Waman Bhonsle, An editor par excellence

Posted on 2008-11-28
Remember the flashback sequence of Gulzar’s ‘Namkeen’ when Shabana Azmi jumps from the cliff and the teardrop falling from Sharmila Tagore’s eyes? The flashback ends with the parallel cuts. Or Aamir Khan’s train sequence in the movie ‘Ghulam’... Very few know that it was alternate frame cuts that make the pace of the approaching train faster than it actually was.
These are the master cuts, the magic of the scissors of the maestro of the editing table, Waman Bhonsle, a Goan we should be proud of.
Perhaps it is not merely by accident that the great Goan contemporaries - Waman Bhonsle and K Vaikunth, the ace cinematographer were picked up by Gulzar and this team presented the best of celluloid gems to the film industry. The films created by this team - ‘Mere Apne’, ‘Parichay’, ‘Achanak’, ‘Koshish’, ‘Khushboo’, ‘Aandhi’, ‘Mausam’, ‘Meera’... can never be forgotten.
I was fortunate to work under these three greats.
Waman Bhonsle belonged to an era when editing was more human. He worked on steenbeck with celluloid scissors (film splicer) - cutting the film unlike today’s computer editing on sophisticated editing machines such as Avid and FCP, in which the human touch is replaced by digital technology.
I have personally witnessed action directors relying on this master editor’s creative skill for outstanding results. Good editing often improves a mediocre film, however, a bad editor can even ruin a good movie. Waman Bhonsle has edited more than 300 films and it was the touch of this great artist that some of the ordinary films have got a wonderful look and went on to become hits too.
Waman Bhonsle was the first choice of great film-makers like Gulzar, Raj Khosla, Mahesh Bhatt, Subhash Ghai, Narendra Bedi, Shekhar Kapoor, Raj N Sippy, Vikram Bhatt, and many others. For almost half-a-century, Waman Bhonsle ruled over the editing department in Bollywood.
He started as an independent editor for the film ‘Do Raste’ directed by Raj Khosla, following his other films - ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’, ‘Kacche Dhaage’, ‘Do Chor’, ‘Prem Kahani’, ‘Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki’, ‘Dostana’, etc.
Subhash Ghai blockbusters like ‘Kalicharan’, ‘Karz’, ‘Meri Jung’, ‘Ram Lakhan’ and ‘Saudagar’ had special Waman Bhonsle cuts. Mahesh Bhatt’s directorial debut film, ‘Manzilein Aur Bhi Hai’, Raj N Sippy’s ‘Inkaar’, K Vishwanath’s ‘Sargam’, Shekhar Kapoor’s ‘Mr India’, Vikram Bhatt’s ‘Ghulam’ are fine examples as to how an editor can use various editing techniques to bring the best out of a film. Waman Bhonsle is indeed an editing institute in himself.
The well-known editor has won every existing award, a series of Filmfare Awards, Zee Lux Cinema Award, Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Excellence Award, Kodak Technical Award and so on. However, the biggest of them came to him from the President of India - The National Award for Editing, for the film ‘Inkaar’ (1977) along with his partner in editing, Gurudutt Shirali, forming the Waman-Guru editing team.
Mere financial schemes will not take Goa forward in filmmaking, while scheming against each other will result in retardation of the same. Waman Bhonsle’s career provides a lesson to the young Goan filmmakers... If there is talent, and genuine interest existing in a person, he is bound to succeed. The state government will be felicitating Waman Bhonsle, a son of the soil during the ongoing IFFI 2008. This goodwill gesture on the part of the state is the minimum we owe to this maestro of the editing table.