We are going for an A-certificate for Margarita…

Shonali Bose

By Priyanka Bhadani

Her first cousin, Malini Chib Alur, a year younger to her, was born with acute cerebral palsy. That incident had changed the life of her family completely. Her mom and two aunts went into forming Spastic Societies in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, which turned out to be the first institutions for kids with cerebral palsy. All these became an integral part of film-maker Shonali Bose’s life whose second film (after Amu, 2005), Margarita, With A Straw — a story about a girl, Laila suffering from cerebral palsy, is winning accolades at international film festivals and is set to release in India in 2015.
“Malini and I were, and still are extremely close,” says Bose, who confesses that she had no interest in making a film with this theme even though her aunt kept urging her. “It felt too been there done that for me because it was so much a part of my life,” she says adding that it did not excite her creatively, “Till one day when I asked Malini what she wanted for her 40th birthday and she replied — I just want to have sex!”
The response shocked her. Bose realised how she hadn’t thought about Malini’s sexuality at all. “Well, I was conscious of it as a teenager and didn’t date as she would feel left out and hurt, but later I forgot… or didn’t want to deal with it,” says the director-writer, who felt this was very fresh and new as a subject and that’s how the story of Margarita… came into being.
The Kalki Koechlin-starrer recently won the NETPAC award for Best Asian Film at Toronto International Film Festival. While Bose says that it’s always wonderful to get awards and accolades as it gives a film-maker and the film “that stamp” certifying that indeed your work is great”, it’s the theatrical release in India that she is most excited about. “This buzz from international festivals and awards hopefully helps that. The reason I say hopefully — is because there are people who reject a film because it’s a ‘festival award winner’ and they think it’s not for them,” she remarks.
Apparently, Amu, though a hit at festivals, was caught amid a lot of censor issue and never aired on television with even the public broadcaster, Doordarshan refusing to telecast it. The film that put into light the Sikh-riots of 1984 had got an A-certificate as the Censor Board said, “Why should young people know a history that is better buried and forgotten?”
After an experience like this, one would have expected Bose to play safe this time around. But she has again chosen a topic that besides cerebral palsy, also features the issue of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community, which is quite controversial in the Indian scenario, at least at the present moment. Ask her how has the Censor Board’s response to the film been and she says, “It remains to be seen. We will be submitting (the film) soon. Viacom18 (the studio releasing the film) does not anticipate any cuts as we are going for an A-certificate. It’s ironic as Amu had no sex or violence, but still the Censor gave it an ‘A’.”
However, in the last nine years, a lot has changed, believes Bose. “Amu was at that cusp before the multiplex boom changed the kind of films that are released. So Amu only had a five print release and still it managed to create a buzz. The change is due to multiplex vs single screen. It’s a very exciting time to be an independent film-maker in India right now,” she says.
Margarita… that has been co-written and co-directed by Nilesh Maniyar along with Bose, has Revathy and Sayani Gupta in the lead besides Kalki. In fact, it’s Maniyar who has also been responsible for the casting. “All credit goes to him for each and every person in this cast,” says Bose and adds that his first choice for the role of Laila was Kalki. “It was her smile and how without make up and glamour she looks so cute, adorable and vulnerable,” she says as she also reveals how Kalki spent a lot of time with Malini. “Kalki is just mesmerising. You can’t take your eyes off her. This film could not exist without her,” says Bose.
But for Maniyar, the casting wasn’t easy as during the casting process in different cities including Mumbai and Delhi, he realised that not many actresses could deliver honest performances. “I felt there must be something wrong with the way I am directing them. I spoke to some of them on a personal note and I realised, most of them with mainstream Bollywood aspirations, were not ready to do the film portraying a character which is considered taboo in the society,” says Maniyar about the actors who would worry about being stereotyped for the rest of their careers. “They lacked conviction to take on the challenge,” she feels.
But when he found Sayani, Maniyar felt that she has the intensity in her performance and hunger to be part of a film which gives her space to deliver something that is not run-of-the-mill. While for the role of Kalki’s mother, the team wanted someone who would resemble her. “We chose Sarika but our film got pushed by a few months and she couldn’t do it because of other commitments.”
It was then that Nilesh suggested Revathy. Bose called her up and she was on board within 24 hours. Bose says, “Revathy has played the mother of a child with cerebral palsy in Mani Ratnam’s Anjali many years ago and now it would be full circle for her to play the mother of an adult cerebral palsy woman. Her screen presence is outstanding.”
Bose and Maniyar wrote about 30 drafts over two years for the film. Interestingly, the duo, who confesses to be each other’s strength throughout the shooting, fought the most during the edit. “This was an extremely difficult film to edit and it took us one year to finally achieve picture lock. Nilesh is always ready to unlock, but I’m not a perfectionist like him. I like to let it go,” quips Bose and concludes by saying that the baby is born now with all her imperfections. “You have to move on or you can just keep editing and re-editing one film all your life!”