Madam Driver, the latest of an anthology of featurettes by independent filmmaker Indrajit Nattoji, had a special screening at Cinepolis in Acropolis Mall recently. t2 chatted with him and lead actors Kitu Gidwani and Ankit Siwach on the film which is about a middle-aged woman’s journey through coping with grief and loneliness.
Indrajit, tell us about your anthology. Are they connected by a common theme?
Indrajit Nattoji:Madam Driver is part of an anthology of six quirky, interesting stories of women from small-town, semi-urban India. Each story is based in a different region of India. The 50-minute to one hour segments make them like tiny shots of life that easily capture the small attention span of contemporary audiences. The idea is to run five or six of them together in theatres with a brief interval between the stories. The culture of intervals is very much a part of the theatre experience, but the advantage will be that you can watch many stories unfold on screen, all connected to a theme. If it works, it will be a new way of looking at films.
Kitu, what made you decide to take on this project?
Kitu Gidwani: It was definitely the story. I’m there all the way through, so it was a good opportunity to use my acting chops. Also, I’ve never played an older woman like this. So it’s quite scary for an actress to put out white hair, but I took it as a challenge. I didn’t know how to pull it off, so it was a way of flexing your acting muscles and trying on a new role. The writing, too, was lovely and then we hit it off.
We’ve all seen you in your iconic roles on Doordarshan. After so many years, how do you think the audience will react to this one?
Kitu: Well, I may have been out of their radar but I’ve been working quite a lot. One day, I’ll do a daily show, and that’s a completely different ballgame. One day, I’ll do a small independent film. One day I’ll do an OTT (project). So the thing is, I’ve been doing different roles and this was another way of broadening my craft. Of course, this role is completely different from anything I have done before, because I’m playing an older woman. My character’s very different from her, because I’m very outspoken.
Do you think it will relate more to women audiences?
Kitu: It’s obvious, because it’s a story with a lot of chaos. And it has a lot of lovely angles to it, a lot of tender connections. There’s a lot of humour in it, gentle humour. Anyone can relate to this film.
So it’s not a feminist film?
Kitu: You could call it ‘gently feminist’. There’s nothing firebrand about it. It is about a problem which a middle-class woman in a small town may face. It’s a slice-of-life story.
Ankit, what was it like to star opposite an actress of the stature of Kitu Gidwani?
Ankit Siwach: It was humbling. I was always honoured to be a part of this film. You get to learn so much when you are working with seniors like her and Indrajit sir. I was game as soon as I got the synopsis. It was a challenge for me too as I have never played a driver before.
In real life, have you ever taught anyone to drive?
Ankit: Yeah, a lot of people.
So did that experience come in handy?
Ankit: I don’t know, because she drove so well, so it was getting difficult for me to enact that I was teaching her.
How would the two of you describe your chemistry on screen? What was unique about it?
Kitu: I think we were both on the same page in terms of humour and our understanding of acting is the same. There are some actors who overact, especially in India, or try to over-dramatise, but Ankit is not like that. I think the younger generation has become much more sophisticated in the way they act.
Ankit: For me also, from scene one, you were in the same sur (tune). So, we never had to put in effort to come on the same page. It was organically there. We also prepped for a few days before the shoot, we were doing our readings from different places. I think that also helped. Sir was there to guide us throughout. Once once we sat in the car, we were there in the moment. Sometimes she gave me the cues, and I would just respond; we were connected throughout.
Kitu, you just spoke about the actors of the younger generation. How would you compare young women actors of today with those of the ’80s and ’90s? Are they more equipped because they are better trained?
Kitu: I don’t think they are trained in the classical sense because you have so many (training schools) flooding the market. I would say I was semi-classically trained because I did a lot of acting workshops with foreign teachers who would come and conduct them. I didn’t go to acting school ever. I used to train myself doing theatre workshops. But I think the younger generation is very talented. They are also exposed to Western cinema. And even the directors are getting more sophisticated in terms of cinematic language. Now the language of cinema has changed, it’s become more universal. Everybody is following more or less the same American/European style of realistic filmmaking unless they are doing something completely experimental.
So what can fans expect from you next?
Kitu: I’m planning to start directing a theatre production.
Ankit: There is a show that’s coming out soon on JioHotstar and a film called 120 Bahadur, that will release in November. At the moment, I am actively promoting Madam Driver, and I know it will be a one-of-a-kind film that audiences are going to love.
Indrajit, what is your expectation from Madam Driver in terms of audience reception?
So far, it has really connected with a lot of viewers. It’s a slice-of-life film. I’ve approached it almost like a documentary, the treatment has been innovative. We didn’t want the camera to be obtrusive. You’ll be quite amazed to know that we have used iPhones to shoot this. And for a lot of the situations we went into the city, we shot with real situations, real people. We just planted the characters in a particular location and they performed. Even the way it’s been edited goes against editing rules. That ought to be interesting for the viewers.
Also, there are a lot of layers to the film, about patriarchy and preconceived notions about women. And in the end, it’s about how all the characters connect and complete each other. So it’s a human story, with driving being the catalyst that brings them together.