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| Abir and Koel. Pictures: Rashbehari Das |
Team Chaar got together at Shree Venkatesh Films’s Lake Gardens office to talk about a “special film” — Sandip Ray’s Chaar, which releases on June 13.
Sandip Ray said that women would often complain to him about not being cast in his films. But Chaar has three women — Koel, Sreelekha and Sudipta Chakraborty!
Saswata Chatterjee: Yes, women drove him crazy with their complaints (laughs)!
Sreelekha Mitra: Of course one can’t deny the appeal of women, but if we find that Feluda has a girlfriend we may not like that either!
Saswata: Yes, what if Batul the Great got a girlfriend?!
Koel Mallick: Or Nonte Phonte! You know, when I was shooting for Hit-List I had asked Babuda why Satyajit Ray’s stories revolve only around men.... Topshe could have been Taposhi! There could have been a female character.
How was it working with Sandip Ray?
Koel: Babuda, his wife (Lolita) and the whole crew are just fabulous. My outdoor experience while shooting for Hit-List was probably one of my best.
Sreelekha: And you feel like giving it everything. You can give 10 takes instead of one.
Koel: You develop an emotional attachment with the team.
Abir Chatterjee: I was away shooting for Badshahi Angti for almost a month and I never felt like I was away from home. The team knows how to pamper their actors. So we know we can focus on the acting, and not think about anything else. Everything about his shoots are planned, so when I’m on the floors, I have a clear idea of what to expect, what’s going to happen.... And the unit members have so many stories to share.
Saswata: It’s a very witty unit.
Abir: Now after doing three Sandip Ray films, I can crack a few jokes with him. I have been promoted!
Were you familiar with the short stories?
Abir: I read the script first and then the story (Poriksha, one of the short stories in Chaar).
Koel: Same here.
Saswata: I did Kaagtarua (based on Satyajit Ray’s short story) for the second time. We had done it years ago for television. Babuda had directed it.
Koel: Wow, that’s great!
Saswata: It was a unique experience. Only this time it’s for film.
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| Sreelekha and Saswata |
What’s your take on doing short films?
Koel: In a full-length film, you get time to warm up for a particular scene. You get time to create chemistry between characters. There’s no time for all that in a short story. You have to click immediately. And that’s a different kind of a thrill. You finish reading a short story quickly even while soaking in its magic. There’s so much unspoken in a short story and you get to interpret things as well.
Abir: In this format (four stories in one film), you can stay true to the essence of the story while retaining the flavour of the original.
Koel: The stories are so crisp.
Abir: Jekhane Bhooter Bhoy had a connecting thread but it’s not there in Chaar. The four stories are so different from each other.
Koel: There have been a few instances... Teen Kanya.
Sreelekha: And there was Ek Mutho Chhobi…
Abir: You get a long time to build a character in shows for television. Almost the same is true for films. But when it comes to short films, the journey gets shorter. I feel we are more careful about designing the character graph when working in short films. We know that we have to complete the journey in a short span of time.
Koel and Abir, how did you react when Sandip Ray announced that Poriksha will be in black and white?
Koel: I was thrilled! Of course, Abir is doing a black-and-white film for the second time.
Abir: The basic difference is that here everything from designing the shots to lighting was done as it would happen in the films of 1940s.
Koel: Gramophone, piano, cigarette set... everything’s there. The props were vintage.... We had a fabulous experience. We have grown up watching black-and-white films like Harano Sur, Saptapadi, Uttar Phalguni.
And how was it working together?
Koel: We had done Prem By Chance.
Abir: That was a different space. I was in a red vest and blue shirt!
Koel: And Abir was dancing away! (Laughs)
Abir: And here we are inhabiting a story set in the 1940s where you open a letter in a certain way. And kudos to Koel, she was shooting for Arundhati and Chaar at the same time.
Saswata: Wow!
Koel: And the best part was I was wearing Bijoya Ray’s jewellery in Chaar, to get the traditional look right. It was a different feeling to wear her jewellery, her brooch. And to have that tinge of simplicity and innocence was fascinating.
Abir: I got to wear a dressing gown like veteran actor Kamal Mitra.
Saswata, Sandip Ray is really fond of you...
Saswata: We have been working together for a long time. My first Sandip Ray film was Hit-List. The unit’s like a family... so warm and affectionate. My first interaction with Satyajit Ray happened at his place many years ago. I was taken to his place to audition for the role of the kid (Ruku) in Joi Baba Felunath.
Koel: Wow…
Saswata: But my mother had cut my hair so short that I didn’t get the role. After seeing me, Satyajit Ray told my father, ‘Oke toh baatichhat diye diyechho Subhendu.’ My father didn’t say anything.
Abir, you are the new Feluda...
Sreelekha: I really envy Abir. I’m a huge fan of detective stories. Sherlock Holmes to Feluda, I’ve read everything. And Abir is playing Bomkesh, Feluda…
Saswata: He was playing Bomkesh and now he is playing Feluda…
Koel: I could have auditioned for Feluda wearing a moustache! (Laughs)
Feluda still doesn’t have a mobile phone…
Koel: Some things should remain the same.
Abir: When it comes to Feluda and Bomkesh, we become possessive which is natural.
Saswata: And if you bring in cell phones everywhere, there won’t be any mystery.
Koel: Everything is on Facebook now!
Saswata: They give updates on everything. They might even write, ‘I’ll break a hand tomorrow.’
Abir: And people ‘like’ that.
Koel: And they give updates of their personal loss on FB. I don’t understand why they have to write that.
Abir: I remember someone posting, ‘Just met with an accident, ambulance yet to come.’
All of you are in the same film but didn’t get the chance to work together...
Sreelekha: Koel and I are in a film together for the first time, though we don’t share screen space.
Koel: You were awesome in Ashchorjyo Prodeep.
Sreelekha: Somebody should cast us together. Why shouldn’t we work together? Please ask your husband to produce the film (everyone laughs out loud).
World Cup faves:
Abir: I’ll be rooting for Argentina.
Saswata: I support the underdogs!
Sreelekha: Same here.
Koel: I just enjoy watching the games.
