Aparna Sen: “I Sleep & Dream In Both Bengali & English”

Published

6 years ago

19th April 2017

Aparna Sen and Shabana Azmi have been friends for 30 years. In Aparna’s new film Sonatathey play furiously fastened friends who have live together as flat-mates in Mumbai for 20 years.

Aparna who is in Mumbai for the release of Sonata says, “Shabana and I understand each other instinctively.We don’t even have to speak on the sets. I can convey what I want without words to her, that’s how close we are.”

Shabana effusive and generous as always, says she is grateful to Aparna for giving her the best role in the film.

Aparna who plays one of the lead roles in Sonata, laughs at Shabana’s gratitude. ‘I could’ve never played her part of Dolon Sen, although Dolon is Bengali like me. She is outgoing filled with joie de vivre, unafraid and uninhibited.I can’t sing, and Dolon can!Shabana has sung the Rabindra Sangeet so beautifully. ”

But surely that’s a technicality that could easily have been dealt with through playback singing? Aparna says an emphatic no to that. “No no playback singing is complete no-no for international audiences. They look at the traditional of playback singing in Indian cinema with very sceptical eyes.So no to playback singing.”

And a big yes to female bonding in Sonata. “After Arshinagar in Bengali I wanted to make a much less expensive film in English, at least that’s what the producers asked me to do. I wanted to make a film with less characters. I had seen Mahesh Eklunchwar’s play long ago and it had stayed with me.Actually , for a very long time I wanted to do a chamber piece, a play on film set in one location unfolding within a few hours.I wanted to do BadalSircar’s Sari Raat. But due to political reasons it became impossible. That’s when I remembered Sonata.I decided to do this story of three women of a certain age, their uncertainties, laughter, worries and togetherness.”

Shabana and Lilette Dubey were the natural choices for the two other roles. For the third protagonist’s part Aparna cast herself. This is the fourth time Aparna is directing herself.And she looks ravishingly beautiful.

“Thank you. I never know how to react to compliments. But tell me , was it just my looks or have I acted well also in Sonata?” asks the veteran actress who made her debut in front of the camera at age 12 in Satyajit Ray’s Sampati, and never looked back.

In recent times Aparna Sen has been busier directing films rather than acting in them. She directed three back-to-back Bengali films in the last four years including last year’s Romeo & Juliet adaptation Arshinagar which she says she enjoyed(though the audience didn’t). “It was fun doing a full feature in song form. There of course we had to have playback singing because there were so many actors and not all of them could sing.”

From the beginning of her directorial career Aparna has been seesawing between English and Bengali films. Some of her most relevant films from her debut in 36 Chowringhee Lanehave been in English. “If you ask which language I am more comfortable making films in I’d have to say,both. I sleep and dream in English and Bengali.”
She is anxious about Sonata. “It’s set in one place during one evening.I was completely enchanted by how well the male gaze of the playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar fell on the woman characters. He seems to understand the woman’s subconscious so well.I had tremendous fun shooting with Shabana and Lilette.”

Aparna made changes in the original play. “While I wanted to retain the flavour of the play on celluloid I also wanted to give the dramatic tension of socio-political relevance I’ve introduced two new characters which were not there in the original(a transgender woman and her foreigner boyfriend).”

Aparna ends the film with a reference to 26/11 terror attack on the Taj hotel. “It gives the film a political context. It connects the characters to a world outside their own private world.”

The film ends with Shabana and Aparna staring wide-eyed at images on television from the 26/11 devastation.

“All their mutual differences are forgotten when given the larger issue. They become one during the time of this national crisis,” says Aparna as she readies for the premiere of Sonatain Mumbai. Her daughter Konkana Sen and grandson have come visiting. For now she is just another happy mother and grandmother.

Albeit a yummy Mummy and a gorgeous grandmother.

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Aamir Khan’s Sister Plays Shah Rukh’s Mother In Pathaan

Published

1 day ago

1st February 2023

Subhash K . Jha

Aamir Khan’s Sister Plays Shah Rukh’s Mother

Ever since Pathaan released on Wednesday, audiences have been curious to know who is the woman who plays Shah Rukh Khan’s adoptive mother in Afghanistan. The stately lady with royal looks is none other than the late producer Tahir Hussain’s daughter and Aamir Khan’s elder sister Nikhat Khan.

Nikhat has been closely associated with the film industry and has helped her father in the production of his films like Dulha Bikta Hai and Tum Mere Ho.

Nikhat has acted earlier in the Akshay Kumar starrer Mission Mangal , Ajay Devgan’s Tanhaji and in Sandh Ki Aankh(as a Maharani).

For Pathaan, it was Shah Rukh Khan who suggested Nikhat Khan should play his foster-mother in Afghanistan who names him ‘Pathaan’. It proved to be an inspired piece of casting, as audience have loved Nikhat Khan’s cameo.

It is heartwarming that all three Khan superstars are associated with Pathaan in one way or the other.

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Anurag Kashyap’s New Film Is About Love Jihad

Published

1 day ago

1st February 2023

Subhash K . Jha

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Love Jihad, whatever that means, is the theme of Anurag Kashyap’s new film Almost Pyaar With D J Mohabbat.

Debutant Karan Mehta plays a Muslim boy in an intense relationship with Alaya F who plays a Hindu girl.Kashyap has spared the audience none of the ugliness that such a relationship generates among social-media bouncers, the self-styled guardian of morality .

In the hardhitting powerful and pertinent film a bigot is heard commenting snidely, “These people first talk about Mohabbat. Then they talk about Mohammed.”

Happily and surprisingly, the Central Board Of Film Certification gave the film a ‘UA’ certificate with no cuts: a rare non-‘A’ film of Kashyap.

So far Kashyap and his team have kept the Love Jihad part of the plot out of all media interaction.

But the cat is now out of the bag.

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Samantha Ruth Prabhu to Star Alongside Varun Dhawan in Prime Video’s Indian Original Series , Samantha Speaks

Published

1 day ago

1st February 2023

Subhash K . Jha

Samantha Ruth Prabhu will be starring alongside Varun Dhawan in the Indian installment of the Citadel universe, the global-event series from Prime Video and the Russo Brothers’ AGBO. The untitled Citadel series based out of India is being helmed by renowned creator duo Raj & DK (Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK), who are the showrunners and directors.

The local installment is written by Sita R. Menon, along with Raj & DK. The streaming service also confirmed that the production is currently underway in Mumbai. After this, the unit will head to North India and then onwards to international locales like Serbia and South Africa.

Richard Madden (Bodyguard) and Priyanka Chopra Jonas will star in the first-to-launch series within the Citadel universe, which comes from the Russo Brothers’ AGBO along with David Weil (Hunters) and is set to premiere in 2023. Alongside Madden and Chopra Jonas, the first-to-launch Citadel series will also feature Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games saga). Additional local-language Citadel productions are also in the works, including an Italian Original series starring Matilda De Angelis (The Undoing).

Speaking on her participation in The Citadel franchise for the first time,Samantha says, “When Prime Video and Raj & DK approached me with this project, I decided to take it up in a heartbeat! After working with this team on The Family Man, it is homecoming for me.The Citadel universe, the interconnected storylines between the productions across the globe, and most importantly, the script of the Indian installment really excited me.”

Samantha says she is looking forward to working with Varun Dhawan . “I am thrilled to be a part of this brilliant universe conceptualised by the Russo Brothers. I am also looking forward to be working with Varun for the first time, on this project. He is someone who is full of life and cheer when you’re around him.”

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Bollywood’s Achche Din Have Come

Published

2 days ago

31st January 2023

Subhash K . Jha

All you doomsday prophets, the booms-day profits are here. Pathaan has opened the floodgates again for Bollywood’s bumper bonanza at the boxoffice.And now there is only the achche din ahead for Hindi cinema.

In the next two months there are three sureshot blockbusters coming up, beginning with Shehzada. An astute devilishly impish adaptation of Allu Arjun’s 2020 Telugu blockbuster Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo.The super-popular Kartik Aaryan gives his own spin to the character. This performance will take Kartik to the next level of stardom. Kartik’s version of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo is radically different from its Telugu version. Shehzada takes the core idea of the Telugu original and turns it into a something completely different. Kartik’s co-star in Shehzada is Kriti Sanon with whom he earlier shared superhit space in Lukka Chuppi.

Then there is Luv Ranjan’s ravishing rom-com Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar. The director’s male viewpoint on the chaos of love relationships crests to a comic high in his latest. Ranjan for the first time, collaborates with Ranbir Kapoor for the first time collaborates with Shraddha Kapoor who badly needs a hit.This film should do the trick. The winsome lead pair tries to do one another in a game of Luv This is Luv Ranjan’s Hum…Aapke Hain Con. Ranjan has in the past used the romcom space to entertain his audience to the hilt, he says this time the stakes are different. It is not something we’ve seen before.

Finally it is Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Karan Johar’s first directorial in six years(not counting the one segment each in Ghost Stories and Lust Stories). This time he has assembled a dream star-cast of Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Ranveer Singh and the boxoffice darling(s) Alia Bhatt. But trust me, this one is not about assembling stars into a complacent plot. The writing in this zany Romeo & Juliet is so crisp and engrossing, the experience is likely to be the visual version of a multi-flavour icrecream cone. Colour, choler and karma collide in this tragic-comic love story . Let the box office dhamaka begin from the house of Dharma.