Manoj Bajpayee features once more in a scene-stealing act in Joram, which after being lauded on the festival circuit, released in cinemas last weekend. In the Devashish Makhija directorial, the chameleonic actor plays Dasru, a tribal from Jharkhand forced to fend for a livelihood in Mumbai, and whose life turns upside down when his wife (played by Tannishtha Chatterjee) is murdered and he is forced to go on the run with his three-and-a-half month old daughter. t2 chatted with Manoj on being Dasru in Joram, what angers him in today’s world and the stunning 2023 he has had.

I am sure there must have been multiple reasons for you to want to do Joram. What were the primary ones?

First of all, I always look for a script which is engaging and which goes beyond everything that one has seen or done or experienced on screen. The engagement with the audience is the primary reason that I do a film, for that matter any film.

And then I look at the world that the film is trying to portray and my character in it... how it is positioned and who is directing the film. There are so many things, you know. It’s just not one thing.

The world that (director) Devashish Makhija is dealing with in this film is one that has not been touched for a very long time. It’s been more than three or four decades... nobody has made a film in that milieu.

What was it about this character that appealed to you? Were there any aspects of this character that you evoked from within yourself?

His (Dasru) relationship with his three-and-a-half month old daughter. She is voiceless at that age and Dasru, despite having a voice, is as voiceless as his daughter. He is voiceless for societal reasons. There is so much going on between them in all those silent moments that they share. That is something that emotionally provoked me to do this film.

This looks like a very challenging role in more ways than one....

When you choose to do something which you have never been part of and the character is someone who has rarely been seen on our screens, then the challenges are many. In this film, a lot of imagination has been used, but what has been used more are a lot of experiences of my own village (Belwa in Bihar), which came in handy. The challenge lay in trying to become a person from another class, trying to understand his inner struggle and his conflict and where he stands spiritually. When you take up something which is very unique and which is rarely portrayed on screen, just getting into the skin of that character becomes very, very challenging.

Would you say that the physical challenges in this film were on a par with the emotional challenges?

Physical challenges, you know, one can deal with. Every second film comes with some physical demand or the other, but the mental challenge is something that you are dealing with for 24 hours. And when you are not mentally fit, you really can’t deal with the external demands.

You can grow a moustache or a beard. With the help of nutritionist, you can gain or lose weight. But what about the inner side of the character that makes the body language, that turns your eyes into the character’s eyes? Changing your inner side according to the needs of the character is of utmost importance.

From Taandav to Bhonsle to Joram, you and Devashish Makhija have had a very fruitful, collaborative relationship as director and actor. What is it that works so well for the relationship that you share? And what is so unique about his voice as a director?

He is a very, very aware person. I am also a citizen of this country who is always disturbed by the unfairness in our society.

I am someone who gets disturbed by the day-to-day happenings in our country. I am always angered and instigated by the unfairness which has been prevalent in this society for many, many years. He (Makhija) is also an angry person and there is so much burning inside him. And it all comes out when he’s writing a novel or a script. And this is what I really love about him. He is so relevant, he is so topical. One gets so much education while prepping for his films.

Does his anger find some sort of reflection in all the characters that you have played in his films?

I don’t think there was anger in Taandav... there was a conflict of a very high intensity. Yes, you see that there is a simmering anger in Bhonsle and it really gets channelised when he finds a reason to live, right? In Joram, nobody is angry. Dasru gets angry only once, and for the entire duration of the film, he only repents that.

What is it that angers you today about the world?

It doesn’t make me angry now. I have mostly come to terms with many things in my life. The little bit of angst which is left, it is about the unfairness with which we are dealing with the people who have the ability to really deliver.

What impacts me is the day-to-day news, which I get to read in newspapers or on social media. There are too many things happening in society. That impacts me as a person. I get impacted by visuals of children getting killed and people suffering. It disturbs me and then I remember Bertolt Brecht from Germany who said how war is futile and how the consequence of war is always suffered by mostly children.

How do you look back at 2023? You had two much-talked-about films in Gulmohar and Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai....

It has been a good year. Over the last five years, I have got the best opportunities and that too quite frequently. I am now getting to choose from the best scripts. In fact, sometimes I am confused as to which one I should pick up... it has become that frequent.

I just hope that this time lasts long, not only for me but for others as well. At this point, I feel that OTT needs to just up its game a little bit. Somehow I feel that OTT in our country is also in some kind of a conflict as to what they should go for — mainstream or middle-of-the-road or independent cinema. Earlier, they were welcoming all kinds of good films. But now, after movie theatres have started registering high footfalls with all the potboilers, I see some kind of an unsettlement within the OTT platforms. I understand all of that and I just hope that they don’t lose their conviction and belief in good films.