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Home , Anjan Dutt, Ashok Kumar, Goutam Ghose, Jisshu Sengupta, Rakhee Gulzar, Rituparno Ghosh

Director’s Cut “I’mindebtedtomyactors”

SIMPLY CELEBRATE GOES ON A JOURNEY WITH fered a breakdown. If people have accepted the mor”; these are Radha’s words. Imagine Tagore’s , ’S EDGIEST FILMMAKER casting of Swatilekha in Ghare Baire, then what’s sensitivity when he writes “amar e ghor bohu jo- wrong with Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali? Just ton kore dhutey hobe muchhtey hobe morey, AND UNABASHED VOICE OF ALTERNATE SEXUALITY By TITHI SARKAR because she is not a Bengali? In this century, amare je jagte hobe ke jaane se ashbe kobe”. should we still have regionalism on our minds? Pronouns and verbs in the SUVASHIS MULLICK/www.indiatodayimages.com Q: There has also been a lot of talk about sex- are not gender-sensitive. The mysterious and ituparno Ghosh’s life is one unending celebration. National uality with respect to you as well as your films. mystical ambiguity of androgyny in Tagore’s writ- awards have come to be associated with almost every film of How comfortable are you with this? ings is a treasure we have inherited from one of A: Antarmahal was about sexuality. Paroma our greatest legends but haven’t utilised enough. Ghosh’s. Even before he appeared last year before the camera is also a strong film on sexuality. At one time, the When Joy (Goswami) writes “Benimadhab, Beni- in Aarekti Premer Golpo the film’s posters literally sent shock- values that directors upheld were secularism, madhab, tomar bari jabo” in Malatibala Balika Rwaves across the city as viewers waited anxiously to welcome the new ‘hero- non- and anti-caste and class sys- Bidyalaya, or Manna De sings “Lolita oke aaj ine’ of the Bengali film industry. Ghosh’s sartorial statements have raised tems. They believed in austerity and sexuality did chole jete bol na”, then there are no issues be- not feature in their progressive thoughts. Except cause the poet or singer’s physicality is absent. If eyebrows and there has been plenty of speculation about his sexuality. Fresh for Kaberi Bose in Aranyer Dinratri and a few we see Manna De’s physical figure in conjunction from the success of Noukadubi and readying his next venture, Chitrangada: others. Today these so-called progressive people with the woman’s words, then it could have been The Crowning Wish, Ghosh speaks about his work, sexual awareness, are shocked when they see sexuality being dealt disturbing for us. Music and poetry can take that with in every context of the term. A lot of people liberty but other art forms where the visual Tagore’s androgyny, and the future of Bengali cinema. have been shocked and disturbed after seeing image is important are not allowed that liberty of Antarmahal. [Pier Paolo] Pasolini has taught us this transposition of image. Q: From celebrated director to acclaimed ac- failures, their flaws, and dependence on me. long ago how people can be disturbed by sexual- Q: Your forthcoming film, Chitrangada: The tor, how do you see the journey? Q: You have worked with faces in ity. But Bengali cinema has a moral sanctity, or at Crowning Wish, sees you both as a director and A: I will not call it a journey; it is an extension almost all your films. Any particular reason? least a veil. That moral panic applies only to deal- an actor. What are you trying to convey? of what I was doing. All these days I have been A: I’m not the pioneer. Let’s not forget Satya- ing with sexuality which is beyong normative. A: Directorially Chitrangada is very precious acting through my actors. This is the first time jit Ray, or . It has been Q: Does androgyny influ- to me, not because I am acting in that I have acted myself. I have had to go through a part of tradition in Bengali cinema. Waheeda ence your work? it. I had set out on a quest for a the entire process of expressing oneself through Rehman, Simi (Garewal), for A: For all artists, not just me, Pronouns and verbs language in Shob Choritro the art of acting with my actors. Some of them Tapan Sinha, Ashok , and androgyny is a major privilege. in the Bengali Kalponik, to bring the unreal have been cerebral, who have been able to exe- for Sagina Mahato have all come here When Tagore was writing Bi- language are not into cinema. Chitrangada takes cute certain nuances when told, some had to be to act in Bengali films. The director of Jibon Je malar Atmakatha in Ghare that experiment into the realm explained more, and for the rest, I have had to Rokom in which acted didn’t Baire, he had managed to com- gender-sensitive. of abstraction and unreal. Any demonstrate, which has been the case for most have any international repute. Simi had come for pletely feminise Nikhilesh’s The mysterious and acting is considered good when actors. As a director then, all I wanted to put Padatik, Rakhee () came for Paroma and character. According to the mystical ambiguity it approximates realism to the across was the attitude. I don’t believe in acting Shabana (Azmi) came for Sati. People become rules of the time, the zamindars closest for example, Naseerud- workshops, because acting, unlike theatre, is completely oblivious of this sense of history of frequented baijis while the of androgyny in din Shah in Paar and Jennifer largely dependent on your relationship with the Bengali cinema. women waited for their hus- Tagore’s writings (Kendal) in 36 Chowringhee circumstances, objects around you and interac- When Waheeda Rehman did Abhijan, she was bands, but Bimala steps out and is a treasure that Lane, who make it appear as if tion with your co-actor. an important star already; Guide had already Nikhilesh waits for her at home. has not been they are flesh-and-blood beings. In a way, I am indebted to all my actors, who been made. But when Aishwarya Rai came down Nikhilesh says, “e bhora badara But stylised acting has few tak- have taught me acting with their strengths and for Chokher Bali, then the whole of Bengal suf- maha bhadra shunya mandir utilised enough. ers in cinema. Kurosawa’s films

Photographs by SUVASHIS MULLICK/www.indiatodayimages.com SPECIAL PUJA Director’s Cut

about Japanese martial arts that combine dance sexual desire and identity even within them seems and action show Toshiro Mifune’s stylised acting, to have been forgotten, almost as if a blotting pa- but he isn’t acclaimed for that; it is the intensity per has absorbed everything. Either you are gay and passion for which we admire him. Look at or you are straight. The time has arrived for us to Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight: how realistically dismiss these notions. he plays an unreal character. Q: Do you see the same sense of awareness We need to change our cinema-viewing habits. in your city as well? Has the city’s perceptions Do we always understand Sanskrit shlokas or clas- about homosexuality changed much? sical music? We may not like something, but we A: I haven’t lived much beyond this city. (But) I do not even try to like it. No man can dislike what will not say that this is a city of fools and that there another man has created. If we are respectful to- is no awareness out here. However, it is also true wards a person’s instinct, passion or love, we can that have a moral panic and from that slowly get to that point. We are only concerned point, is still a bit tentative about how to about our love, our passion and our wellbeing. deal with this issue. That’s the reason for our low level of tolerance. Q: Bengali cinema is going through an inter- (But) that doesn’t mean we are not entitled to our esting phase with new faces, ideas and opinions. But one needs to go through a huge body experiments. What do you foresee?

It’s time for us to understand that the star system is not required any more, their value is dimin- ishing. We need actors. That’s the reason for Bangladeshi actors earning more praise than their counterparts across the border.

of experience before forming an opinion. Every A: There is a new crop of filmmakers now: this single person will love all others is an began with Subrata Sen and and then over-simplistic truth. gradually people like Srijit, Aniruddha and Suman Q: The public outcry after Union health min- took up important positions. In fact, Suman’s ister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s statements on homo- Herbert had surprised all of us; that realm of ab- sexuality had your backing as well. Did that straction was brought into the acting. Now there event disturb you? are many new faces with varying sensibilities: A: Oh, and then he had offered his apologies, Atanu (Ghosh), Kaushik (Ganguly), Sanjoy (Nag), too. What surprised me then was that when Baba Param (Parambrata Chatterjee), Birsa (Dasgupta) Ramdev said something on the same lines, there and Anindya (Banerjee). Q’s Gandu, an under- were not too many protests. But what happened ground film that is doing festival rounds now, has in Azad’s case drove the point home. The media managed to create a strange curiosity. has become so sensitive about this issue that they There’s nothing like a star that’s essential for immediately highlighted it, almost critically. This this kind of films. Nobody knew of shows that a sense of awareness is growing. and Samadarshi and they have made Icche a hit. After the amendment of Section 377, there has In Ranjana Aami Ar Ashbona, is an old been a major awareness of sexuality. However, at man with no desirable qualities and Parno was SPECIAL the same time, there has also been a strong binary hardly known beyond the world of television. of heterosexuals and homosexuals. That there can Not because it’s my own film, but look at be numerous permutations and combinations of Abohoman. Jisshu (Sengupta) hardly had any PUJA

84 SIMPLY CELEBRATE ◆ SEPTEMBER 2011 Director’s Cut

Q: Are you attempting to tread a different path through your films? Is Noukadubi with its relatively simpler narrative the beginning of a new era for you? A: It’s a residue, not a precursor. Noukadubi is a faraway descendant of , Ajoy Kar, Tapan Sinha and the kind of purity, naiveté and innocence that they celebrated in their films. Another Balika Bodhu or hasn’t been made. But there are films all over with youth as their themes. Bengali cinema has had its own heritage. Look at Saptapadi, for example, which was meant to be a mainstream blockbuster, and was made with all commercial intent, and yet managed to have a 10- minute long piece from Shakespeare in chaste English. If there is anything we still remember in The future of Bengali cinema is not bleak. that film after ‘Ei Poth Jodi Na Shesh Hoi’, it is un- There are various genres other than the clas- doubtedly that scene. Does any art filmmaker to- day have the courage to keep 10 minutes of sical; filmmakers can work with any genre. Shakespeare? (But) no craft or art form will bear torture. I saw half of Icche and said that this film would work at the box office. I am not going to comment mainstream box office attraction, Ananya (Chat- on whether it’s a good or a bad film. But there are terjee) was largely doing television and both Tito some healthy qualities in the film that are still ap- da () and Mamo di () preciated by the midlle-class Bengali viewer. It is were doing the megaserial, Tithir Atithi. When pointless to live with the illusion that we will never this cast came together for Abohoman and the au- make this kind of films but only what we regard as diences liked the film, it’s time for us to understand avant garde films. that the star system is not required any more, their I thoroughly disapprove of films becoming value is diminishing. We need actors. That’s the free-for-all and not being treated as secluded high reason for Bangladeshi actors in Goutam Ghose’s art. One lakh people are making Charulata today. earning more praise than their That they may. But how radically different or valid counterparts across the border. is their take does not need to ride piggyback on the Now because we don’t need stars, we can shoot weight or history of another film. For example, I digitally and on low budgets, cinema is slightly be- was seeing Shukno Lanka the other day; nowhere coming a free-for-all medium. I am afraid that is it mentioned that it is inspired by Parashpathar there is a tendency to do whatsoever in the name but the inspiration is obvious in the film. This is of personal cinema. more honest than blowing a trumpet about the Q: Have you noticed changes in filmmakers? film that has been worked with. A: It is taken for granted that a certain skill is The word ‘tribute’ is very loosely used these required to paint or write, as opposed to filmmak- days. Shukno Lanka is still a valid citation to ing. It has been safely assumed that one does not Parashpathar, rather than mindless tributes that need to study or have any passion or dedication to are happening all over. There is no respect in this cinema for making films. Have camera, will make tribute; there’s nothing but insult. All this ‘quoting films. I feel bad to say this about my junior col- Ray’ and ‘tribute to Ray’ are convenient explana- leagues but I have noticed this in most people that tions for one’s lack of wisdom and perception and they are not here to make films. Very few want to thety are really painful. make films; most of them want to be filmmakers. But that does not mean the future of Bengali Q: Does that portend bad times for the future cinema is utterly bleak. There are various genres of Bengali cinema? other than the classical and filmmakers can work A: I don’t know whether it’s good or bad news. with any genre. No craft or art form will bear tor- People have always been judgmental about my life ture; it only remembers our contributions. It has and my works, at least my city has always been. its own sanctity and we should not make any mis- Being judgmental is something Ivehemently disap- takes in recognizing that sanctity. SPECIAL prove of. But this is just an observation. If some- one explains to me that I am wrong, I am willing Tithi Sarkar is a Senior Correspondent with Simply to accept it without another word. Kolkata, a monthly city magazine of Today Group PUJA

86 SIMPLY CELEBRATE ◆ SEPTEMBER 2011