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Remembering Renu Saluja, the unsung genius of Hindi cinema on her birth anniversary
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Remembering Renu Saluja, the unsung genius of Hindi cinema on her birth anniversary

BH Harsh • July 5, 2022, 11:54:05 IST
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With her work in films like Ardh Satya, Jaane bhi do Yaaro, Parinda and Bandit Queen, Renu Saluja made a lasting contribution to Hindi cinema, besides also becoming the first female editor to significantly break through into a field which was up until then considered a man’s domain.

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Remembering Renu Saluja, the unsung genius of Hindi cinema on her birth anniversary

Nearly 40 years later, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro , the 1983 satire directed by Kundan Shah continues to be a revered classic and equally relevant to our times if not more so. However, did you know that its iconic Mahabharat parody scene first ran over 30 minutes? Or the film itself lasted over3 hours, much more than the stipulated time allowed by the film’s producers NFDC? It’s only after the shoot that Kundan Shah and his team realized they had overshot their script by miles, and now needed to cut the film down by over an hour. Enter Renu Saluja, the editor of the film, who was present throughout the shoot of the film, and understood the film’s mood and temperament as much as its writers and director. If the film looks fresh today in its pace and rhythm and feels cohesive, a huge credit goes to Saluja who not merely brought the film to the desired length, but also gave it a certain edge that the filmmaker was struggling with. Today, when we discuss the brilliance of films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, like many other classics, we often leave out discussing the contribution of editors - Renu Saluja was a rare exception though, leaving unmistakable imprints on the cinema she was a part of. After graduating from FTII in 1976, Renu Saluja began her career by working on projects of her batchmates and up-and-rising filmmakers like Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (whom he had married in 1976, around the time they passed out together). And with her work in films like Ardh Satya, Parinda, Dharavi, and Bandit Queen, Saluja made a significant contribution to the art-house cinema of her times. If you glance through the major works of parallel cinema of 80s and 90s, there are good chances you would find Saluja’s name in the credit list. Khamosh, Sardar, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Is Raat ki Subah Nahin, Godmother, Hey Ram - the list is endless. Nihlani’s Ardh Satya (1983) was a major breakthrough for Saluja, because it was the first time she was moving out of her FTII circle. However, she more than proved her mettle with Ardh Satya, which had the rhythm and energy of a thriller and brilliantly captured the restlessness and angst running through the veins of the city. There are plenty of scenes where a scene abruptly ends with a strong physical move - like Inspector Haider (Shafi Inamdar) slaps a suspect or Anant (Om Puri) hitting his bike type in frustration - and the visual seamlessly blends into the chaos of the bustling city and its streets. In one of the most remarkable sequences of the film, right after a usually-subservient Anant answers back his father (Amrish Puri) for the first time, we see Anant and his father in a mid-length shot, as they get drunk together and the father attemps to reach out to his son. The shot remains calm and at a distance,  before we suddenly cut to a quick close of Anant lashing out in a moment of unexpected rage at his father, as he accuses him of being abusive to Anant’s mother, followed by an equally brief shot of shock on his father’s face. The moment hits all the more because of how Renu suddenly takes us into that unnerving proximity and extreme discomfort. In Sudhir Mishra’s Dharavi (1992), as Ramkaran (Om Puri) tells his wife Kumud (Shabana Azmi) about the progress made in his business plans, there is a brilliant transition from busy highway where they are standing with car wheezing by, to the wheels of a passing train with a bunch of kids taking a shit right besides it. It’s a searing visual of reality and daydreaming co-existing in oblivion, joined by the symbol of relentless speed that Bombay never lets go of. Renu Saluja believed in the importance of sound as much as visuals to create a rhythm in cinema. It was evident in the way she edited the opening stretch of Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s ‘Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho’  (1984) where the visuals and the satirical song about life in Bombay blended seamlessly. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda (1989) in particular is such a glorious testament to the power of cinema when a filmmaker works in perfect sync with his technical team. Be it the opening montage of Bombay that had never looked more eerie, or the seamless transitions between past and present in many scenes as Karan continues to be haunted by the incident that turned his life upside down, Saluja achieved a haunting lyricism here with Parinda’s edit. (Saluja would go on to win both the Filmfare and National Awards for this film that year) Renu Saluja was one of the few (if not the only one) editors who religiously attended the shoots of her films, while remaining non-interfering in the director’s process. And yet there were times when Saluja would collaborate with the cinematographer for shots which she felt could add to the scene - like for Sudhir Mishra’s Dharavi, Saluja called for a few shots of a couple of cloth-drapes that are often seen hanging outside Ramkaran’s factory. The way Saluja uses those shots of waving drapes at various junctures adds great lyricism to the narrative.  Similarly, in Parinda (1989), Chopra had initially shot one of the scenes - where Kishen (Anil Kapoor) kills one of Anna’s gang members - in a different style, and realized only later that the desired effect wasn’t achieved. Renu Saluja then asked cinematographer Binod Pradhan to take a few independent shots of the machinery at the oil factory where the scene takes place. In the final scene, as Rama’s body slides down the chute, we cut away to a montage of the grind of a noisy machinery operating at an overwhelming volume - the effect it creates is chilling. While Saluja had the uncanny ability to grasp the director’s intent, she would also often ask to be left alone for the first cut, to have an independent attempt at a re-interpretation of the film. Saluja strongly believed in the idea of editing being the third and final stage of the scripting of a film, and it showed in how she helped shape films like Dev Benegal’s Split Wide Open (1999). As her spouse and long-time collaborator Sudhir Mishra said while talking about her in an interview, “The value of a good editor is that they tell you what you have actually made while you are caught in what you think you have made.” Shekhar Kapur too noted in ‘Remembering Renu’, a documentary about Saluja’s life and works, that during their collaboration on Bandit Queen, there were two scenes in particular where Saluja wanted to cut away a little earlier, away from the protagonist’s face, while Kapur wanted to retain the prolonged stay. Saluja relented, and it was only in retrospect that Kapur realised Saluja was right. And yet, the consensus still remains that Saluja largely remained an unquestionable figure of authority in the edit room. One such story goes how Saluja, while editing Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, even refused to assemble two of the scenes that were shot, let alone edit them, because she was certain that they didn’t add anything to the narrative whatsoever. Renu Saluja was also known for her meticulous organization of all the footage that would land up on her table, and was always prepared to make any changes in the composition of a scene, which also meant a systematic retention of even the NG-shots (a colloquial term for shots not usable for some reason, or as the abbreviation spells out, “No Good”). Filmmakers like Govind Nihlani and Shekhar Kapur would shoot their scenes extensively, getting multiple angles and shots for any given scene. At such a juncture, it only became more challenging for their editors to keep their footage assorted and accessibble as they approached their edit. As Kundan Shah explains in the documentary ‘Remembering Renu’ talking about her working process, “she broke it down into a beautiful creative method.”  Perhaps the fact that editors were rarely given assistants those days for low-budget films helped Saluja create a self-sustaining system of her own. But most importantly, Renu Saluja broke through a field of work dominated by men and made a strong image of her own, hence paving the path for female film editors of the coming times. (Filmmaker Aruna Raje was the only other woman who did some prominent work as an editor back then). Saluja mentored some upcoming editors in her heyday like Shirish Kunder and Sanjib Dutta - but perhaps it was her legacy at FTII amongst the comings generation that inspired a legion of women filmmakers to pursuit this field that was once considered entirely a man’s domain in Hindi film Industry (unlike Hollywood which always had a strong and significant culture of women editors working on the biggest of their films). Today, some of the best Hindi film editors of recent times have been women - be it Aarti Bajaj (Rockstar, Black Friday), Deepa Bhatia (My Name Is Khan, Kai Po Che), or Namrata Rao (Love Sex aur Dhokha, Kahaani). The last two decades have also seen many other prominent women editors leave their mark - like Shweta Venkat (Gangs of Wasseypur, Newton), Antara Lahiri, Dipika Kalra (Udaan, Lootera), Prerna Saigal (Bombay Velvet, Pagglait), Meghna Manchanda Sen (Omkara, Udta Punjab). Most of Saluja’s colleagues remember her for warmth and openness to newer ideas which didn’t necessarily align with hers. But more importantly, Saluja remained equally empathetic in his personal space as well, kind and compassionate in her demeanor and yet remained headstrong in her opinions. As Naseeruddin Shah noted about her in ‘Remembering Renu’, her disapproval of one’s work never meant she disapproved them as a human being. She was also always enthused to encourage newer talent and their ideas. When a budding Indie filmmaker like Nagesh Kukunoor set out to make Hyderabad Blues in the late 90s, he sought a veteran like Renu Saluja, who went on to edit his next two ventures as well (Rockford & Bollywood Calling), just a little before her demise. Renu Saluja passed away in August 2000, a few months after she was diagnosed with stomach cancer.  In 2006, GraFTII, the Alumnus association of FTII released a book on her titled, ‘Invisible - The Art of Renu Saluja’. When Sudhir Mishra made Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi (2005), he dedicated it to Renu Saluja. In November 2021, FTII rightfully renamed one of their screening auditorium as the ‘Renu Saluja auditorium’ in her honor. And yet, Renu Saluja still remains one of the truly unsung geniuses of Hindi films, one who deserves far more recognition for the value she brought to our cinema. BH Harsh is a film critic who spends most of his time watching movies and making notes, hoping to create, as Peggy Olsen put it, something of lasting value. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.

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