Conversation with theatre actors of the French National Theatre School (ENSATT) Lyon

Posted on 6/9/2024 by admin

I had an interesting conversation with young theatre actors who had come to Pondicherry from France at the beginning of 2024. They were here on a project of collaboration which is part of their course. This is how they spent some time working with the actors of Adishakti Theatre group based in Pondicherry.
I had the good fortune to have an on-stage dialogue with them. This event was held at the Alliance Fran?aise of Pondicherry. I am just going to write down what I learnt about them.
They have come from a very reputed institution which is called ENSATT (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Theâtre). This Theatre School teaches all the different aspects of theatre, not only acting and directing but also the technical skills of lighting, costumes, sound and set design. Students are accepted into this institution only if they have already done two years of work in their line of specialization. Also the selection is made on the basis of a public competition. It means that each candidate is graded according his or her position among those who have participated.
This also means that once they are in the ENSATT they only work on their specialization. For example a student who has come to learn acting will not be given training in lighting or sound or costume or set design. He should have already learnt about it before coming.
The technical team said that their work is in high demand so they have no difficulty in finding work once they complete their training at the ENSATT. Those who go to see plays often don’t notice the work of those who are not seen on the stage, but their work is the framework on which the actors’ performance stands. Not all who are passionate about theatre want to be seen.
Their project at Adishakti was to create a play together, learning and taking from each other’s skills. Adishakti has a very particular way of acting because they mix dance and music into it whereas the French actors who had come are trained more to work on the text and the subtext. This made it something of a new experience for them.
My first question to them was, “What is the future of theatre?”
Their answer was that it will continue to exist because there is something special which theatre can offer which other forms of entertainment can’t. The main attraction of theatre is the physical presence of the performers. “Theatre brings people together in the same physical space,” said one of the actresses. That perhaps adds a new meaning now more than ever when meetings can be virtual. One can communicate and even see each other without being in the same place. A Theatre then becomes a meeting place.
I told them that most Indians who join theatre schools or even come to participate in workshops do it because they ultimately want to work in films. I asked the team from ENSATT if the actors who were now learning acting were doing it to be able to get roles in films. They admitted that most actors of theatre would be willing to work in cinema but their main aim will always be theatre. Evidently, cinema is better paid but it isn’t as satisfying as theatre for an actor trained for acting on stage. The two techniques are different.
They all believed that theater will continue to exist the way painting had continued to exist even though photography came along. There are many amateur theatre groups who perform regularly while the actors all have a day job. This shows that there is a strong theatre going culture in France. It is so much a part of life that most of the actors said that their passion for the stage started in childhood when their parents took them to watch plays.
The conversation was very interesting and full of information.

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Film Review: “Past Lives”

Posted on 17/10/2023 by admin

This is the first film made by Celine Song, a Korean-Canadian woman living and working in the USA. It is difficult to believe that she has made such a perfect film in her very first attempt. But then she is no new comer to the world of performing arts. She has been a playwright and a theatre director for a decade.
The story is a simple one and partly autobiographical. Celine Song has taken moments from her own life and created this film. This is why the writing is so convincing and touching. The dialogues sound so real.
The film is about two children who are about 12 years old and who love each other but they are separated when the girl’s parents move to Canada. The two get back in touch after 12 years when they are 24 years old but their contact is only through Skype. They are both in the middle of preparations for their future professions so they get cut off again. We see them again after 12 years when they are 36. By now young woman is married and has become a playwright and is working in the field of theatre.
I watched at least ten youtube reviews of this film and I was surprised to hear each time that many people were in tears when the film ended. Sometimes the reviewers said that they were themselves crying when they saw the last scene or that the entire theatre was sobbing by the time the last scene ended. What does this say? That this story, which is based on a true story, has touched a very deep spot in everyone’s heart. It may also be that a lot of people have lived a variation of this story and were touched to see their own story on the screen. It could also be that those who have left their country of birth and have settled in another country could identify with the characters and their dilemma. Often such people have two or three different selves, different personalities, within themselves.
At the core of the film is the notion of “In-Yun”. This is a Korean concept of how people are connected from previous lives. The title of the film is “Past Lives” and it points at this idea that our stories continue from past lives. This is actually a very Asian belief and all Asians can understand it without any difficulty.
This film would have fallen flat if it had less capable actors. Celine has chosen the perfect cast and the acting is like a song where the notes hit exactly the right spots. The actors have, all of them, a background in theatre which makes them just right for this kind of a film where a lot is said without using words. The eyes speak volumes and also the body language says so much. There is a fine balance of what is said and what is not said. The female lead is played by Greta Lee and the two male actors are Teo Yoo and John Marago.
Most reviewers said that this is surely the best film of the year and that if it doesn’t win at least one Oscar award they will be very surprised. This film’s success will bring back the old style of film making. Hopefully films will become more artistic and poetic.
I did not see the end of the film as the end of the story because I know very well that now they are connected. A phone or a screen , can bring them back to each other. At least they can communicate. The story will continue. They will meet again when they are 48. Who knows what will happen then. They could unite and live together. The possibilities are open. As long as there is life there is hope.
I thought the Korean actor Teo Yoo was just fantastic. There is something so delicate and touching about him that I could watch him on a loop. I was very surprised to find out that the actor was born and brought up in Germany, because he has his Korean identity fully intact.
Everyone is praising the music. I was so immersed in the visuals that I did not even notice it. And that is how it should be.
The cinematography is excellent. The camera is intensely focused on these three characters and we see nothing else beside their lives, their looks, feelings and movements.
Celine Song is an extraordinary director. I look forward to seeing her next work.
This is a film which can’t be missed.

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Street flower

Posted on 16/10/2023 by admin
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Angwal – A documentary on Kumaoni poetry by Lalit Mohan Joshi

Posted on 11/8/2023 by admin
Angwal - Lalit Mohan Joshi

A new documentary, “Angwal” which means “an embrace”, was screened at the British Film Institute in London on 7th August 2023. It was the premier of this very moving film which is made by Lalit Mohan Joshi, the founder director of South Asian Cinema Foundation.
India is so vast a land that there will always be some unknown part to be discovered, particularly those parts which are far from the crowded spaces of the cities. Through this documentary Lalit Mohan Joshi reveals to us the people as well as the nooks and corners of the Kumaon hills in the northern state of Uttarakhand. “I am a Kumaoni first and then an Indian,” said the film maker after the screening.
It is clear that the impetus for making this film comes from Lalit Mohan Joshi’s deep love for the land of his birth. Having lived in the UK for more than three decades he decided to go back to his roots. He started with the idea of making a film on two of his maternal uncles who had been poets. But as he started his work of research he thought it would be good to also include other poets of the region as they were unknown outside the Kumaon area. That process led him to include some other aspects of the life of this region.
The film progresses in that order and we are at first introduced to the works of the poets and after that we move to other subjects such as the abandoned places which had been a part of the narrator’s early childhood. Then we get a feel of the people and see how the villages and small towns are gradually losing the young population which wants to find employment in the plains. In the meantime businessmen who have nothing to do with the region have come up and built hotels and restaurants for growing influx of tourists. The images of the ruined or abandoned ancestral homes of the film maker make this point poignantly.
In countries outside India there is a wrong impression that everyone speaks Hindi in India or at least that the whole of North India speaks Hindi. This is very far from the truth. South of Madhya Pradesh it is the reign of the Dravidian languages and to the east people speak Bengali and Odia. To the west the Marathi language is spoken and Gujarati is not the same as Hindi. The Punjabi language is very different from Hindi. Even within Uttar Pradesh, the real heartland of Hindi-speaking people, there are various languages and dialects which are distinct to each area. What people don’t know is that the dialects change after every 100 kilometers or so in every state in India.
This film points out that a language like Kumaoni has developed its own literature. Its written form takes the Devnagari script but has an identity of its own. Most dialects of India don’t have a written form. The official main language of the state is used for writing but the dialects are used for spoken communication. Lalit Mohan Joshi has also included the work of women writers and it is the work of the poetesses which is more complex and deep. One poem speaks of the grief of a mother whose soldier son has died and another poem on the wheel of life and death, comparing it to the grinding stone.
One has to mention the music of this documentary. As the film progresses we understand that Kumaoni poetry, as all traditional Indian poetry, is always sung. Poets sing out their poems in India. In this film often poems are used in the background audio sound and these are sung by trained singers. One such singer is Uttara Joshi, the daughter of Lalit Mohan Joshi and Kusum Pant Joshi. Uttara is an extraordinary singer. What is noteworthy is that she doesn’t speak any of the Indian languages in which she sings but she always gets the pronunciation right by putting an additional effort to get her diction corrected.
The documentary has a professional finish in every department, be it in cinematography or in sound quality in recording, be it in music or in off-screen narration. The visuals are breathtaking. Nature’s beauty abounds in the Kumaon hills and added to that is the skill of the director of photography Rangoli Agarwal who has captured such moments that deserve to be immortal. The script flows so naturally that the running time of an hour passes unnoticed.
This high level of execution comes from Lalit Mohan Joshi’s background of a broadcaster. He is a former BBC journalist working with the Hindi service and has a clear idea about presentation. He is also the founder of the South Asian Cinema Foundation which he has been running since the year 2000. For two decades Lalit Mohan Joshi has been promoting artistic cinema primarily produced in India. He has helped in bringing to the Indian diaspora living in London very important aspects of the history of Indian cinema. He has also brought over several filmmakers from India whose work has been of a high caliber and felicitated them.
Lalit Mohan Joshi started making this documentary before the pandemic hit us and this is why it had to be stalled. All the disruption and uncertainty created by this halt made it harder for the creative team to work on it in a smooth manner. Work resumed after the restrictions were lifted. So, it must have been a great relief and a moment of celebration for all those who were a part of the production to witness it being premiered at the BFI in London.
The end of the documentary moved everyone in the audience. As the end credits were rolling we saw the information that four of the people interviewed during the making of the film had died. Although they had died during the Covid pandemic, these four did not die of Covid. While this was being shown on the screen the background music was a song (the sung version of a poem) which spoke of the wheel of life which is like a waterwheel which turns the grinding stone, turning grains into flour. The lines say that life grinds men and women in the same way that the waterwheel mill grinds the grains. The soulful voice of the singer touched the hearts of the viewers as the image of the watermill turning without a stop on the screen reinforced the idea, and brought about a meditative mood.
This film deserves to be shown widely in India so that our own countrymen become aware of these poets and their homeland in the hills.

Lalit Mohan Joshi with Gulzar
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Annie Ernaux

Posted on 20/7/2023 by admin

Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2022. She is a French writer and has been known in France for many years but the Nobel Prize has made her known in the whole world. Of course, the world will know her through her translated works. She was invited in 2022 as the chief guest for the Delhi Book Fair.

I started reading her book thinking it would be a bit tedious to read, as all award winning books are. But I was totally mistaken. Once I started reading it was difficult to put the book down. When I finished reading I understood why she had won that prize. Her writing is so clear and so full of courage. She speaks without any emotion about such intensely painful experiences, describing these situations as if she is observing them as an outsider.

This way of recounting the deeply unhappy times with this much clarity has not been done before. Also a woman’s voice has never been heard in this way. Women have rarely spoken about their problems because they have been taught that it is shameful. It is interesting to note the way Annie uses the word “shame” with such openness, which is something unusual. We think that this idea of shame exists only in Asian societies but to hear it from a French woman is something new for me.

Most people say that her book “The Years” is her best. Indeed, it is a very real description of how the world has changed since the 1950s. For the first time in the world’s history people are living long lives. Seventy years is nothing unusual for a normal life. Also for the first time such a large number of people can read and write. This means for the first time people can tell their stories which begin in an era when things were drastically different. The 20th century has seen great changes in the world and this has affected people’s lives.

In this book “The Years” we can see the difference between the lives of Annie’s parents and her own life, then again between her life and her children’s lives. She has said things seen from her point of view which is at the same time humourous and real. Once again we see her style of saying things very, very precisely, observing every detail. She has noticed things which others may not have. There are details she has observed which others may have thought unimportant.

Annie says that her life as an author took a decisive turn when she realised that all the memories which were in her mind would disappear the day she dies. We think that death takes away the body but we forget that it also takes away the mind and all our emotions. This is why she decided that she would write down everything that she could remember. All her memories are now in the pages of her books. She writes in the first person plural, “we”, and it makes the narration come alive. This is a decision she took so that the reader feels that it is a real story.

Her writing is apparently simple but writing in that style of extreme simplicity is also not that easy. It requires a discipline and mastery over the language so that a lot can be expressed with so few words.

Annie Ernaux speaks on behalf of all women. She speaks for her generation but also for those much younger than her. And for this she richly deserves the Nobel Prize which was awarded to her.

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Talk on Manoj Das, the writer

Posted on 30/5/2023 by admin
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Discussion on screen adaptation of “Life of Pi”

Posted on 20/5/2023 by admin
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“Bad Girl” (Mauvaise Fille) French film

Posted on 18/5/2023 by admin

On 6th May there was a screening of a French film at the Alliance Francaise of Pondicherry. This was a special screening as the director and the writer of the book on which the film was based were going to be present.

Word of mouth went round and we were told that the writer of the book was actually the director’s wife. Who were this couple? The director, who is primarily an actor, is Patrick Mille and the writer is Justine Levy. Although the surname Levy did ring a bell I didn’t bother to check further. It was only when I searched more information about Justine after she had left Pondicherry that I realised who she was. She is the daughter if the famous writer-philosopher Bernard-Henry Levy!

At the end of the screening we had a question and answer session. And that is when the audience understood that this was, in fact, an autobiographical film! The screenplay was co-written by the couple. Justine levy said that she found it very difficult make the screen adaptation as she had to constantly think of the cost of shooting each scene. Patrick added that he deliberately took many elements from Justine’s other books so the film has several scenes which don’t appear in the novel.

This brings us to the main point of the film. The creators want to show us how life and death are a part of the cycle which has been continuing since time immemorial. It shows us the young woman’s distress at having to deal with the preparation for her mother’s death at the same time as she prepares for the birth of her daughter. Her problem is compounded by the fact that she never really lived a family life because her parents did not live together and her mother lived the life of a bohemian. Her mother had never behaved as a mother. So how was she going to bring up her own daughter?

There were many reasons for which this screening did not meet the appreciation it deserved. Firstly, the audience wasn’t prepared. We knew nothing about the background of the film, that it was a thinly veiled true story, that the writer was the daughter of a famous writer and philosopher and herself a best-selling novelist and that the couple who co-wrote the screenplay were actually telling their own story. Secondly, the majority of people sitting in the auditorium were young men and women who are actually students of French courses of the Alliance Francaise. They had come because they had been told to come and also because the title “Bad Girl” suggested a story of a girl breaking social norms and doing things that society usually frowns on. But the film was not about that at all. The young viewers were disappointed.

The problem lay with the mistranslation of the title. The word “fille” can mean “girl” but it can also mean “daughter”. In this case it should have been “daughter” and not “girl”. Justine Levy explained that it was the story of a woman who feels that she had not been a very good daughter to her mother. She said, “We often talk about ‘bad mothers’ and ‘bad fathers’ but we rarely talk of ‘bad sons’ and ‘bad daughters’. Here was a story of a woman who struggles to be a good daughter. I should have told her that in India we always talk of “bad sons” and “bad daughters”.

Indeed , the message didn’t pass. The screenplay lacked that crucial scene where we could have seen the young woman preparing inwardly to be a mother. The film looked like a string of scenes, put one next to the other, but somehow not being able to show how they connected.

The other problem was that the running time was 1h 45 minutes. The film which was scheduled to start at 7 pm ultimately started at 7.30 due to technical reasons. By the time the Q and A session ended it was almost 10 pm! When the lights came on we saw that all the young people had left. Perhaps there should have been a shorter introduction.

The high point to me was the acting of Bob Geldof. For a singer he was rather good at acting. Even though the role was very close to real life still it needed some acting skills.

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Talk on Satyajit Ray

Posted on 8/3/2023 by admin

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“Chhello Show” (The Last Film Show) – India’s entry for the Oscars

Posted on 3/10/2022 by admin
Chhello Show

When I received a message on my phone telling me that there was going to be a film screening on a Sunday morning at the Alliance Francaise of Pondicherry I was a bit hesitant to go. But I had heard the name of the filmmaker Pan Nalin so I was curious to see his film. It isn’t every day that you get to see a Gujarati film so this was an opportunity.
I went without any expectations but I knew that there would be an above average film. The title is also very attractive. The last film show can only be in a cinema hall which is closing down so there was sure to be some drama.
The story of the film has some resemblance to the Italian film “Cinema Paradiso” but only on one point: a young boy is passionate about films and gets to see films from the projector cabin because he knows the man who runs the projector very well. Beyond this the film is on a completely different track because the boy is obsessed with the technical aspect of films and wants to create his own projector. The lengths to which he goes is what is fascinating. He just doesn’t give up.
The young boy has four friends and they are with him in all his adventures. This group is made up of boys who are themselves very different one from the other so their ideas and reactions are very interesting.
The film is full of very well-defined characters (the parents of the boy, the projectionist, the teacher…) and each one stands out. The main protagonist lives in a village, so visually the film is very different from anything you may have seen earlier.
The filmmaker Pan Nalin (whose real name is Nalin Pandya) said that the film was autobiographical in parts and one can believe this because you can’t tell a story with such conviction if you haven’t yourself lived it.
The Q and A that followed the screening was very enjoyable because Pan Nalin told us how he made the film and how difficult it was. He said that he had told his assistants that they had to keep in mind a few Fs : Films, Family, Food and Future.
I am very happy that it is the Indian entry to the Oscars this year. It deserves that honour and even if that award doesn’t come to the film it will still have been a big step which will take the film to the world.
Don’t miss seeing it if you get a chance. It has an unusual story and an unusual cast. The question you will ask yourself is “What is the future of cinema?” and that itself will make you look around you and observe the changing world.

Chhello Show
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The Moon Over Pondicherry

Posted on 17/9/2022 by admin

At last we have gone back to the normal life we had before the pandemic struck. But the world has changed a lot since that fateful day in March 2020 when everything came to a grinding halt. We have not gone back to that world, we have actually entered another world. So we have to adapt ourselves to this new situation because so much has changed.

During the pandemic my new book “The Moon Over Pondicherry” came out and I am happy that it has been so much appreciated. But I have decided that this book will be sold only locally in Pondicherry. I have done this because this story can be fully understood and enjoyed by those who know Pondicherry. It has an appeal for those who can identify with the people and places in the book. Of course, it can also be enjoyed by others but they must at least have seen Pondicherry. So, those who are here on a visit can also read and understand the setting of the story.

The world has changed and books are no longer the companions of our solitude. Perhaps because we have no real solitude now. No one is really alone anymore and so the need to read for pleasure has somehow disappeared. But for those who enjoy a good read a book will always be a source of joy. Keeping this in mind, I know that this book will find its own readers.

“The Moon Over Pondicherry” is being sold in Focus book shop in Pondicherry.

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Summer rose

Posted on 19/6/2022 by admin
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Review of Bengali film “Punascha” (2014)

Posted on 27/12/2020 by admin

While everyone is speaking of Soumitra Chatterjee’s Apu in Satyajit Ray’s “Apur Sansar” I am going to talk to you about Soumitra’s film “Punascha” which is one of those films in which he worked in the later part of his career. In this film he is not the dashingly handsome young man. He is an old man, with grey hair and a paunch, but he is Soumitra all the same. However, the film belongs to Roopa Ganguly who has the longer role.

The story is about an old man who is now a celebrity writer and a woman who has retired from her teaching job. They had once been in love but had barely started their relationship when they lost touch with each other. Now we see them when they have lived their lives and have got in touch recently through phone calls and messages. The old fire is rekindled and they decide to spend 24 hours together and to live like a couple for that one day.

They find this fantastic opportunity when Animesh, the writer, is invited to Delhi for an award ceremony and he decides to come back to Kolkata by air a day earlier than planned. His wife knows that he will be back by train so she won’t expect him until the next day. He comes straight to Mohona, the woman he loves, and almost immediately they sit down to eat. All goes well in the beginning but things take a tragic turn and all doesn’t go as planned.

The story has some similarities with the Tamil film “96” where former lovers meet after 22 years and spend one night together. In the Tamil film this meeting allows them to clear misunderstandings and just enjoy each other’s company. In this film, “Punascha”, the couple is not in that age group when the relationship can be given a future, nor are they trying to understand what really happened and why their relationship didn’t find fulfillment. Mohana hints at Animesh’s not having taken an initiative to lead the relationship to marriage but they have no bitterness or tears. We understand that they both got married to people chosen by their families and they both have had children but somehow they have not found happiness in their children.

All over the world now people live into extreme old age. This is why such stories are coming up in films where we see people wanting to go back to a love story which had not found a closure in their youth. In this story the woman is a widow and is alone while the man still has his spouse. He is famous but she is unknown to the world at large. As they speak you feel they are two young lovers, the essence of their relationship, comes out. The man says to the woman. “I have taken a greater risk than you have in meeting like this.” He says that because he has a wife and he is famous so it is a double risk. But we realise later that her being a woman and a widow makes this meeting a huge risk for her also.

I would like to dwell on their desire to spend a day as a couple. The Bangla words “shongshar (sansar) korbo” is difficult to translate. The nearest is “living the life of a couple”, with suggestions of loving and caring for each other, facing the ups and downs of life together. Mohana has cooked for the man she loves, and the way he eats, relishing every morsel, is an expression of their love for each other. It is a physical pleasure in which both are involved. Their love is expressed in the little things they say and do, in what is there between the lines. They take delight in those ordinary actions which couples who are married for decades take for granted.

“Punascha” means a postscript. The word has a meaning in the life of a writer. Strangely enough Soumitra has acted in a much earlier film which has the same name. It shows how long a life Soumitra lived that a film title had the time to come back after several years and he could act in both of them. The film brings up the question of right and wrong, of morality and immorality, of all the rules and regulations of society which binds men and women in relationships. The viewer understands the need for fulfillment in certain lives where duties have been carried out but some joys have no been tasted.

Roopa Ganguly, as Mohana, brings out very beautifully the woman’s need for caring for a lover. She goes through such a range of emotions and she wins the viewer over by the way she gets into the skin of the character she is playing. She is, of course, much younger than Soumitra so the casting is a bit unexpected. But in old age the difference of 20 years can be made to look like 5 years. However, because she is younger she has that physical allure which a much older woman would not have had.

This is the only drawback of the film. If Soumitra had reconnected with a woman who was closer to his age then she would have been much older and physically much more ravaged. And then would the old man have really been so loving and so romantic? I doubt it. It’s because they have cast Roopa Ganguly, a much younger actress, that there is a certain angle of physical attraction. You can see it in Soumitra’s admiring eyes. But if you see a more recent film “Sanjhbati” where Soumitra is paired opposite Lily Chakraborty you know that there is nothing more than a deep friendship because the lady is of a similar age as Soumitra, and they are both old and tired and overweight.

The fact that this film found a producer and an audience proves that India is changing fast and there is an generation which understands this need for love and romance even in old age. The body grows old but does the emotional heart grow old too? Definitely not.

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Soumitra Chatterjee, a great actor

Posted on 16/10/2020 by admin

When I read that legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee had been hospitalised after testing positive for the Corona virus I was really worried. He is 85 years old so he is much more likely to suffer for a longer spell. But then he must be in a good hospital and must be well looked after. I pray to God to save him and to bring him out of the hospital hale and hearty.

Those who are in their 30s have probably not seen many of his good films. He is famous as Satyajit Ray’s actor who played the lead role in many of his better known films. But he has also acted in many other films and has a wide range of roles. Thanks to technology we can now watch his old films on youtube.

Only last week I saw his 1963 film “Saat Paake Bandha” where the role of the heroine is played by Suchitra Sen. It is a beautiful film made in an era when there was nothing too shocking or vulgar in films. The story is about a couple who manage to get married after a lot of opposition from the mother of the woman but ultimately the marriage breaks up because of the interference from the family. They divorce but after a while the woman realises that it was a terrible mistake because she knows that they still care for each other. But by the time she goes to speak to him about re-uniting he has already left the city and also the country and no one knows where he has gone. In spite of the sad ending the film is very watchable.

Soumitra has also acted in theatre and I have had the great good fortune of seeing him on the stage in Calcutta. I am saying “Calcutta” because when I saw him acting on the stage in the Star Theatre it was still called “Calcutta”. I went to the theatre without knowing that he was in that play. Imagine my surprise when he appeared on the stage! I still clearly remember that when the play was over he stood on the edge of the stage after the curtain calls and people actually went and touched his feet! I understood then that it was a very Bengali tradition to go and touch the feet of a good actor to show appreciation and respect.

I also remember that he asked the people who were assembled to touch his feet if he could go back to the green room because he needed to rest. He explained to them that there were two shows that evening. He had just finished the 6 pm to 8 pm show and had to once again go up on stage and act in the 9 pm to 11 pm show. That’s the professional theatre actors’ life. They have to repeat the entire play after they have gone through it once.

I will not go into the Apu trilogy made by Ray. So much has been said that it would be redundant to say another word. Soumitra is good in all the Ray films in which he has acted. I really liked him in “Abhijan” and “Ghare Baire”. But my most favourite Ray film with Soumitra is “Charulata”. I have seen that film at least ten times and have always discovered something new.

I will end by asking you to see Charulata if you can find it anywhere on the internet. You can also see one of his recent films “Mayurakshi”. That will give you an idea about his acting in his youth and his work in his old age. In “Mayurakshi” he plays the role of an old man who is sliding into Alzheimer’s and his son, played marvellously by Prosenjit, is trying his best to do what he can for him, which is not much. All those who are looking after their aged parents will understand all the emotional pull and push which lie under this theme.

Soumitra is a legend but also so accessible and loveable.

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Sheeba Chaddha, the actress.

Posted on 26/9/2020 by admin

I first saw Sheeba in Pondicherry in the early 1990s when she came along with Atul Kumar, her then partner, to perform in a play in Auroville. She was young and really the carefree, cool woman, the kind one associates with theatre. Atul and she performed an entire play in mime. I was impressed.

At that time I was part of a theatre group which met three times a week to learn the craft of acting with Veenapani Chawla and Vinay Kumar. That week Veena was not well and we were not going to have our workshop but when we heard that Atul and Sheeba were in town we invited them to the place where we met regularly. We wanted them to tell us something about their profession and to interact with us.

I so clearly remember how they performed a scene for us with a third actor who had come with them, as their manager. They enacted the same scene once in Hindi then in English. The scene was from a French play which had been translated into Hindi and English. It was really an eye opener for us because we were then an amateur group while they were professionals. We saw how focused they were and didn’t need a minute to get into a role. One minute they were chatting with us the next they were on the stage acting this scene.

I have such a clear memory of Sheeba in her long cotton skirt and black top, her hair long and wild, never tied. She was absolutely relaxed and laughed easily. After that for years I didn’t even think of her. Then I saw her in a film “Luck by Chance”, Zoya Akhtar’s first film. I saw the film about five years ago on a DVD and recognised Sheeba in a small role. As I don’t watch TV I had never seen her in any of the family drama serials but I googled her and saw photos of her playing these very commercial cinema type mothers and elderly ladies.

I could not believe that she had transformed so completely. There was nothing of the “cool” Sheeba in the TV roles she played in recent years. I heard that she and Atul had separated. I knew that she and Atul had set up a theatre company, The Company Theatre and had created a workspace near Pune, similar to Veenapani’s Adishakti . The Company Theatre has gone from strength to strength and is doing so well.

Over the years I saw Sheeba in many other films, always in the role of mother or aunt and I saw what a fantastic actress she was on screen. When I had first seen her in Pondicherry I had thought, “She is such a good actress, but will she ever earn the kind of money that mediocre actresses earn in cinema? Can theatre really give her anything materially?”

Now that I have seen her in films I realise that she has managed to find a foothold on the stage and on the screen. The first film in which she acted was “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” and after that she took up small but significant roles in mainstream cinema. She had taken the right step by not looking down on TV and commercial cinema because she has earned good money from these mediums but she is essentially a theatre actress. She has said very frankly that she took those roles because they offered her good money. “Theatre actors have a kind of snobbery towards TV and cinema that I didn’t have,” she admitted.

Every time I see scenes from “Bandish Bandits” I see that actress Sheeba who can say so much with so little. She is so perfect in the role she plays in that web series that one would imagine she has always lived in that kind of a milieu. Not for a moment do you feel that she is acting. This is her training in theatre which gives her that ability to get under the skin of the character.

Fortunately Indian cinema is getting more and more realistic and that gives an actress like Sheeba the kind of roles she gets. See her in “Badhai Ho” or “Gully Boy” and you can see that no one else could have done those roles to that degree of perfection. Theatre is still a part of her life and she says that it will always be what attracts her the most.

 

Sheeba with Atul and their daughter

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Raat Akeli hai – a film review

Posted on 18/8/2020 by admin

For decades we moaned and cried over the fact that Indian films were so unrealistic, unnaturally melodramatic, over the top in the acting department and so repetitive in the themes. Now we have come to a point where the new films are a bit too real, too gritty and no film resembles the other. If you watch a Hindi film at night you may actually not be able to sleep, you are so rattled.

Yes, I am writing this after watching (on Youtube) “Raat Akeli Hai” directed by Honey Trehan and produced by Ronnie Screwvala. The film is a murder mystery thriller. But only on the surface. When the last scene of the film ends and the end credits roll you realise that actually it’s a film about patriarchy and power of the male members of the family. It is this double level of story that makes this film outstanding.

The screenplay is written by Smita Singh. You wonder how a woman could have written such a brutal story. Honey says in one of his interviews that he and Smita both come from UP where these kinds of stories are there in each family. “We have both seen this type of behaviour and thinking in our own families,” he says. That explains it. This is the stark reality of Uttar Pradesh society. Art imitates life. Smita didn’t have to go very far to get this sordid tale.

Here is the plot in brief. A rich old man, marrying for the second time, is found dead on the night of his wedding. His bride is a very young woman from a poor background. We discover later that she was sold by her father to this rich man who had kept her as his mistress for five years after which he decided to marry her. The police is called and an investigation starts but the story gets more and complicated as it proceeds.

The sprawling mansion is full of relatives and anyone could be the murderer. Till the middle of the film you feel you are in a Agatha Christie type story and you can see that the obvious suspects are not the ones. Slowly the layers peel off and you an see that there are new twists and turns and the end is completely unexpected. The dead man’s adult children as well as his sister and her adult children are all under the same roof and no one seems to be particularly sad to see him dead.

The film belongs to Nawazuddin who plays the inspector who is investigating the crime. The whole story is seen from his perspective. The screenwriter has kept in mind the personal arc of this man and this is such an interesting growth that in the end you don’t care who was murdered and who killed him. The fact that this man’s flawed way of thinking changes gradually is what makes the murder mystery more gripping. As more and more details of the crime are revealed the audience also gets to see more and more aspects of this man’s mind.

Radhika Apte is in an unglamorous role but completely at ease in it. She brings her raw energy to this character and we are never sure which way she will turn. Strangely, she is the only woman in the film who has some sort of freedom and strength while the other women are under the power of someone or the other.

The other characters are played by well-known actors who have given us convincing performances earlier and here too. Ironically, Khalid who plays the murdered patriarch had come to Pondicherry decades ago and everyone wanted to do acting workshops with him. This stage actor, known for his acting skills, gets only a couple of minutes of acting on screen and is only seen as the dead body for the rest of the time!

We are at an important turning point in the history of Indian cinema where women are coming out of the shadows. There are more women screenwriters than ever before and they are telling the stories of other women. This new trend can be seen in all the new films which have come out recently. We are no more in the old rut of love stories. We are now in the world of murder mysteries and tales of revenge. As long as men were in charge of writing and directing films these stories remained hidden. Perhaps Indian society will become more and more aware of where our flaws lie by looking at things from this new perspective.

The flow of events has brought this phase which we could not have foreseen. This pandemic has brought this situation where films are going for an OTT release and that means more people are getting to see these films than if they had been released in cinema theatres. All the parameters of film making in India will change now and we will enter a completely new era. I can’t wait to see what comes out next, specially from women writing women’s stories.

 

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Film Review: Nasir

Posted on 25/7/2020 by admin

This has been a strange year. We are still not sure where it is going. But one thing is sure:  much can and will happen online from now. The literary and film festivals which brought large numbers of people together all over the world every year were held online this year. The organisers of many world film festivals came together and held this common festival which was called “We Are One” and each organisation brought a small number of films to this group-festival. This is how we got to see this beautiful film ‘Nasir’, sitting at home. This was selected by the MAMI film festival of Mumbai.
The story of the film is a very simple one. An ordinary man living an ordinary life comes in the way of a religious mob and how these two completely unconnected worlds clash. The strength of this film lies in the telling, in the details, in the way the ordinariness is shown to contrast with the “not so ordinary” mob and its agenda.
Nasir, a muslim man, lives in a poor locality with his wife, mother and a special needs grown up son or ward. We see his day start with the way he wakes up and goes through the routine of his morning. Nothing is easy or simple but there is a sequence of activities which he follows everyday and also on this day which we are shown. Then he goes to leave his wife at the bus-stand as she is leaving for a few days to attend a wedding in her family.
Nasir works as a salesman in a cloth shop. He is the one who comes before the others and arranges everything. In the middle of the day he goes home for lunch and has a rest. Then he is back in the shop and continues showing what the customers want to buy. He has to hear the chatter of his co-workers and also their casual comments about Muslims. His day is shown in all its ordinariness but we are also shown his mind. We know he writes poetry and listens to good music and has so much empathy for others. He also  has so many little problems to deal with. In short, we are shown how he is not coming in anyone’s way.
The punch comes at the end and is so powerful because it is such a contrast to the rest of the film. The pace of the film is deliberately slow to take the viewer along with Nasir through his day. We have the sensation of living that day with him.
Those who have worked in the field of theatre or cinema know this truth: casting is half the work done. The main actor, Koumarane Valavane, brings this whole story to life. All actors want  to show themselves off. It is very difficult to become ordinary and to remain like that, without attracting any attention to oneself. This shows Koumarane’s skill in acting. Make no mistake, in real life Koumarane is not like Nasir at all. He is a trained theatre actor and himself runs a theatre in Pondicherry where others are trained. He taught physics in a French high school, so he is far from the ordinary man we see on screen. Moreover he had his theatre training in France and has performed in that country with his troupe. He has participated in many national theatre competitions and festivals representing Pondicherry. So have no illusions, the director didn’t choose a man who was like Nasir in real life. The director chose a stage actor so that he could get the right nuance of emotion.

Thia film is an Indo-Dutch co-production and has several small and big groups who are part of the production team. Here again one must applaud all those who supported this creation with logistics and money because it would have remained a story on paper or on a computer screen had these producers not backed it. Here again there is a Pondicherry connection. Samir Sarkar of Magic Hour Films, one of the producers, has been a key player in getting the Dutch collaboration. And he too is from Pondicherry.  This is a film which requires a certain amount of courage and faith in one’s principles in life to stand up and support the basic message of the film. Those who have enjoyed the film will understand how important is the contribution of these producers.
The director, Arun Karthick, has chosen a theme which is so important in today’s India but he gives us his message in such a gentle way that we can’t forget it. It is his light touch which makes him stand out.
One word of appreciation to the writer Dilip Kumar who conceived this story and wrote it as a short story. I have always believed that short stories lend themselves very well to cinema because of their compactness. And here is a story that packs so much into such a small time frame.
The cinematography has been appreciated by experts and even a lay person can see how unusual the images are. A certain poetry is created with these colours and compositions to give that feeling of looking into someone’s inner world.
This is one of the best films I have seen this year. It has come at a time when we need to talk about the place of religion in our lives and to think of the future of humanity. This pandemic has already forced us to change the way we have been living, now this film will open the eyes of those who could not see the obvious truth till now: all human beings are part of one large human family. Yes, and even ordinary lives matter.

 

 

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Film review: ‘Thappad’

Posted on 8/3/2020 by admin

I assume that by now everyone who wanted to see this film has already seen it and that those who haven’t seen the film are not going to see it. So I am not going to worry about spoilers.

The film shows the transformation of Amrita from a happy housewife to a pillar of strength. The turning point is a slap. But the context of the slap is also important. Her husband hits her in a moment of rage during an argument concerning his job, during a house party to celebrate his promotion. But this one incident becomes the starting point of a chain reaction that changes the lives of the couple and of those around them.

Any woman who has been slapped by her partner, either husband or boyfriend, knows very well that it is never something that comes out of the blue. There is a whole background. On the one hand there is what is acceptable in one’s society and on the other the man’s own psychological makeup. But the most important element is the man’s own sense of superiority.

This film is not so much about domestic violence as it is about mutual respect in a couple. This is such an important subject but it has never been addressed so directly in Indian cinema. The film is sure to make an impact even if it doesn’t make any money at the box office because it holds up a mirror and points a finger to the way Indian society thinks about women.

There are many layers to the story and the back ground of the film is rich with many characters who re-examine their own lives in the light of what has happened. It is not “just a slap”. It is a whole reflection on the man-woman relationship, on the role of a home maker, on self-fulfillment, on the role of money in a relationship and many other issues.

All the women in this film have a story, from the oldest to the youngest, from the richest to the poorest. Each one, except the widowed neighbour, have had to face the dominance of a male over them. All of them have had to give up their dreams to make others happy. But the writer makes it clear that happy stories are possible. There is a balance in the structure where on the one side there are episodes of inequality and selfishness and on the other side there are stories of sympathy and understanding among some of the characters.

Casting, as they say, is half the job done. In this film it is the excellent casting that makes it possible for the director to tell such a complex story. Ratna Pathak Shah is excellent as usual in the role of Amrita’s mother. The actress playing the maid servant stands out in her depiction of a poor woman who is beaten on a daily basis and yet she has a fiery spirit. Pavail Gulati as the husband has done a remarkable job of a good man who has imbibed all the prejudices of the environment in which he is brought up.

The strongest scene is the one where Amrita speaks to her own mother-in-law during a puja held in the family and where everyone is present. This is a scene that mirrors the party scene where she is slapped. Here again the whole family is gathered and Amrita speaks about herself and she reiterates that she is indeed leaving her husband.

The weakest scenes in my opinion are the ones where Amrita is teaching her neighbour’s daughter to dance. A dance teacher has to stop and correct the movements of the student otherwise she is not teaching. And we never see where the ‘bols’ the rhythmic syllables are coming from. You never see the teacher switch on and switch off anything. Evidently, the director doesn’t have such a clear idea about dance classes.

The director Anubhav Sinha has co-written the film with Mrunmayee Lagoo. The fact that there is a woman writer involved makes it easier for the director to get the authentic point of view of the women in the story. Dialogues are apt and quiet. This is the strength of the film: there is no melodrama and preaching. It is all very simply expressed and everything happens at the rhythm of everyday life.

Anubhav Sinha has worked very hard to write the film and to shoot it in such a way that it touches our hearts in a very subtle way. He has made Amrita look as if she is overdoing things so that we ourselves feel that we are not doing enough to ensure that everyone is given the respect that they deserve. The difficulty of the director lies in choosing what to keep and what to leave out. It requires years of experience to know what is too much and what is too little.

Some years ago I was invited to a press conference in London where Vishal Bharadwaj was going to speak about his film career. I asked him why he showed item songs in his films when he knew that this teaches men to look down on women. “Films make such a deep impact on society. So don’t you think you should be careful about what you show?” I asked him.

He was very annoyed and answered, “How can you accuse filmmakers of influencing society in a negative way? We only show what is already there in society. Do you think that if I show a bhajan by Kabir the whole of India will become very spiritual?”

I was amazed that so successful and intelligent a filmmaker as Vishal Bharadwaj didn’t seem to be aware of the power cinema has on the masses. Particularly the uneducated youth absorb the unspoken message of the films. Just as a negative message in cinema can harm Indian society a positive message can also help Indians to get rid of prejudices that have long been there in every level of our society. And ‘Thappad’ is sure to trigger a conversation at least among those who are even slightly aware.

I really enjoyed watching this film and felt that we have stepped into a new cinematic age in India when such films are being made and appreciated.

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“Two Loves and Other Stories”

Posted on 17/12/2019 by admin

This is a book I started writing about 12 years ago. I wrote the first story and it turned out to be a really long story. Then I was busy with other writing but this book of short stories was always there at the back of my mind.

My first book, “Seven Dedicated Lives”, came out in 2009. It was a compilation of several articles I had already written over years. So it wasn’t the same thing as writing a book and getting it published. Then the next three books were also in that same format: compilations of articles which I had already written and a few more that I write for that book. The idea of that book of short stories continued to live silently at the back of my mind.

I wrote short stories and had them published but as they were really short it did not add up to a word-count that could be enough for a book. The shorter the stories the more stories you need to make a book.

In the meantime I wrote a novel and after it was published I felt that the book of short stories just had to be finished. I pulled out all the short stories I had written over the years and wrote three more stories in order to have the right number of pages. And that is how it was ready for publication.

I have always had an attraction for short stories. They are like a miniature painting where the details matter a lot. Everything is in the details. In the last Lit Fest that I attended in London there was a session on short stories and one of the sentences that was prominent in that discussion was this; A short story is like an ice-berg. Indeed, much is suggested in a short story because the format is small. This makes a short story very intense.

This book will appeal to many readers because one can read one story at a time. One doesn’t have to read the whole book in one go. One can even read a few stories and leave the books for a few weeks or months and come back to it. I have myself done that when I get a book of short stories. A reader can read the stories in any order. So he or she can feel that he has read a complete story when that story is finished.

In this day and age when people don’t read books any more I hope I will be able to pass on my love of short stories to my readers. That much will be bring me satisfaction.

 

 

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Bulbul Can Sing

Posted on 30/11/2019 by admin


Every year I get to see some really interesting independent Indian films at the London Indian Film Festival. This year I saw Rima Das’ “Bulbul Can Sing” which later won the national award of the Best Assamese film.

The story is very simple. A group of teenage friends are leading their lives in a small town, or a big village, in Assam, trying to understand life. They divide their time between school and helping out their parents with their work. Teenage brings its own share of intense life experiences. The two main characters fall in love and discover the beginnings of adult life. They finally face the hard realities and Bulbul, the heroine, grows up through the passage of suffering.

Rima Das wrote the script but could not find the finance to make the film so she decided to make the film herself. Since she could not raise much money she has herself done the editing and the sound. Rima has directed the film in such a way that you feel as if it was shot without a script because the actors don’t seem to act. They live freely before the camera and are most unselfconscious.

The film is made almost by Rima Das single-handedly. She is the script-writer, director, producer, editor and the sound recordist. What does it show? We have reached a point where one can produce a film with a very low budget. The technology which has come into being is allowing us to make a film by handling many departments together. It is humanly possible now to make a film almost without a crew.

Rima Das went toMumbai in the hope of becoming an actress. You might say, “With a strong North-East look how did she hope to become a mainstream actress?” But we have had actresses like Mala Sinha once upon a time so everything is possible. After finding it difficult to get roles she decided to make films. And then she started focusing on her own territory, Assam. That is how she started writing her own scripts and started off making films about what she had observed around her.

“Bulbul Can Sing” has a marvellous cast. There is only one professional actress, the one who plays the role of the mother of Boni. If you see the film you will understand why Rima chose a professional actress for that role. This way of working with non-professional can be very difficult but in this case it has worked out very well because we see how comfortable the three actors are in their roles because they are practically playing themselves. They belong to the milieu which is being portrayed. They don’t have to try and learn about it.

This film shows us that a new phase has begun in Indian cinema where we see how the aim is to show the truth rather than to show an imitation of it. The priority is not a beautiful actress but an actress who is true to that role. The story is the most important part of the process, not the choice of stars.

Another important point the film makes is that the more local you get the more global appreciation you will get. We all live in urban spaces and have no idea any more how villages look or how villagers live. For us this is something we will never get access to: the day to day life of a village. This is why Rima Das’ films are so successful. They show us what can never see. Moreover, this is something the young adults of the cities have no idea about. It’s almost fantasy land.

One of the scenes that touched me most was the way people are listening to a discourse of a religious man who is talking about love, giving examples of the love between Krishna and Radha. The village women who have no time to sit and listen to discourses are busy with their work and say, “What is there to talk so much about love? Just get on with it, because it is the most natural thing in the world.”

There are many brilliant moments in this film and many sharp observations. This is what makes this film so special because the story is told through moments which are so touching. There are parts where the viewer is only an observer who is being led through places. After all, cinema is basically moments of true observation and feelings which are caught by the camera. From that point of view this is a very well-made film.

Bulbul is played by Arnali Das

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