Raima8217;s Role Play

RAIMA Sen is prettier than Ashalata. Sure she got rave reviews as the naive bride whose marriage falls apart when she discovers her husband...

RAIMA Sen is prettier than Ashalata. Sure she got rave reviews as the naive bride whose marriage falls apart when she discovers her husband8217;s affair with her friend, Binodini, in the just-out Tagorean period saga Chokher Bali. And since this 8216;8216;dream role8217;8217; in a film nominated at the 2003 Locarno International Film Festival, Raima8217;s been on a signing spree. But more on that later.

Although director Rituparno Ghosh had met Raima, as a child, she caught his eye some years ago when she shot for the cover of Anandalok, the Bengali film magazine he edits.

It took two years for the cameras to roll but Raima sees that as providence, since by then, armed with a reading of the original with her grandmother Suchitra Sen, she was mature enough to appreciate Ashalata.

Suchitra8217;s intervention was pivotal since Raima8217;s Bengali isn8217;t her strongest point. Add to that virtually everyone8217;s warning that Ashalata would be a difficult character to portray, and Aishwarya Rai playing Binodini. 8216;8216;But Rituparno made it easy,8217;8217; recalls Raima.

The only preparation that went in, apart from listening to voice tapes Rituparno recorded for her8212;as he did, in his own voice, for each character8212;was learning to drape a sari the way it was worn a century ago. For a week, Raima clocked in at Rituparno8217;s to look comfortable in yards of fabric while picking up dishes from the floor and perching on and off a four-poster. Today, the girl who had never worn a sari before her Ashalata avatar, has added the sartorial yardage of India to her staple of jeans and short skirts, though she still can8217;t drape one herself.

This post-Ashalata confidence almost makes you forget she burst into tears when Aishwarya entered the sets. Beguilingly candid, Raima nods vigorously, the untied hair bouncing around her oval face. 8216;8216;I was pampered since I was the youngest on the sets. The day Aishwarya came, I thought, Ritu won8217;t show me what to do any longer.8217;8217; Thus, the deluge. 8216;8216;But,8217;8217; she pauses, 8216;8216;I realised she was more nervous.8217;8217;

What Raima does regret, though, is checking out Satyajit Ray8217;s Charulata8212;one of Ghosh8217;s obvious sources of inspiration8212;after Chokher Bali. 8216;8216;I8217;ve begun to take life read, my work more seriously after Chokher Bali,8217;8217; she confesses.

As we spoke, the city buzzed with the Kolkata Film Festival, but Raima hasn8217;t checked it out. Left to herself, she watches just about any film. 8216;8216;It8217;s important to see the good and the bad to know the difference,8217;8217; she explains. And she would need to, since she8217;s shed the art film image people had given her. Cameras for a David Dhawan comedy roll in December and she8217;s also hearing five scripts two are period stories while three are commercial.

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Raima is also awaiting the December release of Imtiaz Punjabi8217;s Fun2oosh, where she plays a 10th century princess. She8217;s the lead in debutant director Sanjay Bhalia8217;s experimental January-release thriller 99.9 FM. 8216;8216;I love dance sequences,8217;8217; she asserts for anyone who wanted to pigeonhole her after debut Godmother, the award winning Daman and now, Chokher Bali. 8216;8216;I want to balance them all,8217;8217; she smiles.