Baggy jeans, oversized shirts, piano lessons and a love story that travels back to the 1990s. Featuring southern star Padmapriya as Maya and Abir Chatterjee opposite her, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s 17-minute short trilingual film Maya (presented by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films) that revisits the Nineties premieres at Calcutta Club today as part of Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet. t2 dials Aniruddha and Abir...

ANIRUDDHA ON THE MAKING OF MAYA

I was thinking of a story involving the relationship between a Bengali and a Tamil Brahmin for a while. It had to be short. With the short film format, you can experiment, and I wanted to tell a story in that format. Brevity is the soul of the short film, and the challenge lay in telling the story and bringing out the nuances in 17 minutes. I have done ad films before, so I was familiar with the format.

Shyamal Sengupta has written the script from my story. Abir fit the role perfectly.  This is the first time I worked with Abir and I am very happy with his performance. He is a darun chhele, very disciplined. Abir plays Anjan, who comes from an ordinary Bengali family... he is meek, shy and quiet. He is a good person. He has another side to him and there is an interesting transformation.

Maya is a free-spirited woman and she has this touch of craziness. Padmapriya told me, ‘You are shooting it like a feature film.’ I said, ‘A film is a film is a film.’ Abir and Padmapriya share an effortless chemistry in Maya. She is a cerebral actress and we became friends post-Aparajita Tumi (directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury). She is so confident. 

ABIR CHATTERJEE

The love story

Maya is a love story between a Bengali and a Tamil Brahmin set in the 1990s. It is simple and smart. I am fond of love stories, and I have not done enough love stories yet.  And there is a period flavour to the story. We shot it in three days.

Blank calls

I grew up in the 1990s. And the romanticism we had, the idea of love we had was much more innocent, spontaneous. There was a dream-like quality to it.  I can totally identify with the 1990s. That’s an impressionable age. And in the 1990s, there was some kind of mystery… one would still get blank calls. Lots of things were left unspoken. You would totally immerse yourself in the feeling of love by just looking at a girl. We still have those sweet little memories.

The good boy

My character Anjan has a routine life. At that time there were not too many avenues for entertainment. He is a good boy.  

Piano man

Anjan goes to learn the piano from a teacher (played by Raju Raman) whose daughter is Maya (Padmapriya). He likes playing the piano, and that is the only time he can express himself and get away from his ordinary, routine life.
Since Anjan is someone who’s learning to play the piano, I didn’t have to act like a pro. I told Tonyda jokingly that if I made any mistakes while playing the piano it would seem very real.

The look

The hairstyle is part of the look. I wore those typical baggy jeans, oversized shirts. Everything was done to capture his socio-economic background. Many old memories came back. We have all worn these kinds of jeans. We were not fashion conscious at all. We would wear whatever we would get.  

P for Padmapriya

I noticed her in Aparajita Tumi. It was great sharing screen space with her and we had a lovely time. She is a very intelligent actor. The environment was really relaxed. Our two-day rehearsal also helped a lot.

Chilled out

Tonyda is a very chilled-out director and at the same time very clear about what he wants. He is very particular about the shots, the acting. And Tonyda can make you understand what he wants. And sheta khub moja kore bole. At the same time Tonyda never puts pressure on the actors. He’ll make you feel very comfortable and relaxed.   

Short is sweet

You have very little time in your hands to become the character (in a short film). So from the very first shot you have to be bang on target. There is very little margin for error. But short film r alada ekta moja achey. Also, this is my first national outing since Kahaani — Maya is in Tamil, English and Hindi.

Arindam Chatterjee
Pictures: Rashbehari Das