A real gender bender

Bollywood buzz

He’s indefatigable and irrepressible in his humour. Easygoing, genial and prone to chuckles and guffaws, R Balki is a real-life pep pill! Even when he tackles subjects as serious as disability in Paa, he infuses a consistent element of slice-of-life humour in it. And, just like any true and humongous talent, Balki can take a dig at his only flop to date, Shamitabh — but more on that later.

Right now, Balki is set to release his fourth film (in eight years) as a director, Ki & Ka. The beaten track and Balki have almost been antonymous, for it is completely foreign to his nature, so we ask for more dope on the movie.

“If you have noticed, I have always looked at marriage lightly,” he says with a twinkle in his eyes. “Even in Cheeni Kum, I showed a light-hearted romance between a man who was 60-plus and a woman who was 30-plus. The Hindi language has, also, always fascinated me because it is the only one that has genders for objects. Naukri (a job) is feminine, while khaana (food) is masculine. And I get these genders wrong all the time. So I decided that I should write something on a marriage where the gender-flip can come — a woman, who for all her femininity, is the working half and a man, who despite his tough exterior, is a gentle person who stays at home like a typical wife would.”

The title Ki & Ka came even before Balki called his lead characters Kia and Kabir. And his greatest challenge came in the casting. The filmmaker first thought of Arjun Kapoor, called him over, and asked him if he had ever cooked or done household chores. “I wanted a truly masculine guy. I had watched him for 10 to 15 minutes while talking with him before I asked him about this. When he said he had not, I knew I had found my hero,” he chuckles.

Grinning, Balki explains that Arjun was excited about this idea. “While he is shown cooking, sweeping and other household stuff, he does it like a man would, and never apes a woman. Just like a chef never behaves like a woman.”

The heroine’s casting was interesting. “A fan of my wife Gauri (Shinde) sent her a picture of Kareena (Kapoor Khan) and said that Arjun and she would look good together. And I thought, ‘My God! Kareena solves a lot of issues in my head!’ I have been a great fan of hers, and she is the most feminine person you can think of. She too could effectively be the opposite — an ambitious and aggressive girl in a male world.”

Balki promises that we will never see Arjun as gentle or Kareena in such a carefree mode. “But at the same time, being a woman, Kareena also brings in a lot of heart. Also, essentially, this is a romantic film and you have to like both people,” he says.

Says Balki, “This is a light, fun film, and I am not trying to be preachy. Yes, I do feel that women who look after the house are often taken for granted. Looking after the home, including cooking, is a lifetime and 24/7 job that is so demotivating for so many women. And the men think that they are earning and so these women must manage the house. I think that there can be no bigger insult to them because they are neither maids nor house managers, but are sharing their lives with you.”

The filmmaker admits that there have been many films on such switches between husband and wife in India and internationally. “My idea is to go beyond just showing this. Like, in such an interchange, would the problems or love and other things be different? How would life progress? What issues could come, and how would they handle them?”

Would Balki himself like to be a husband like Arjun in the film? He laughs and says that he would just love it. Mischievously, he adds, “Gauri says that I always write something I never practice. But if it was inspired by personal life, why would I write? I have lived it, so it does not inspire me as a writer.”

In a surprise revelation, he says, “I had decided never to make a film after Shamitabh, which before release, I had considered the biggest film in the world.” He guffaws, “Some people said that the film will be celebrated after I am gone. Now, what good would that be?”

But the post-Shamitabh phase saw Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan calling or messaging him for days in a row, telling him that he must start writing again without any delay. And so, when this script happened, Balki wrote in an important appearance for both of them in it. “It is not one of your standard cameos by a big star,” he promises.

Finally, how much is Balki involved with his wife Gauri Shinde’s next film starring Shah Rukh Khan and Alia Bhatt? “Other than as one of the producers along with Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies and my wife Gauri, I am nowhere as creatively involved as the little I contributed to her first film English Vinglish. I did not even serve the coffee on the sets,” he chuckles.