Vikas Bahl Director Of Queen Speaks On Life, Love, Sex, Marriage & Kangana Ranaut

Take the Leap of Faith & Follow Your Heart

“Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free & realizing that you were the prisoner” an opening statement he makes at our tete a tete that comes through in Vikas Bahl’s latest film ‘Queen’. Yes, we’re all curious about the man who has conveyed so many resonant messages through his film. & Won innumerable awards at this years Film Fare Awards night.

What a riotous film, and yet without being preachy, with uproarious funny moments -a film that does not try to talk down to you, but takes you on a euphoric thrilling journey and yet conveys so many important messages. I've loved it but so have the critics. An important film of our times.

The beauty remains in the fact that the film carries you with it, not attempting to teach to improve anyone. Vikas was just sharing his funda of life artlessly, while telling his beguiling story hilariously. 

What comes across to me most resonantly is that one just has to take the leap of faith and follow one’s heart. And if you don’t, then life’s greatest calamities, or what we view as calamities are actually that prod that throw us out of comfort zones and make us reconsider our lives and take the plunge into adventure, living, experiencing and being our true selves.

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 The thrust takes us to another realm of reality from the mechanical existences we are boxed into by our well-wishers and family. People who feel they know ‘what’s good for us’, who straight jacket us into existences that were ‘prearranged’ for them in different times. But what we don’t realize is much has changed, and we have to move out of comfort zones and explore, live and breathe the ‘open’ air.

Vikas’s ‘Queen’ is a middle class girl who is most happy to go by the plan laid out by well-meaning family for her life. “She would have lived most happily as a wife, mother, mother-in-law, because she was just not exposed to life beyond the boxed existence of the preformatted childhood, marriage, mother cycle. 

“The ‘system’ decides what is ‘good’ for a person often” shares Vikas, boyishly handsome director, most unassuming and modest about all the attention he’s getting these days with his mega success film.

Over tea, Vikas’s shares that his protagonist is ‘happy’ to let her family control her life. In fact she is devastated when the plan for her life falls apart. 

“She is from a normal everyday family like I am. Rani could be my sister or any normal girl who goes about doing what is expected from her without questioning the roles society sets forth. Often, everything is preformatted for us and we are made to believe that we must live up to norms laid out by society. We never questioned these norms, or figure out for ourselves what works for us.

You see through my protagonist Rani or ‘Queen’s’ life that not all our preconceived notions are accurate. In reality there is another way of looking at life. The room-mate in the hostel is not going to pounce on her because she might be alone in the room. To question life is actually important for growth. One just has to rethink life patterns”   avers 

Vikas who’s super hit film ‘Queen’ has left a lingering sense of joie de vivre in my heart-a rare case of a female

centric film which has run to full houses by pure word of mouth appreciation and not big budget promotions.

Vikas has a very remarkable quirky take on relationships and life. Out of the envelope and offbeat, for a routine family boy who grew up in an ordinary way. “Or then maybe I reflect, I question and make fun of it, because I’ve seen it all so closely. I grew up in Delhi in a humdrum milieu and observed patterns that must have lived inside me. 

To really live-live we must begin to look at life different to the way it is presented to us. You can live in a hostel without the man pouncing on you. Sleeping around is not bad. Foreigners are not rakes and having fun is not a bad thing. Marriage is not the be all and end all of life. I have deliberately sent out the message that you don’t need anyone else to make you happy.



To find the real you is your real route to happiness.
Rani found herself and that was the reason for her happiness. Consciously or unconsciously I’ve felt and said all of this.”

The man of the moment, Vikas Bahl is creating history with his movie. Many weeks down the line, the cinemas are still full. And this without the conventional ending to the movie. 


“Rani truly moved on, without grudges at being dumped. Even though her fiancé uses all the tactics to get her back. Because the moment you gives in to a controlling bully, he’ll go back to being that. Being dumped was the best thing to happen to her. Sometimes when a man loses his job, it’s his greatest gift.  Freedom, Love, romance, marriage, you find it once, and then again and again.”
  

To seek adventure and explore is Vikas’s greatest message, even though he strongly believes in the institution of marriage and feelingly shares that it was the unstinting support of his wife that allowed him to quit his job and make movies.

“People have one life, live and love on your own terms. My message (if any) is the granny’s words to her from outside the door, “None of this will last, and when you get to my age you’ll see that none of this is important. Journey, explore and let life unfurl"?

Catastrophe can sometimes unlikely as it may sound, be the catalyst for change. To use the cliché –‘a blessing in disguise’-! It may leave you no alternative but to take a road less travelled and the results may be unexpectedly rewarding or at least exciting. Relook at life like Rani did, and find yourself.

nishajamvwal@gmail.com

I am  columnist and luxury consultant.

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