I love listening to creative minds. It opens a window to dissect where their art comes to life. Their words render an unsought path of what it takes and means to be an artist and create art. The interaction helps one familiarise with the force that drives them to find and build the object of one’s perceived imagination, which may or may not have been shaped by the surrounding reality. It breaks open the curious puzzle where the room to scrutinise the often ignored or underlying mystery and the assumptions that clutter clear thinking narrows down. And to a rather clueless and wishful dreamer like me, it even sings a symphony of hope.
Personally, I know some people who are on this journey and some experts who have walked this uncertain trail. Some of these exchanges have been fruitful yet limited, whereas the aisle continues to come up with new questions and arguments, leading to an undying curiosity and need to listen, learn and unlearn. My fascination drew me toward listening to interviews and podcasts featuring artists, especially filmmakers, writers, actors, musicians, authors and more. As I tried to explore the ever-widening web of the internet, I stumbled upon many such interactions that spoke to me and enriched my thought process.
However, it soon reached a melting point where a majority of these videos stretched upon projection rather than expression due to the mundaneness in the quality of question-answers and the overall body language of the members involved. There was no place for novelty or looking beyond the surface, as many of these conversations were organised for the purpose of promotion, which created a largely unnecessary and unengaging hook for everyone to cater. Moving along this tiring drag, I came across an approximately hour-long interview of Anurag Kashyap with Neelesh Misra called ‘The Slow Interview’.
It introduced me to a great portion of this man’s life whose layered portrayal of socio-political themes and the human psyche in movies like Black Friday, Gulaal, No Smoking, Ugly and Raman Raghav 2.0 showcased a strong mirror to society and its shortcomings. Quite contrary to the number of generic and staged interviews, there was a refreshing sense of conversation, which flowed organically and did not burden itself with any glitz or glamour, whether in its interaction or set-up. The natural calm setting, aloof from the city studios or the unnecessary entourage that surrounds personality, provides a timeless quality which allows the person to express themselves unabashedly.
A major reason behind this concept working so beautifully is undeniably the sincere listening of Neelesh Misra, who makes every guest feel a part of the family. His ability to take conversations forward as the person in front of him opens up about his life and experiences with empathy is truly rare to find in the media landscape. In my observation, there has never been a point where he inflicts forcing anyone to talk about anything slightly controversial with the aim of using it as a medium of gathering views by creating unnecessary headlines. There is an effortless dynamic and deep respect he shares with the guest and vice-versa, which transcends the screen and forms these beautiful interviews.
Episodes featuring Piyush Mishra, Pankaj Tripathi, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj Bajpayee, Ali Fazal, Paresh Rawal, Nucleya, Manav Kaul and Anubhav Singh Bassi are some of my personal favourites because of the invaluable moments they were able to capture. The directness and candour with which Piyush Mishra talked about his struggle with alcoholism and how it affected his life, especially his relationship with family members. The sight of Sanjay Mishra getting emotional while remembering the incident from the National School of Drama where the entire batch stood with him when he got terminated wrongfully. Even the way Ali Fazal opened up about his parents and how they did not share the most comfortable equation, which eventually resulted in them getting separated, moved me.
To see these personalities bring forward their vulnerable side is something I feel can only happen in ‘The Slow Interview’ with Neelesh Misra. It has a warm comfort and natural ease for both the viewers and the members, which is hard to replicate or mimic. They provide a deep dive into the life of an individual and reveal several aspects that subside the larger-than-life persona, enabling us to look at and accept them from a more human lens.
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