Different strokes

There is very little time and very little sleep. My baby,Harun,is now four months old and needs constant attention. I plan to start working by the end of this year. I would feel uneasy to leave him behind on work schedules before he is at least seven or eight months old. The first thing,which is at the top of my mind right now,is when will I once again be able to sleep undisturbed for an eight-hour stretch. But motherhood is an extraordinary experience. It takes your mind away from everything to focus only on this little bundle of joy and noise that keeps you busy 24/7.

What does Harun mean?

The name is inspired by Salman Rushdies novel Harun And The Sea Of Stories. The Arabian Nights also has a character named Harun. Harun means hope in Sanskrit.

Who takes better care of the child,your husband Ranvir Shorey or you?

Ranvir is much better than I am in taking care of the baby. He loves babies and has a way with his nephews and nieces. I left the baby in his care when I flew to Kolkata for my grandfathers last rites some time back.

Your next film is Iti Mrinalini. What is your role in it?

I play the younger Mrinalini who becomes one of the top actresses of Bengali cinema around the 1970s and my mother plays the older version. We do not get to share screen space. This is the first time I have played a truly glamorous character of a film star. In the film,my main romantic interest is Abhijit,portrayed by the young Shaheb Bhattacharya. He gets sucked into the Naxalite movement.

What kind of preparation did you do for it?

With a perfectionist and hard taskmaster like my mother around,preparations are taken care of to the minutest detail. It begins with several script- reading sessions followed by workshops. We,then,have thorough rehearsals and make improvisations along with the co-actors. I had to wear a sari for my role,which I am not used to on a day-to-day basis. So I had to wear it for the rehearsals because the body language differs when a woman wears a sari. I had to feel comfortable in it before the shooting began. It was a conscious decision on my mothers part to cast me as her younger self while she played the older Mrinalini because of the similarities in our body language,appearance and so on. I was excited because I was to play what my mother used to do in films through the 1970s and 1980s. Iti Mrinalini looks back at the scenario within Bengali cinema over those two decades.

How different is it working under other directors and working under your mother?

The comfort level is quite high when my mother is directing me. Firstly,I have complete faith and confidence in what she is doing,so it is more of a collaborative relationship rather than purely a director-actress one. Secondly, I am very familiar with the unit because I have practically grown up with the team. It is fun and it is informal. I was four years old when my mother was making Paroma. She would take me along on the sets and also on locations. She took me along to international film festivals too. She can manage everything so completely and so amazingly well that I find it inspiring to follow her footsteps. When I am working in my mothers film,I am on common ground. In Mumbai,with due respect to all the directors I have worked with,I have learnt a lot and gained professionally because the ambience is very professional,formal and demanding as well. I do my work and go home. It is more of a professional relationship.

Over the years,with two National Awards in your kitty,which would you say has been your most challenging role till date?

Meenakshi Iyer in Mr amp; Mrs. Iyer has been my most challenging role till date. I was much younger then and hardly had any experience. To get my accent right speak my English lines with a Tamil accent,yet not sound comic my mother packed me off to stay with a Tamil Iyer family in Chennai. The character needed the right regional flavours a smattering of Tamil,the way the sari is draped,how long should the thaali around the neck be. I taped a lot of Tamil conversation. Extensive shooting on unfamiliar locations,the climate too posed a challenge. But it was also a lot of fun.

How similar is Konkona Sen Sharma,the real actress,to the on-screen actress Mrinalini?

There are hardly any similarities because our times are very different and the environment in films during Mrinalinis time and space was different than what they are now. I do not really understand some of the choices Mrinalini makes in the film. Her choices were mainly dictated by the time in which she functioned . Our times are different so there is no comparison between the real actress and the on-screen one.

Which are your most favourite roles till now?

Mr. amp; Mrs. Iyer,15,Park Avenue,Dosar,Life In A Metro and Wake Up Sid!.

Are you disappointed that your Rituparno Ghosh film Sunglass has not been released yet?

Yes,of course. It is a wonderful film full of love,magic,a good story,the works. It could have been delightful entertainment for the audience. The sad thing is that it is complete and ready for release in every respect,including editing,dubbing and post-production and yet it has not seen the light of the day.

n Shoma A. Chatterji