Vivek Gomber is 36, but in a bar he is capable of putting 21-year-olds to shame with his energy and drinking capacity. âI started everything really early,â he says, with a sheepish grin that reaches his eyes. âIt happens when you go to a fancy expat school.â
Gomber speaks English with a hint of an American drawl, a remnant of his schooling from a posh Singapore school and four years at Emerson College, Boston, where he studied acting. He is good looking, well-built, and harbours a special fondness for expensive vodka. You might, therefore, be tempted to dismiss him as just another posh Bandra boy who acquires accents at airports as though they're available duty-free.
But if youâve been reading about a multilingual courtroom drama called âCourtâ recently, you will realise that Gomber is the National-Award-winning actor-producer of the film, which has become one of the most celebrated movies in the international film festival circuit over the past seven months. If youâve read further, you already know that the film, written and directed by first-timer Chaitanya Tamhane, is a thoughtful and multi-layered look at the Indian judicial system through the absurd case against a folk-singer who is accused of abetting a manâs suicide through one of his songs.
Vivek Gomber (L) and Geetanjali Kulkarni (R) in a still from 'Court'
Weâre at his sparsely-furnished Bandra apartment which overlooks a Mughlai restaurant called Sigdi. Post midnight, a police van usually parks itself opposite the restaurant, right under Gomberâs bedroom window. As famished policemen gobble down chicken rolls, their wireless radios crackle with intercepted messages that ring out in the quiet neighbourhood. âIn some weird way, that sound helped me prepare for âCourtâ,â he says. "It helped me understand the aspect of life we were dealing with."
The film releases in about a week (on April 17) and he has had a long day, which has involved speaking to reporters and coordinating with the filmâs distributors for Maharashtra. It has been nearly four years since this journey began. âYou know the crazy part? The film wasnât even supposed to exist till six months ago,â he says, puffing on a Marlboro. âWe got so lucky.â
Lucky is an understatement. Nineteen awards and glowing reviews from leading publications such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Le Monde can hardly be credited to pure coincidence. And yet, the film exists today because of a gamble Gomber took in June 2011, when he told a then-24-year-old Tamhane that he would pay him Rs 15,000 a month to write a script after the latter told him about an idea he wanted to develop. âHe was supposed to take 8 months but it ended up taking a year,â he says. âBut Iâd worked with him in a play â âGrey Elephants In Denmarkâ â before, and I had full faith in his intelligence and maturity, so I wasnât worried at all.â
When he first read Tamhaneâs script, he knew heâd bet right. âIt just made so much sense in the context of the world we live in,â he says. âIt also seemed so universal for me. I could see it working not only in an Indian context, but pretty much anywhere since, to my mind, it was a strong comment on the socio-economic state of the world.â
The world of the film, in which he has also played the pivotal role of wealthy defence lawyer Vinay Vora, is not that different from the one he inhabits. As the only son to a now-deceased father who worked his way up to become the group CEO of Emaar Properties in Dubai and a mother who is a practicing High Court judge in Jaipur, Gomber grew up privileged. âBoth my parents came from absolutely nothing to rise to the top of their professions,â he says. âThey inspired me to be both hard-working and to take control of my destiny. All this that Iâm doing now⊠itâs all for them.â
He spent his early childhood in Jaipur, from where he has memories of watching Amitabh Bachchan films and going out to a place called Gauri CafĂ© for late-night coffee. âThere wasnât much else to do there in the â80s,â he says. âI must have watched âAgneepathâ at least 300 times.â
The larger-than-life imagery stuck with him. After shifting to Singapore at age 11, despite doing well in academics and even enlisting in the Singapore army for two years, Gomber nurtured a desire to make acting his profession despite opposition from his parents. In 2004, after four years of intensive theatre training in Boston, he came to Mumbai to try and find work in theatre. His first acting job was in Quasar Thakore Padamseeâs âSalomeâ, alongside Ankur Vikal and Neeraj Kabi. Since then, heâs appeared in a number of plays, TV shows, and films. âThere is some stuff out there that Iâm pretty embarrassed about,â he admits. âBut I had to do whatever I was getting.â
Transforming âCourtâ from an idea in Tamhaneâs head to a worldwide criticsâ darling with a national release â along with distribution deals that have been cracked in the US, Canada, parts of Europe, and the Middle East â wouldnât have been possible without Gomberâs unshakeable (some might even call it foolhardy) belief in his directorâs vision. âWhen a text is that strong, youâve got to go all the way,â he says, with a shrug.
The journey has been arduous, to say the least. In late 2012, 'Court' found no takers at the co-production market of Film Bazaar, organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), a government body that exists to promote regional and independent cinema. More than a year later, the NFDC rejected Tamhaneâs script and declined to finance the film. While Tamhane had managed to procure 10,000 euros of funding from Rotterdamâs Hubert Bals Fund, the rest of the money â Rs 3.5 crore and counting â had to come out of Gomberâs pocket.
Even on completion, a rough cut of the film was rejected outright by eight major film festivals between May and September 2014, including some of the best-known names in the world. Gomber says that this period was probably the toughest time the crew went through and they were âpretty heartbrokenâ.
âVenice was going to be our last shot, because if we got rejected there too, then we were going to take six months off and try applying to Rotterdam,â he said. âAnd we didnât know how to handle sitting around doing nothing for six months after three years of insane work.â It didnât help that several industry âwell-wishersâ, whom Gomber doesnât want to name, told them that they were committing suicide by going to festivals without a well-connected backer or âgodfatherâ.
(From left) Chaitanya Tamhane, Geetanjali Kulkarni, and Vivek Gomber at the closing ceremony of the 71st Venice International Film Festival
But on September 4, 2014, everything changed. âCourtâ picked up two prestigious honours at the 71st Venice International Film Festival â the Luigi De Laurentiis (Lion Of The Future) for Tamhane and Best Film â Orizzonti (Horizons, a category for new, edgy films from various parts of the world). These were to be the first two of 18 more to come and the journey isnât even over yet. âBy September, we will have played at 45 film festivals,â he says, âand I donât even think thatâs the final number.â
Itâs easy to align Gomberâs efforts to a rich-kid-sitting-on-an-inheritance narrative, but he says the financial risk he has taken is palpable; after all, itâs not like he is a sought-after Bollywood star who can make all that money back merely by acting in a couple of films. It doesnât also help that âCourtâ â with its still frames, hyper-realism, and complete lack of background music â features a radically different kind of aesthetic from the kind moviegoers in India are used to.
Now, with days left to go to the filmâs first-ever theatrical release, their efforts continue to stay true to the filmâs original spirit. While they have help for its Maharashtra release, across the rest of India, âCourtâ is being released independently by Zoo Entertainment Pvt Ltd, a company Gomber set up for the film, with the assistance of Long Live Cinema. So far, their marketing campaign has favoured visits to law colleges and interactions with the legal community over âviralâ publicity stunts and glitzy press events.
Itâs the only way, insists Indiaâs bravest producer.
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