Following the release and reactions to his directorial venture "Revolver Rani", Sai Kabir has much to ponder over about the movie's characters, plot, twists and turns, as also the "mistake" he made in the story's narration.
Kangana Ranaut plays a female goon in the movie, while Vir Das plays her toy-boy.
Reflecting upon moments in the film, Kabir said: "I wanted to create a toy-world in the film. I wanted the audiences to feel they were inside a toy while watching the film. I am a big fan of Johnnie To and Robert Rodriguez. When Kangana takes Vir to the Film City that she has built for him, it's like being inside a gigantic toy."
Vir as the wannabe Bollywood star and Kangana's resident toy-boy, represents for the director, "the great Indian dream".
"Taking shortcuts to get where young people want to get is an accepted form of immoral behaviour. It's cool to be corrupt for the sake of your desires and dreams. Youngsters who take shortcuts think they can get away with it. They think they can do something in the stock market and get out with some fast bucks.
"But it doesn't work that way. The whole 'Modern Indian Dream' is a bloody bubble."
Kabir says even the film's photography was purposely splashy and kitschy to accentuate the comic-book sentiment.
"I don't know if that comic-book feeling comes across. If you see the way the story unfolds, there are no Bollywood references in 'Revolver Rani' at all. It's actually a celebration of gutter-level existence.
"Kangana is part of thar guttural existence until she becomes pregnant. The baby symbolizes a surreal divine intervention. From her gutter-level insane existence, she wants to move towards purity and sanity. The baby symbolizes sanity, purity and innocence. But she can't quit the gutter," he said.
A lot of the cross references in the plot about sleazy politicians and cheesy middlemen seem borrowed from real-life politics.
"It's not just about Madhya Pradesh or the Chambal Valley. My political references are taken from all over the country. Tribals being usurped from their roots, power plants being unconstitutionally sanctioned...these are epidemic political issues...but it's all depicted in comic-book fashion," he added.
Kangana's aggressive libido and her insistence on being the partner on top in her relationship with her toy-boy Vir seems like a devious role reversal of traditional gender equations in film and society.
It was deliberately planned that way.
"To be honest, I knew such aggressive sexuality in the female protagonist would definitely generate interest in the male audience. But at the same time, I also thought this kind of naked female lust would also connect with the female audience.
"On the face of it, women may deny strong sexual feelings. But somewhere Kangana's character's libido is a fantasy that women surely identify with. Why should only Bollywood heroes play eternal Casanovas while heroines are supposed to remain coy about sex? I thought Kangana's mixture of love and lust for Vir Das is liberating in many ways."
The director wanted to show that Kangana's character tolerates Vir's philandering because of the pregnancy.
"That was one mistake I made in the storytelling. Kangana's character feels that having a daddy around for her unborn baby is a cool idea. But it's an idea that couldn't come across in the narration. This is my first release. And I didn't get a chance to rectify the mistakes."
