Deewana - the inside story

Jami justifies the music video he did for Ali Azmat's 'Deewana' and lays the ghost of what it's all about to rest.

By: Insiya Syed

Making music videos tends to be more liberal than making television commercials and films; they provide the perfect environment for a director to experiment with all the latest film trickery. With an average four–minute length, music videos are longer than commercials and often adopt a storyline, rather like a short film. One of the most recent videos to have hit the local music networks is the video of 'Deewana' directed by Jami from Ali Azmat's solo album Social Circus. The video received a lukewarm response and was dubbed to be a copy of various Hollywood releases.

The reason for the video to not have done extremely well on the commercial side is probably because Jami was taking more chances visually, the editing was more aggressive and so were the special effects. What the audience also failed to understand is the fact that 'Deewana' is a futuristic song, so it required futuristic visuals and the story had to be told in about 5 minutes.

The interview happened at the office of Azad Film in the late hours of the night. After praising David Lynch for some 20 minutes Jami made a statement, "I am not asking you to pay me to watch the video. I don't care what they think and whether they understood it or not. It's my video and my vision. They don't have to see it and they can turn the channel." That statement forced me to fire the first question...

Is that why you make a video? And have people not like it to an extent that they'd switch the channel? Wouldn't you want people to stick around and watch it?

Jami: I would love to! But I can't change my video for their want. They might want some cheesy 'Chamma Chamma' – I can't do that. They can have it – all the videos coming from Lahore have that. There's a girl, a tree and they are revolving around it...

What we went for was the 'grunge look'. 90 percent of David Lynch movies are about that! The feel only comes out in that underground look. We never went for a 'classic look' and in fact it was about reality in a different way, 'gandi reality' – the whole song is about 'deewana' it's about psychosis or something. It's not a 'Lux type' video. It's not a 'Bonds Ad'. It's a very, very high–tech futuristic video. And when you talk of future I see darkness. What will remain in this world? Nothing except trash... at least that is what we felt and therefore it's dark. And when darkness is concerned your imagination works a lot better and you end up craving for more. At least the viewers are asking me, "What the video is?" Good! It's better than any other video because for a director it becomes more interactive if the audience puts forward questions! And I am not saying that I pre-planned this. To an extent we did plan that the story must be highly confusing like people would come up to me and inquire about the 'Tibet Powder' in there. It's beautiful when people ask questions. I am not saying it's a good video but I can feel that it's so confusing that people hate it sometimes! And I love that.

I watched this movie by Lynch called The Lost Highway and he himself said that he will tell people one day what the story was actually about! Tomorrow will writers who wrote the Odyssey stop writing? If you don't like it, don't read it. Only after reading the first page you'd figure that it's not your ordinary Mills & Boons. We never made videos with literal meaning of the songs be it 'Duur' or 'Anjaaney'.

Initially what was the concept of the video and what was your approach to executing it?

Jami: Sajid Hasan is Bill Gates. He owns everything but he wants death now. And if you have seen, Citizen Kane he is Rosebud and he wants his simplicity back. And for me Tibet Snow is the simplest thing. Once you are powerful you can't have it back and the only way possible is to die. He is craving for death and Ali Azmat gives it to him. From the first frame when Ali enters he looks down because he knows he is here. There are such symbolic shots there. He knows that someone is there to destroy him. And he's okay with that. It's about power. It's about what's going on in the world. I intentionally didn't write a line because my family and everyone asked me to take it out – its anti–power, anti–system – its anti–west. This is about Abu Gharaib prison. I took out the line by Faiz, 'Sab Takht Giraey Jain Gai' because either I would have been banned or Ali's video. So now people are calling it a 'Dupatta' type video. I knew that people are going to say that but this is sort of a political statement. Every power will come down one day. If someone has the conviction and faith that person can bring it all down.

He has to commit a murder which is actually a fake one. He used the murder's excuse to get inside the system to be able to destroy it. You can't destroy a system from the outside. It was a difficult task to make it look confusing but still retaining a structure. Everything from Tibet Powder to the gramophone have been paid attention to.

What's different if you compare the initial concept and the end product?

Jami: 95 percent was executed the way it was planned. At the end Tariq Amin wasn't supposed to die and he wasn't supposed to enter the building. The ending was very harsh, the entire city destroyed. And we thought 'no; we can't kill everyone' so only Sajid Hassan dies. If the king dies the system dies.

With so many characters in the video, don't you think expecting the viewer to understand their frame of mind is a bit much?

Jami: That's a really good question but honestly speaking through this video I was trying really hard to change the industry. This was intended to be an experimental video and believe me there were around 40 per cent people who understood exactly what I tried to portray in the video.

'Deewana' is a massive production -- what was the budget like?

Jami: 26 hundred thousand. What did I get out of it? Let's leave that.

At the end of the day director isn't making money out of a video. It's the commercials that bring the bucks...

Jami: I wouldn't get a client through this video. Who'd say, "Wow! What a video! Let's get him to do a skin cream ad for us!" It's too dark and doesn't have mass appeal. I am the bad guy in the ad industry because I am too artistic. I am not saying I am but 'they' think I am. I am just doing what I want to do.

How long did it take to put the video together from beginning to end? Perhaps a breakdown on time it took to film vs. the editing phase?

Jami: This was a massive production it took 7 months to complete. One month for concept, one month for pre–production (props, locations, etc), 7 days of shoot (4 days of double shifts), 3 months of editing, 5 months for graphics because work on graphics started along with the editing and plus I had a lot of other work like commercials coming in and then our own post–production company started in between.

The graphics are the first of their kind...

Jami: Amir Wasim (the brains behind the graphics of 'Ankhian' by Fuzon) wanted to do something different and less commercial. He asked me if we could give this concept a futuristic look so I asked him if he could do it. And that if it's even a little fake, we won't go with it so we tested it. He showed me a few things and I said okay. Though I still think that a few shots are 'okay' but then I have problems with Constantine shots that have a budget of 160 million dollars! Just like shoot, sound and lighting animations also have their own problems. There's a lot of animation in this video and the acting is really fast. The animation has been cut down because the purpose is to not show–off the animation. Just because you have made something that doesn't mean that you forget the actor and show the animated walls! Show the eyes and they'd tell the story. And then people come up and say that editing is too fast to hide things! We have spent 3 months and our own money has been invested. Every single shot is animated from Tariq's to the wall behind Angeline Malik and even the doctors have animation behind them. The reason for not showing off is also that the animation is out of focus because I wanted the depth, the feel and the reality to be obvious. Not just the graphics!

Do you have to like the music to be able to deliver a good video?

Jami: Oh absolutely. We invested our energy, money, time because it's a great song. And Ali's songs have a characteristic that either people love them or hate them completely. He isn't Ali Zafar. I am not saying Ali Zafar is bad but he is more commercial. Ali Azmat's sound is harsh. His album has been lying with me for the last 8 months and I think it's brilliant except for a few songs.

So you are saying that you loved all the songs of the videos that you have directed so far?

Jami: There's only one song I didn't like – 'Teray Bina' by Faakhir. I am very lucky that I always got nice songs.

Ali Azmat's second video is directed by Saqib Malik. What's your comment on that...

Jami: Saqib is one person that I have no problems with. It was due to Saqib that this video came alive. He gave a lot of equipment and he gave us big favors and I think the best video in the history of Pakistan has been made by Saqib – Khamaj. I mean I can't say anything bigger than this. All the other people are just concentrating on the crane shots! It's only Khamaj that stands out and I can't think of even one video of that standard. Not a single video.

The post production of the video happened at OutPost whereas all your other videos have been produced at Post-House. Why?

Jami: Wow! That's a politically charged question. There's only one reason why this happened which is that they don't have money. And the way I work – I'll destroy them in the process. And we shifted due to lots of other reasons. Lots of favors from Post House definitely and they really helped in my career. But the time came and the way I work I lose money. I'll always put more, shoot more and I improvise and I overshoot even for commercials and end up in a loss. We tried saving money but that didn't work out for us after a while. And that could have had a negative effect on our work as well as our relations. We can't pay much and I said I can't afford the market rates. So we thought lets make a crude post–production company first and keep refining it as we move on. And Ali's video was a good launching pad. I've got nothing against them and we still are on talking terms with Post House. I still owe them a lot. It's a big controversy but there's nothing to it.

Have you ever touched that point when creative stagnation sets in?

Jami: Oh big time! We used to make concepts so quick and now it takes month! Do you know how long 'Pal Do Pal' took to materialize? Half an hour! And I consider it the best video and it's because I was pure and I wasn't doing commercials. You start thinking in seconds and even in that half the time is for animation so the story aren't even bothered with. And every director goes through that.

How do you re–charge yourself creatively after a project?

Jami: I start exercising, I change my environment, I'd start driving, I got an I-Pod shuffle so I change the music, I start swimming and I start watching Chinese films again.

What's next and what do you want to progress into in the near future?

Jami: Film and not my film but cinema. If American cinema can come in I think the Indian cinema should be brought in as well. That's the problem with us that we are the biggest hypocrites on this earth. Every household has Indian films running and being watched in fact we pirate Indian movies! Why is the cinema closed? I have majored in feature films and now I am holding my head and saying please let us make a film! But the cinema is dead. Ask them to give you money and let them come in. Why won't they come in? If Lyari by–pass can be made where you had to spend money this can also be done because money will come in. Let the cinema come alive.

First published: Instep, News on Sunday, Sunday 22 May 2005, The News International, Jang Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.