G L I T Z  'N'  G L A M O U R

There’s depth and drama in her acting
Isiodore Domnick Mendis
THE characters she plays don’t flow out of an assembly line. Each one is built in flesh and blood. But Nandita Das considers her role of a Rajasthani rape victim in ‘Bawandar’ (Sandstorm) as her most electrifying performance so far. The about-to-be-released film is the true story of a woman at the centre of one of India’s most shameful acts of violence.

Abhishek has a long way to go
Sitesh Debnath
HIS surname made him a superstar long before his first film. J.P. Dutta spotted him at R.K. Studio, distributing cards for his sister’s wedding and promptly signed him for ‘Refugee’ with Kareena Kapoor. The film bombed and he was next seen sharing the lead with Keerti Reddy in ‘Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya’.

There’s depth and drama in her acting

There’s depth, power and drama in her interpretation of characters she plays on the screen. Whether playing a naxalite in ‘Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma’, or the wife of a psychopathic cop in ‘Aks’ or even a rape victim in ‘Bawandar’, Nandita Das practises her craft by intuition, writes Isiodore Domnick Mendis.

Nandita Das

THE characters she plays don’t flow out of an assembly line. Each one is built in flesh and blood. But Nandita Das considers her role of a Rajasthani rape victim in ‘Bawandar’ (Sandstorm) as her most electrifying performance so far. The about-to-be-released film is the true story of a woman at the centre of one of India’s most shameful acts of violence.

The film revolves around Bhanwari Devi (Nandita Das) and her rickshaw-puller husband, Sohan (Raghuvir Yadav) who are approached by a social worker, Shobha (Deptti Naval) to help her spread the word against the evils of child marriage. Bhanwari takes up the cause with gusto but the villagers are so enraged they get together and gang rape her in full sight of her husband.

A horrified Shobha decides to fight for Bhanwari and creates a nationwide sensation.Bhanwari loses her case in a lower court, but decides to join hands with Shobha in her crusade against child marriage.

“This is the kind of character close to my heart,” says Nandita Das. Critics say her role is so powerful that even after the mauling the film received from the censors, she could still walk away with the national award.

Says Nandita, who recently won the best actor award at the Santa Monica Film Festival, USA for ‘Bawandar’, “It’s a compelling theme where the film’s central character has suffered injustice and has the guts to fight the system without a gun. It’s a commentary on our system.”

For almost three years now, Nandita Das has been forging ahead with these kind of powerful performances. She practises her craft by intuition. That explains such an assembly of characters, that display the depth, power and the drama in her interpretation of a closet lesbian in ‘Fire,’ an ayah in ‘Earth’, a naxalite in ‘Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma’, a rape victim in ‘Bawandar’ or even the wife of a psychopathic cop (Amitabh Bachchan) in ‘Aks.’

“I have no method, you know,” she explains. “Acting is just a smattering of things I learnt from different teachers.”

What she didn’t learn from any teacher was art. In fact, painting should have come naturally to this daughter of India’s celebrated artist, Jatin Das. “It did, says Nandita, “but I stopped painting when I was in the eighth class in Delhi’s Sardar Patel Vidayala. That was because people would say, ‘oh, you are Jatin Das’ daughter, so when are you going to start painting?’ Just because my father is a painter was not reason enough for me to be one.”

To their credit, her parents never pressurised Nandita to pursue any particular career. “As a child I learnt dance, a bit of music and, of course, painting. More importantly, since my father is well-known artist I grew up in the company of culturally-oriented people from the field of dance, photography and theatre.”

Little wonder then, that after her graduation from Delhi’s Miranda House and post graduation from the Delhi School of Social Work, Nandita joined the Safdar Hashmi’s Janmnatya Manch doing street theatre. It was during these days she visited Mumbai and happened to meet Deepa Mehta who signed her for ‘Fire’. “I accepted the offer as the role was very challenging and the theme very bold.”

Even after a dozen-odd movies, this half Oriya half Gujarati girl says she takes on only those roles that she knows she ‘ll enjoy doing. Besides, she’s proving quite a linguist what with roles in a host of regional films like ‘Azhagi’ (Tamil) ‘Deveeri’ (Kannada), ‘Punaradhivasam’ (Malyalam) and ‘Sapner Sandhane’ (Bengali). Apart from ‘Aks’, her forthcoming Bollywood ventures include Mahesh Manjrekar’s ‘Pitah’ opposite Sanjy Dutt as also ‘Lal Salam’.

Everything Nandita undertakes is fashioned with intense self-consciousness. All syllables, gestures and inflections are carefully weighed and wrought. Big names don’t overwhelm her. Yes, she says, it was exciting to act as the wife of an icon like Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Aks’ but she adds, “It is just not in my temperament to be overawed by people. Cinema is a collective effort. Mr Bachchan had his work to do and I had mine.”

She didn’t blink an eyelid when she was asked to shave off her hair to play Janaki in ‘Water’. She has no qualms about her controversial role of Sita in Deepa Mehta’s ‘Fire’ that sparked unrest from the conservative elements.

“In a democratic society everyone has the freedom of expression. Take the issue of Vrindavan widows in ‘Water’. Either you say the widows have been around for a long time so let’s not talk about them, Or you say, okay, let’s try and do something about them by portraying their plight on film,” she says.

Does she agree with the charge that Deepa Mehta thrives on film depicting the underbelly of India — images that the West loves to see?” Tell me, do you see real India in Bollywood films? Do all Indian live in palatial houses, wear garish clothes, go vacationing in Europe and dance under the Eiffel Tower? Is that real India? Or is this real India where you portray reality?”

But why does her name crop up whenever Deepa Mehta makes a film? Nandita shrugs her shoulders. “If there wasn’t a role for me in her film, she wouldn’t approach me. She probably feels I understand her mind. It’s like Satyajit Ray casting Soumitra Chatterjee in most of his films. but she’s doing a new film in which I am not there. So there’s no contract that whenever she makes a film I have to be there.”

Some observers suggest that one of Nandita’s problem might be that she herself may possess immense talent and her performances may be marvellous but art films like have such limited viewership that there’s a danger of going unnoticed.

Nandita says that she’s never made a conscious effort to be a crowd puller and she’s also not looked down upon commercial cinema. “Art cinema can also be boring and pretentious and hard core commercial cinema can also be frivolous and frothy. So one has to find a middle road somewhere.”

She says she won’t like to confine herself only to serious cinema. She intends to do different kind of roles — thrillers, romantic comedies, anything “that excites my heart and mind. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an art film. In any case, the differentiation has never been there for good filmmakers. See films by masters like Guru Dutt and Bimal Roy’s film and you won’t be able to decide whether it’s art or commercial cinema. Or take more recent releases like ‘Maachis’ and ‘Kya Kehna’. A lot of good directors are crossing over.”

That’s the kind of films she’d like to do. Maybe another ‘Aks’, never mind if it flat on its face at the box office. But she definitely won’t do a hardcore commercial film. “Govinda is a great actor and I’d like to work with him. But with due respect, all that he does I may not like to do. May be someday we might like to work on something we both like.”

Nandita jealously guards her privacy and dislikes celebrity. She’s had a sunny childhood and now lives in a tastefully done up apartment in Delhi’s posh Gulmohar Park. The glamour life of Bollywood hasn’t touched Nandita. Acting, she says, is still not her ultimate goal. “There are so many things to do in life. Maybe I’ll keep doing films. But there’s no urge to act just for acting. I’d like to do roles I am drawn to, roles that I believe in, films dealing with issues that trouble me. Nothing more. Nothing less.” (NF)

Abhishek has a long way to go
Sitesh Debnath

HIS surname made him a superstar long before his first film. J.P. Dutta spotted him at R.K. Studio, distributing cards for his sister’s wedding and promptly signed him for ‘Refugee’ with Kareena Kapoor. The film bombed and he was next seen sharing the lead with Keerti Reddy in ‘Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya’.

Abhishek Bachchan may prove to be a dark horse

That too bombed and yet, Raj Kanwar gave him chance with Aishwarya Rai in ‘Dhai Akshar Prem Ke’. Once again, he let his producers down, even as Kanwar was to explain later: “I thought he could do justice to the role, going by the intensity of his eyes, his endearing smile, lip line and body language...”

Clearly, Abhishek Bachchan could project the looks, but cannot act to save his life. So when good friend Goldie Bahl tried to give him yet another break with ‘Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai,’ nothing worked. The film was pulled off the theatres within a week of its release.

So is it over with Bollywood’s blue-eyed boy?

Of course, there Gurudev Bhalla’s ‘Shararat’, soon to be followed by Rohan Sippy’s ‘Kuch Na Kaho’ with Aishwarya again Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon’ with Kareena and Hrithik Roshan, Dharmesh Darshan’s ‘Haan Maine Bhi Pyar Kiya,’ Anupam Kher’s ‘Om Jai Jagdish...’

After all, everybody is trying to be patient with the son of Bollywood’s biggest icon, Amitabh Bachchan. Some over-patronising souls are even saying that he needs still another chance as he is a slow starter and holds the potential of emerging a dark horse in the box-office stakes.

“It is too early to write him off,” argues Bhalla. “Abhishek just has it in himself. I signed him for ‘Shararat’, not because we are old friends but since nobody else can empathise with the character as well as he does—a 22-year-old boy from an affluent background with a certain sensitivity in his eyes.”

Bahl echoes similar sentiments: “Abhishek was my first choice not because we are childhood friends who share a common dream. He fits my character perfectly. He’s an Indian boy from a culturally rich family and yet, exposed to western culture as he is educated abroad. He remains deeply rooted in India.”

Like Bhalla, Bahl was being helpful in giving Abhishek a tailor-made role in which he could be most comfortable. He also admits to both having “entered into a pact” year ago, when they were kids, that the first film he’d direct would have Abhishek Bachchan as his hero.

Abhishek, however, claims that cinema was not a career option so long as he was studying at the Bombay Scottish School and later, at Aiglon School in Switzerland. In those days, he had wanted to be a racing car driver and better still, a fire fighter or an astronaut.

It was only at the age of 18 that he considered being a film actor and enrolled for a course in dramatic arts at the Boston University, USA. He dropped out mid-way and winged back to Mumbai to join his father’s Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL) as a production assistant.

While working on the sets of an ABCL production, ‘Major Saab’, Abhishek was offered the role of Mirza Mogul, Bahadur Shah Zafar’s son in ‘Aakhri Mughal’. J.P. Dutta wanted to revive this historical epic which was to be made by Kamal Amrohi with Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachahan in the lead.

According to unit hands, Dutta changed his mind upon realising Abhishek’s limitations and settled for an off-beat and manageable ‘Refugee’. Abhishek impressed the director by trudging through 200 kilometres of burning desert sands in Rajasthan, without raising a murmur of protest.

But for the audience, that wasn’t enough. He’s definitely got to do better than that! (MF)