Raakhee Gulzar Exclusively On  The  Reason She  Came Out Of Exile To  Attend  The Goa Festival

Raakhee Gulzar  is  much miffed  by a certain sections of the press taking advantage of her silence. “Just  because  I don’t react , some journalists  think they can write anything. Someone  wrote  my husband Gulzar slapped me. I just may slap a defamation case on this.  Another  media  outlet declared me dead. There  was panic among my friends and relatives since I  was out of reach. My son-in-law Govind drove down to my home to check on my wellbeing. When  I opened the  door he joked, ‘Bhoot Bhoot!”

The enormously elusive Raakhee Gulzar has  just come back to Mumbai after a very satisfying stint at the  55th IFFI Goa International Film Festival in Goa.

 Not known  to travel to any festival, Raakhee  in an exclusive conversation , reveals why she  made an exception this once . “My first instinct  was to say no politely. But then I was  told that two of my films were  being shown in  Goa. One of them is my new Bengali film Amar Boss which I must say has turned  out well.The other is one of my earliest film 27 Down, which they screened at  Goa. It  was the first time I was watching the film since it  was made.”

And what did she think of  herself and the  film?  “You mean, 27 Down? Oh, I  think  very highly of it. After seeing  it for the first time I felt it was so ahead  of its time.Do you know the  director Awtar Kaul  passed away a  day before he  was to  receive the National award for Best Feature film in Hindi? The  film is about a  man who has to thwart his own dreams to join the railways just like his father. I  played a financially independent working woman with a mind of her own. This was  a rarity back then, fifty years ago.”

As for her Bengali  film. “In Amar Boss  I play the family matriarch  who despite her age makes sure the family knows she is the  boss. It is co-directed by  Shiboprosad  Mukherjee and Nandita Roy who recently had  big Bangla hit Bohurupi .The film’s co-director  Shiboprosad  Mukherjee also plays the male lead in Amar Boss. I did  another Bengali film earlier which  never got released. I am confident  Amar Boss will release and  get an audience.”

 She is  all praise for the organizers of  the Goa festival. “There were no glitches. I  received  a lot of love at the Festival. Youngsters treated me  like their own grandmother.It was all very relaxed and pleasant.  I must say the current minister of  Information and Broadcasting Ashwini  Vaishnav is taking his  job seriously.”

 As  for doing more film Raakheedi protests, “It’s not as  if I am not open to offers.  But where  do I fit in? I am certainly not playing the typical mother or grandmother whose only reason to live is her son. I will play  a role of a woman with  a mind of her  own as  I’ve done in Amar Boss. There is  a narrative being propagated in a section of the media that I am  no longer keen on working, that I live outside Mumbai  and recently I was even declared dead. None of these is  true.”