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Most people know that Konkona Sen Sharma’s apartment in Mumbai was used last month by mom Aparna Sen to hold a workshop for the lead actors of her Bengali-English bilingual, The Japanese Wife. In fact, Rahul Bose was so delighted to be reunited with his Mr & Mrs Iyer and 15, Park Avenue director that he even dropped his Cricket World Cup tickets to attend the workshop where he plays, you’ve guessed it, a man with an Indian wife (Raima Sen) and a Japanese one.
The workshop, with the actors wearing the actual clothes they would in the film, was necessary because it was a difficult dialect of Bengali that all of them had to get used to.
Most people also know that this is the first time daughter Konkona won’t be acting in her mother’s film, preferring to lavish her attention on a bunch of Hindi films, including two with Yash Raj. In fact, it was Aparna who wouldn’t hear of it when Konkona yearned to be in her mother’s film once again and directed her to instead concentrate on the substantial Hindi offers that were coming her way.
What most people don’t know is that this is the first time Aparna, the filmmaker, has approached Moushumi Chatterjee, the actor, to work under her direction. Moushumi has the important role of Rahul Bose’s aunt in the film. There is an unconfirmed buzz that Aparna had wanted Jaya Bachchan for this role but the latter sensed how tough the assignment would be and didn’t go anywhere near it. (Besides the challenge it would have posed to her histrionic skills, the entire Bachchan family is currently too busy wrapping up all their work commitments to pull off the April 20 wedding of son Abhishek.
The role in The Japanese Wife is a difficult job, acknowledges Moushumi who religiously went to the workshop — with trepidation at first but more confidently as the days went by. Reportedly, Aparna assured her on day one that Moushumi had not only grasped her character well but had also given it a little more than the director had expected from her. In return, the actor, whose candour has often been at the cost of her career, observes that Aparna is “an excellent writer and director. Frankly, I like her better in this role than as an actor”. It is a remark that would find Aparna nodding in agreement because she herself has often graciously accepted that she was a mediocre actress.
Today, a distinct mutual admiration has thawed the frost that had once existed between the two Bengali women, both immensely talented, one as a writer-director, the other as an (often underrated) actor par excellence.
What nobody really knows is that the current two-way traffic of compliments is a refreshingly new equation between Aparna Sen and Moushumi Chatterjee. When they had co-starred together as mere actors (Ekhonee, Kori Diye Kinlam), they had shared the typical icy vibes that actresses tend to have when they are thrown together. When Aparna Sen had walked away with a prestigious Best Actress award, it had certainly not helped to better their equation, with Moushumi more than just a little miffed over the whole experience. Ask her about it now and the wiser, more mellow, Moushumi has the grace to laugh and pass it off as “the healthy rivalry that usually exists between two actresses”. When they’re getting along so wonderfully, it would be unproductive to rewind to a juvenile past.
But to rewind to an earlier comment that Jaya Bachchan has been too busy readying herself for the role of mother-in-law to Aishwarya Rai, contrary to a report in a venerated Mumbai daily that the Abhi-Ash wedding will have only seven or eight guests, the figure should be multiplied by 10. The bride’s mother, Vrinda Rai, personally went to a five-star hotel in Juhu to book rooms for guests from April 18 to 22 and caterers have been told to be ready for a small gathering of 70 to 80 guests.
Meanwhile, Mahima Choudhary has not only got over Leander Paes but has a new man in her life. His name is Bobby Mukherjee, an interior decorator with pots of money. A divorcé with kids, Bobby is being so discreet over their relationship that he has sworn his friends to secrecy and introduces her as Ritu, her original name. She was a TV anchor called Ritu Choudhary, before Subhash Ghai rechristened her Mahima for his film Pardes.
Bobby and Mahima’s cloak--dagger stuff is like Sanjay Dutt’s friendship with item girl Maanyata. He escorts her, demurely dressed, to parties thrown by close friends on the explicit understanding that it will not be reported anywhere. And the status remains unchanged. Maanya is wife by night and when Sanju is cold sober in the morning, she is referred to as ‘a good friend’!
Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor, Movie Mag International