‘The Last Salute’ a reminder about importance of artist in shaping public opinion: Mahesh Bhatt

New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) From a book to a play to now another book, it’s a full circle for “The Last Salute”, says director Mahesh Bhatt, recalling how Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s account of hurling a shoe at the the US president George W Bush back in early 2000s, inspired them to recreate the story for the stage.

Zaidi’s book was named “The Last Salute to President Bush” and the Indian play inspired by it became “The Last Salute” with Bhatt serving as the presenter on the stage production.

The filmmaker has now penned the foreward to Rajesh Kumar’s book chronicling their play.

Recalling the seed of the idea for the play, the director said he had refused an invitation to attend the 51st National Prayer Breakfast with Bush in 2003.

It was Bhatt’s protege, Imran Zahid who prompted him to develop al Zaidi’s “The Last Salute” as a play. Zahid acted in the production, scripted by Kumar and directed by Delhi theatre veteran Arvind Gaur.

“My association with the world of amateur theatre was to be in touch with the heartbeat of the nation, where the nation actually breathes, aspires, dreams. That brought me to Delhi, where I met Arvind Gaur and Imran Zahid, one of my very dear proteges,” Bhatt told PTI in an interview.

“Mr Zahid said to me ‘Bhatt sahab, you wrote a letter when you were invited in 2003 for the prayer breakfast meeting which expressed a similar sentiment’ as Muntadhar’s shoe hurling incident’… This play is a reminder about the importance of the artist in shaping public opinion. A journey that began from a book went into a play and it comes back into a book form. That’s a circle of journey,” he added.

Bhatt, 74, said he took “The Last Salute” across the country, adding, this play could have only been done in India.

“It’s only India which can perform a play like this because our founding fathers have given us the freedom to express our dissenting views,” he noted.

But the journey was not without obstacles.

Gaur’s theatre group and Bhatt were “crusading” to get al-Zaidi to India so that they could perform the play in his presence. The Iraqi journalist was by then residing in Beirut and there were visa issues in bringing him to India.

They even spoke to the Home Ministry, then headed by P Chidambaram under the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which was “dragging its feet”, said the filmmaker.

“People don’t like this kind of sensitive play to flare up public passion. I said what we are doing is converting a published work in the form of a play and we have a Constitutional right to do this,” he said.

The Mumbai-based director said eventually “a reasonable officer in the Home (ministry) said ‘We’ll fast track the process’.”

“Muntadhar came and the first thing he did was to visit Raj Ghat… He was in awe of Gandhiji. That was a historical visit, I went with him there,” he recalled.

When they would perform the play across the country, Bhatt said he would read the letter at its beginning and also appear on stage at the close.

“It was purely to tell the people that I feel that this is one hell of a significant play that the world needs to watch. It did get a life of its own. We did some 70 shows around the country and people from all ranks enjoyed each and every performance,” he added.

To preserve “The Last Salute” as a stage production, the filmmaker said he wanted to translate it into a book.

“I thought that before it fades away into oblivion of history, it’s good to convert this play into a book format so that posterity can have access to this period in history there was a group of motivated people in India who dared to do a play on the life of this man who hurled his shoe at George W Bush.”

According to Bhatt, only theatre has the capability to hold the powerful to account, not mainstream cinema or television.

“You speak truth to power in the face of fierce opposition and criticism. That’s what theatre was essentially supposed to do. Not television and mainstream cinema because it seeks only popularity… It maintains status quo, toes the beaten belief system, doesn’t lock horns with the entrenched value system of the time, but theatre historically has been a platform to speak against justice and it advocates the right of a human being to live life with dignity on his own terms,” he added.

The book form of “The Last Salute”, published by Vani Prakashan, was launched at the recently concluded New Delhi World Book Fair.