A new facet of Rituparna Sengupta was unveiled recently with the launch of her book of poems at the Alliance Francaise du Bengale (AFB). Titled My Balcony Sea and Other Poems, it is a collection of 20 poems penned by the actress, which have also been translated in French by Trinanjan Chakraborty, a faculty member at AFB, and published by Sampark.
There were readings of selected poems from the book by Rituparna herself and filmmaker Ashoke Viswanathan, and of the corresponding French translations by Facino and his wife and poetess Iryna Vikyrchak.
“This is the last day of my tenure and I am honoured that my last event is with you. You are a legend of Bengali cinema, even Indian cinema. You allow us to discover a shade of your new talent. On and off screen, you speak directly to the soul and you speak a universal language. You are a global citizen. You touch people all over the world,” Nicolas Facino, the AFB director, said, addressing Rituparna. “May be, your next step will be (writing) songs,” he said, a suggestion that excited the actress.
“Music goes beautifully with poetry,” she began, in agreement with Facino’s remark. Asked how she started out, Rituparna said: “When I was in Class VII or VIII, I used to scribble whatever came to my mind. My teachers used to encourage me to carry on with writing. In school, I used to suggest the titles of passages or help with writing speeches. Later, I started writing small passages.”
The actress said she did not write in a structured way. “I just jot down whatever comes to my mind fleetingly. But I keep losing them. I used to write on my phone. Once I lost a phone. With it went so many of my writings. I have been given a dictaphone now to better preserve my writings,” she said, with a laugh.
“Over time, I started to write while I was traveling or if any incident provoked me. Then I began writing a column for The Telegraph, Ask Ritu, and then one in Bangladesh, called Bangladesher Hridoy Hotey. I also wrote pieces for small magazines. One day, I mentioned to Nicolas that such pieces are there. I am not sure if they are poems but they are my expressions. He suggested that we do something together. My husband is fond of my writing. In fact, he asks me to leave everything and write. That’s not possible but this way, I can chase my passion. Writing is like a stress-buster. Writing calms me down,” Rituparna said candidly, in response to a query from t2.
Rituparna said she planned to compile her writings in Bengali too, naming Joy Goswami, Srijato, Alfred Tennyson and Thomas Hardy among her favourite poets.
A poignant moment was the arrival of Arpita Kazi, whose late husband Aniruddha Kazi had created the illustrations that accompany the poems. “When we started this project, Kazi said it would be one of his finest works. And indeed it is, with some great illustrations by him. Let us celebrate Kazi too in this book,” Rituparna told her, emotionally.
She dedicated the book to her late mother, who was “always my strength and my biggest cheerleader”.
The programme ended on a cheerful note, with Facino announcing the screening of Rituparna’s film Goodbye Mountain at the Gange sur Seine, an international independent competitive Indian film festival in France, scheduled for October 10-14. “Alliance Francaise is a partner of this festival as we will take care of the subtitles,” he said.