The Week India – June 30, 2019

114 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019

@LEISURE

CINEMA

hile shooting his fi lm

Th e Extraordinary

Journey of the Fakir

in France, Canadian

writer-director Ken Scott was a little

shocked to fi nd a bottle of wine on

the lunch table every day. Drinking

on the job is a strict no-no in Canada,

he said with a laugh during a recent

interaction with THE WEEK. As cool

as he found it, he refrained from al-

cohol during work. Although he did

not experience anything like this in

other countries, he had many other

fascinating moments. In India, for ex-

ample, he was told that the common

practice for fi lmmakers was to take

only two shots of a scene; he liked to

take at least eight. While convincing

the Indian crew, he realised how they

respected his needs as a fi lmmaker.

For a cross-border fi lm that was

shot in various countries, the best

part for the team was, no doubt,

their various discoveries and lessons

learnt. Th e fi lm is an adaptation of

Romain Puertolas’s French bestseller,

Th e Extraordinary Journey of the

Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea

Wardrobe. Starring Dhanush in the

lead, the movie is about Ajatashatru

Patel, a small-time conman and ma-

gician from the ghettos of Mumbai,

who travels across France, Spain,

Libya and Italy in search of his father.

During the journey, he falls in love,

gets trapped in refugee camps, and

faces many other unusual situations.

Th is is Dhanush’s fi rst interna-

tional fi lm as an actor. He found the

role a perfect blend of collaboration

and blurring boundaries. He has a

dance number with Bérénice Bejo, a

romantic angle with Erin Moriarty,

and much more. “Working with an

international cast was a learning

experience,” he says. “I feel fortunate

to have travelled with the fi lm crew to

so many diff erent parts of the world

and understood their ideas about

fi lmmaking.”

Dhanush, a multitasker by nature,

is a little reticent while talking about

how he prepared for his role as a boy

from the Mumbai slums. “If I fi nd

time, great,” he says. “If I don’t, I will

just follow what the director says.”

It was the latter in the case of Th e

Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir.

In between his directorial and acting

projects in Chennai, there was little

time for Dhanush to prepare for

his role as Aja. “But Ken Scott was

very helpful,” he says. “He guided

me through the making of the fi lm.”

According to him, his “understand-

LEARNING CURVE

W

START CAMERA ACTION!

Dhanush with director Ken Scott

during the shooting of the fi lm

Dhanush says that his fi

rst international outing,

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir

, is a perfect blend of

collaboration and blurring boundariesBY PRIYANKA BHADANI