Why is it that films by brilliant women directors from India are branded "alternative cinema", forcing them to art houses and film festivals, and outside the growing global market for Indian cinema? One is hard-pressed to come up with a Bollywood director of the feminine persuasion. Fortunately, we are now seeing growing popular appreciation for talented women film directors like Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta and Aparna Sen who are making quite an impact on the international scene with quality Indian cinema. Of this trio, Aparna Sen is unique in that she has grown out of the regional Indian film industry and is carrying on the traditions of greats such as Satyajit Ray and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

From 36 Chowringhee Lane, an aching chronicle of the lonely life of Anglo-Indians growing old in modern Calcutta to the masterful Paromitar Ek Din, which garnered high praise at every film festival it has shown at, Aparna Sen has emerged as a sensitive and elegant film maker whose explorations of human relationships are unique in Indian cinema. Her films combine pathos and humor, and artistry in almost every frame, for which she has deservedly won major awards for direction. After a long acting career (in mostly commercial Bengali films), it was not surprising that Aparna Sen took to direction and fell completely in love with the vocation. She is the daughter of the acclaimed film critic Chidananda Das Gupta, who collaborated with the late great Satyajit Ray in nurturing and cultivating good cinema in India. Aparna Sen's pedigree and upbringing are truly reflected in the quality of her cinematic output.

Aparna Sen's latest creation Mr. and Mrs. Iyer explores personal relationships in the context of social turmoil in India. The film received high honors at the Locarno Film Festival (best Asian Film) and at the Las Palmas Film Festival. The film looks into the feelings of a married Hindu woman for her co-passenger, a Muslim photographer, in a symbolic journey towards maturity and greater understanding of life. Aparna Sen’s daughter, Konkona Sensharma, plays Mrs. Meenakshi Iyer opposite Rahul Bose as Jehangir Chowdhary, whose life hinges on his mistaken identity as Mr. Iyer.

Aparna and Kokona were in the area recently to attend a retrospective of Aparna Sen films organized by MIT and Wellesley College. We got an opportunity to sit down with the charming Ms. Sen and her daughter Konkona for a chat, during their visit.

Chitra: How was working together on Mr. and Mrs. Iyer for you? Did the mother-daughter dynamics get in the way of the director-actor relationship?

Aparna: It was so easy to direct Konkona, she was Meenakshi when we made the film! It was interesting for me to watch her become the character. Initially, she did not even like Meenakshi. “How can anyone be so bigoted in this day and age,” she would rage! But slowly and subtly, I saw the change come about as she began to reason within herself and learn things about the person she was playing. I will let her tell you about her involvement in the film.

Konkona: Ma is so right. I did grow to understand this character I played. I can’t say I identified with her, but she did make sense to me after a few days playing her. I have always maintained that being a director is like an extension of being a mother. She (Aparna) created this character; she moulded me! But I have to add that she did yell at me the most (grins). She also spoilt me quite a bit.

Chitra: Konkona, you were very convincing as the Tamil Brahmin Mrs. Iyer. What did you do to prepare for such a transformation?

Konkona: Meenakshi is 24, traditional, conservative. I spent 10 days in Chennai meeting lots of Iyers, to discover Meenakshi. I went to the Mylapore temple, I taped people speaking in Tamil so I could pick up the accent. It was hard work. In fact, it was during my stay here in Chennai that I told my mother the movie should be called Mr. and Mrs. Iyer and that my baby in the film should be named ‘Santhanam’ and not ‘Murugan’ (which, I found is not a very Iyer name). In fact, we tried to find out the essential difference between Iyers and Iyengars, their customs, how an Iyer woman dresses and the kind of thali she wears.

Chitra: Aparna, you have been labeled a feminist film director by many. Your films generally have strong female protagonists, flaws and all. How important are women’s issues to you, and do you like to espouse any social causes through your films?

Aparna: Firstly, I am not a feminist director, I like to think of myself as a humanist! The women in my films are like the women I see around me. I have also made films with strong roles for men. No, I do not use my films as a platform to espouse social messages, I would hate to preach or talk down to the viewers of my film. My films may reflect my viewpoint and world view and it is up to the audience to interpret it.

Chitra : In Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, a woman gives the man the title of Mr. Iyer which saves his life. Did you ever consider doing it the other way around?

Aparna : No. I just thought that this was the perfect way. In my story it is the woman who gives the man the title which saves him from the fury of the mob.

Chitra : Why are the male protagonists in your films often photographers? Why this interest in cameras wielding heros?

Aparna: (laughing) Because I find them so sexy! Yes I do. There is something so attractive about a man wielding a camera, looking at the world through its lenses.

Chitra: Do you have any plans to act again?

Aparna: No. I don’t enjoy that any more. I love doing what I do now, and that is my job behind the camera. I don’t wish to act ever again!

Chitra: Do you think being directed by an accomplished actor like you can be limiting for your actors?

Aparna: I understand their difficulties of my actors, as I have been an actor myself. I usually have acted out the scene in my head even as I write the script so it is easy for me to direct my actors and guide them through.

Chitra: How has Satyajit Ray influenced you as a director?

Aparna: Oh, in every way. I learnt so much from him, I have always said that I have two fathers, Chidananda Das Gupta and Satyajit Ray. We came from the same kind of background -- enlightened liberal Brahmo stock. I learnt about paying attention to the minutest details from him. Manik-da was like a huge banyan tree under whose shade we all grew.

Chitra: Who are your favorite directors today?

Aparna: I have many … I love Roman Polanski; in India I admire Rituparno Ghosh, Adoor, Shaji Karun.

Chitra : How did you get (noted director) Gautam Ghose to wield the camera for Mr. and Mrs. Iyer?

Aparna : (laughs). We are very good friends. We often joked that he’d do the cinematography in my films and I’d act in his. He came over after completing a film in North Bengal, and was helping me scout locations for this film. I would tell him the story and he got more and more interested in the project. And then I finally told him, "Why don’t you shoot it?" He rang me up at one o’clock one morning and said, “I’ve thought of some background music for your story. I love the story, I'll do it".

Chitra: Could you tell us about your future projects?

Aparna: I have two ideas that I’m working on. One is a story [by another author] about a jewellery box, which is passed down from one generation to the next. It’s comedy, spanning three generations of women, which looks at the changing position of women in society vis-a-vis their attitude to the box. The other is a very different kind of a story [my own] about the relationship, which develops between an assassin and his victim. I'm trying to get hold of the right infrastructure for these projects.

We'd like to thanks Ms. Geeta Patel of The Wellesley College Women Studies Department for making this interview possible.

|