Picture by Rashbehari Das

What made you agree to an item number for Notobor Not Out?

Amit (Sen, the director) was very persistent and the fact that he was from a different background... advertising. Also, Raima was there in the film, so it seemed like fun and I left the whole decision to her. I told her, ‘You see whether I should do the film or not and you discuss everything with them. You be my financial adviser and everything...’. And she was like ‘I’ll see’. It was more like a joke, so I said, okay if Raima says yes, I’ll do it.

So what did Raima say?

She took it very seriously and towards the end when I said ‘I don’t think I’ll do it because I haven’t lost weight’, she said, ‘Do it Ma, it’s not bad. I’ve given them my word Ma, so you jolly well do it’. But normally, the girls don’t like me to work.

Why is that?

I don’t know. I think they just want me to be there but not working. They don’t want me to do any more of those commercial films that I used to do for which I’m actually grateful because they made me what I was. Well, I’m still not the way a mother is supposed to be as I travel a lot but they just keep telling me, ‘There’s no need for you to work anymore. We’re working’.

That makes me a little laid-back too.... Like, I’m a little conscious about my double chin showing when I’m in front of all these cameras now. Everyday I tell myself that I’ll start exercising tomorrow and then I put on my track pants. I have this wonderful treadmill at home but I never get started. Since I’m not working, I don’t bother.

What’s your role in Notobor Not Out?

I’m just crooning. There’s a little movement.... The song is not there because of me but because it’s incidental to the plot. What was really seductive was Debojyoti’s (Mishra) music. This song, partly in English and partly in Bengali, is beautiful and so unlike anything they have in Bangla! I enjoyed it very much and I miss working also. I think the last time I appeared on screen was in Bow Barracks Forever, but I’d rather forget about it! (Moon Moon played a frustrated Anglo-Indian woman, Rosa, in the Anjan Dutt film.)

‘I would like to write a book on the Sen women... with very passing references to my mother because I don’t really talk about her’

Why don’t you do more films then?

I’ve really got tired of doing the same old films, and today you can do better roles. I was doing very good work with Anjan Dutt and I did some really good teleserials with other directors but unfortunately those were not translated into films. I get offers but I don’t get really nice offers that I can’t refuse. If an odd thing comes along I might work in it but I don’t want to do something full-time. I want to be free. I don’t want to pin myself down to dates. So if a good role comes along, I would do it.

What kind of offers do you get?

I don’t even go into it. When I get a call I just tell them I’m not working anymore. I don’t have the patience to sit through a script. I never did. I always used to ask my co-stars, ‘Have you heard the script? Shall I do it?’ They would say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and I’d go ahead and do it. Unless it was a Rituparno (Ghosh) film or an Anjan Dutt, very seldom would I hear the script out.

Raima tells us you’re a good painter. Do you still paint?

I haven’t, I haven’t! I used to sketch a lot of nudes but that was years ago. Even now I do sketch off and on, but my mother (Suchitra Sen) has not been very well and my husband (Habi) and I have been travelling a lot so I haven’t really got down to it.

I don’t take myself seriously at all... not as an artist either. My work was a 9-to-5 job and painting would happen when I’d look for a slight form of expression. I don’t think I’d ever have an exhibition. I had it once when I was very young and my mother didn’t let me sell any of those paintings. So they’re all in her house and maybe that’s why I didn’t continue with painting. When I do it now, it’s just for myself or I give a friend a lot of the sketches I do.

Now it’s like a long, extended holiday for me. I worked quite hard for a long time... 20-21 years. It’s really nice to take a holiday, which is no shooting. Earlier it was like going on a foreign location for a shoot, so I would take the kids and the family. When I take a holiday now, it’s a proper one and I’m enjoying that.

What about writing a book on the Sen women?

I would like to. I have a very nice offer from a publishing house. I just have to get a lot of photographs together of the girls and me with very passing references to my mother because I don’t really talk about her. It’s still in the mind and imagination but if I find time I would like to get those photographs together and write down anecdotes about being married, being an actress, the recipes, different kinds of movies and co-stars all over India....It would be a light, funny memoir but it’s really difficult to find the time.

Even when you’re not working, time just flies doing hundred and one things that aren’t meaningless. I think my last main achievement was doing up five bathrooms in the house! I did them up myself — choosing the tiles, the water pipes, talking to the labourers and the corrections.... Can’t it be a part of being an artist in some way? I learnt a lot and it was fun.

Riya (Sen) just had her first big Tollywood release. Do you see her working here more?

I don’t know whether Riya will work here or not. I would like her to.... She loves working with Ritu (Rituparno). I went to the shooting of Abohomaan once and was charmed by the look of her. Right now, Ritu’s the only one who has offers for her in Tollywood. He knows both the sisters so well and loves them so much.

Moon Moon with Habi and Raima. (Picture by Rashbehari Das)

Do you feel a little extra protective about any of the two girls?

I’m terribly protective about both and go to war if anyone hurts them in any way... but maybe a little more about Riya. She has a tendency to attract trouble. Riya’s become like a mother suddenly! She’ll cover me up with a shawl and she’ll cook for her father. Raima, on the other hand, is very naughty. More than Riya, actually! People misunderstand Riya, whereas Raima is too clear, too friendly, too sweet. That luckily doesn’t get her into trouble.

Riya is not gullible but she attracts a lot of wrong attention. If she says, ‘Oh I’m sorry about the dates’ or ‘I’m working on another film’, people will take it as a ‘no’. I recognise that in her because I went through a little bit of that myself. I was not as accommodating as Raima. Riya had a very bad time with Anjan Dutt who was a very dear friend of mine, so I went to town about him and I don’t work with him anymore. So that’s it.

I don’t interfere in their work. I don’t know their scripts, when they’re shooting or who their co-stars are. We see each other so seldom, we never discuss work. I just want to hear they’ve done a great job in whatever they’re doing.

Would you be interested in a film with the three of you together?

It would have to be an excellent director. We’re all three very different and very difficult. The director would have to have a mind of steel to be able to do this!

Ten questions she would like to be asked. And her answers...

1) Do you like yourself?

Yes, very much. I’m happy with my life and myself. Whenever I’ve been in a crisis I’ve fought well and come out of it quite well too. I don’t want or expect too much out of life, so I’ll always be happy.

2) Are you loyal?

Yes, very.

‘I think Riya is very lucky that Ritu took her in one of his better films. She was in fabulous company... of actors like Mamadi, Saswatidi and Dipankar De. She was very natural and I felt very proud. It didn’t seem like she had been instructed to do this. And only Ritu could have done it.... There were lots of women in the audience who told me that they had liked Riya’s work’ — on Riya in Abohomaan

3) Are you bad tempered?

Yes, very.

4) Who do you love most in the world?

My family.

5) What’s your favourite colour?

Green and blue.

6) What’s your favourite food?

Seddho bhaat. Alu, kumro aar dim seddho... with ghee and South Indian papad.

7) What do you like doing the most?

At the moment, listening to music. Any kind.

8) What gives you joy?

Travelling with a companion.

9) What would you like to possess the most?

Every fine painting that I lust after. Iranna GR, Paresh Maity and so many others...

10) What is it that you wish for now?

I wish I could start painting or writing.

Moon Moon defines...

Love:

I don’t know how to define love but it’s there everywhere. If you didn’t love anyone, you would be a very dried-up, sad, finished person.

The real man:

My husband (Habi). For having stuck to me, encouraged me and loved me through thick and thin.

The Sen women:

We’re good-hearted, nice and normal, but a little more fun than most others!

Sexy:

Anything can be sexy. It’s in the mind. An evocation of a memory can also be sexy.

Diva:

Someone like Maria Callas, the opera singer, or Gayatri Devi. Very beautiful, accomplished, larger-than-life women. Like Fellini showed Anita Ekberg (in picture) around the fountain of Rome in La Dolce Vita. She symbolised life and beauty. That’s my idea of a diva.

Calcutta:

Right now, it’s dead and I’m really sorry that it is. I’ve always loved it, come back to it and wanted to grow old over here, but I don’t anymore. I think it has nothing to offer. Look at the social and political events in the last two years and you’ll know there’s nothing going to happen in Calcutta. No new roads, bridges or houses, which are aesthetic or going to make any difference to our lives. Which new architecture can you really be proud of today?

Tollywood:

I can’t define Tollywood alone. I would have to include films in Bombay, Kerala, Bangalore. I think it’s a magical industry and you have to be really very special to be a part of that industry for a long time. You have to be a little crazy in the heart too or else you can’t belong.

Mohua Das
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