momentary hiccup as it sorts through thousands of links pointing to him. Last year, he performed at the United Nations while forty- nine translators busily tapped out his lyrics in real time. All this attention on a man who composed a song about child labour and is singing more than a semi tone off key.
John Deveraj can wear any artistic hat he chooses and manage to look spectacular in each one. His photography is superb; I can snap five hundred photos and not create what he does on an every day basis. His style, composition and effective use of light make me feel like I am staring at a painting instead of a photo. His sculptures are also outstanding. He has ten or more outdoor sculpture installations commissioned by the city of Bangalore. His most exquisite human sculpture is his seventeen- year old daughter Shonali. I adore her. She is bright articulate and shockingly modest.
Being at the fringe of the entertainment industry, I am very familiar the insatiable ego types. His time is always more important than mine. Once, I had an appointment across town and John offered me a lift on his motorcycle. “Sure” I said. I wedged my camera and tripod between my stomach and his back and off we go. I have no helmet, but who cares? Danger is for others to worry about. I love the breezy feeling of riding through a city on the on a motorcycle, chatting with John about the architectural and historical highlights of Bangalore.
Now at some point during our drive, I notice we are moving further and further away from the centre of town. Actually we travel eight kilometres from my proposed destination to see John’s sculpture. “Here is another sculpture installation I recently completed for the city” John gushes.” “It’s wonderful.” I say. “You think so? I was commissioned by the city and managed to put the whole thing together in only six weeks” “It is wonderful, you are wonderful John, but I have a three o’clock appointment and I am already twenty minutes late.” Nothing in my breathy impatient voice makes him move any faster. John’s is very fluid about time. “Goddamn it, I have an appointment! Can’t you sense that I am in a rush to go somewhere else?” my internal voice shouts.
He continues to drive me in giant rectangles, so I can see fully absorb his sculpture from every angle.” Here, why don’t you photograph it from this angle?” As much as I hate to admit it, his sculpture speaks to me, the scale is wrong for the surroundings, the base is too large and the sculpture is too small, but the actual statue itself excites me and makes me ponder my childhood. He drops me near busy intersection and forty minutes later, my autorickshaw delivers me two hours late to my appointment. Ironically, in this country you don’t need a dramatic excuse for appointment delays.
One day before we head out for our photographic expedition, John asks me if he can use my camera. I have no problem refusing him and he is surprising cool with my decision. He is planning to create a documentary called Historical Expedition: part 2. John decides to rent his own equipment and his camera is three times bigger than mine. Camera size means that he is now elevated to the professional filmmaker and I am the B-cam flunky.
I enjoy our trip to Tamal Nadu, but I feel very much like a shadow figure of John. He sets the pace of the day, he decides where we go and how long we stay at each place. Along the trip there are moments of poignancy and as I raise my camera to photograph these Fuji Film moments, I see John raising his camera in unison, so now we are making separate films with the same images. Often, he is lurking in the frame of my shoots, and I am probably doing the same thing to him. Are we competing? I am sure I annoy him as much as he annoys me, but neither of us is petty enough to hold a grudge.
The way things work for this man, it wouldn’t surprise me if John’s film wins a Filmfare Award, the Indian Oscar for outstanding achievement in a documentary. I recently learned that he sent a copy of HEX, short for Historical Expedition: the Complete Story of Child Labour to the president of India and is demanding a response relating to current child labour policies. Yesterday, John received a response from the office of the president indicating his willingness to view his film. John plans on having one of his young students arrive at the Parliament to hand deliver Mr. Abdul Kalam the film together with a ten point a list of grievances to be addressed.
In all honesty, he is a natural with the camera. I need John’s support, if only for the access to the Born Free children. My secret weapon: I make sure I film lots of tender moments with John and the children. The only way to earn respect from a vainglorious individual is to point your camera at him. With John, it works like a charm. John and I spend several hours/days on the bus together and he has not asked me a thing about myself. Our conversational currency is Born Free, his philosophy, his politics and his observations of Indian culture. Who says solipsists can’t teach you things? I am a great audience for him. During our trip, in one of the few times I recount a personal story, I notice him scrawling words on his notebook. I thought perhaps he might be absorbed in my story, but in fact my story reminds him of a song he needed to remember. He smiles at me as he holds up the lyrics to a Bob Seiger song.
Every night, John leads two- hour sessions on the child right’s movement. The philosophy goes something like this: First you must liberate yourself by acquiring knowledge, and then you can liberate other children. The sessions like his film are long and repetitive. He berates certain children for losing focus and applauds others for their commitment to the cause. Mio is my island of sanity, but she too reveres John. He is her boyfriend of five years and they are both deeply committed to the kids.
During these nightly bull sessions, I have no place to run except the internet cafes. In a way, I regret not filming nightly debriefing sessions, because there is great comedy there. He really blasts kids for not taking their role as photographers seriously. Some days, there were so few photo opportunities, that it is hard for the kids to stay focused. Whose fault is that? “Childrenize the World!” “Children Liberating Other Children!” Liberate yourself first through education! Stop Adult Terrorism! I know all the buzz- words by heart. I could recite these slogans in my sleep.
I hate to plunder John’s reputation, because his ego is getting in the way of his ego. It is my first glimpse of a genuine cult leader I am very excited with the story that is unfolding here for me.
You might say that John is a gifted individual, achieving international acclaim in a multitude of artistic endeavors without a single formal lesson. He is not a humble man, but I can forgive that given the magnitude of his accomplishments. Am I jealous? Yes and no: it’s hard to be jealous of someone who is helping me achieve my dream. I am learning a great deal from him and he is doing everything he can to raise awareness of children’s rights. I respect him deeply, but that doesn’t make me want to be his cheerleader.
