Truth of the matter

The Calcutta schedule of Rituparno Ghosh’s Satyanweshi, his first Bomkesh Bakshi film adapted from Saradindu Bandyopadhyay’s Chorabali, started on Saturday. The interiors of the palace have been created in Purple Movie Town. The film marks the acting debut — he’s made friendly appearances in Nobel Chor, Bluffmaster! and My Brother ... Nikhil — of Kahaani maker Sujoy Ghosh, who plays the truth-seeking sleuth Bomkesh, with Anindya Chattopadhyay as Ajit. Satyanweshi, “Production No. 67 of Venkatesh Films”, also stars Indraneil Sengupta, Arpita, Anandi Ghose and Sanjoy Nag among others. A four-day schedule in north Bengal had kick-started the film’s shoot earlier this month. Rituda’s constant collaborators Avik Mukhopadhyay and Arghyakamal Mitra are shooting and editing the film.

Ghosh and Ghosh

It’s not every day that two directors — one from Tollywood and one from Bollywood — collaborate on a project. That too one as director, one as actor. But Ghosh and Ghosh — Rituparno and Sujoy — get along like a house on fire. Five minutes on that set and you can make out that there’s mutual respect at play here. “The only reason I am doing this is because of Rituparno Ghosh,” Sujoy is very clear about the reason behind his role reversal. And that’s why he has completely submitted himself to Rituda.

“He is very obedient,” smiles the Satyanweshi director. “And even though Sujoy is always making fun and playing pranks on the sets all the time, I can’t really scold him because he works so hard.” And if he does get scolded at times, a smiling Sujoy folds his hands and says: “Khomaprapti korun obhineta!” Who possibly can stay angry? A lot of the on-set discussion between Ghosh and Ghosh is about being Bomkesh and staying Bomkesh. Whether it’s the body language or the dialogue delivery or a simple stare, it’s about staying in character. Before a shot or after it, Sujoy is all ears, listening to Rituda and understanding the craft of acting better.

The invisible moochh and the tone inside the head

There was much ado about Sujoy’s moustache on Saturday afternoon. The moustache Rituda could see and Sujoy himself couldn’t. “I shaved in the morning only, how can there be a moustache!” was his earnest defence. “Gonf gojiyechhe, aami dekhte pachchhi!” was the response from the director’s chair. So for the close-up shot, Rituda insisted for a round of close shave. “Okay then, get me a razor-sharp make-up!” Sujoy surrendered. And suddenly the Satyanweshi set became a ‘saloon’ and the invisible moochh was erased. [“As Byomkesh I have discovered that my beard grows faster than a speeding bullet! My beard can outrun a bullet” — sujoy_g was to tweet later!]

There’s been quite a gap between the two schedules of the film. And so for Sujoy to return to the groove, Rituda prompted him the first few lines of the day. “Sur-ta kaaney dhukey jaak agey (Let the tone of the delivery get inside your head first),” he said and then read out each of Bomkesh’s lines just before the takes. When Sujoy came back post-lunch with Anindya as Ajit in tow, he actually had the cadence perfectly in place. “Thik chhilo?” the actor asked. The director announced on the mike: “Thik naa, khub bhalo chhilo!”

The case of the disappearing cookies

Bomkesh might be investigating murder in the film but Rituparno Ghosh the director had to solve the case of the disappearing cookies on Saturday. There is a sequence in the film when Sujoy has to pick up a jar of cookies, take a small piece out, munch it and open the door. Well, for that one piddly little shot, Kahaani babu emptied the entire jar! For every rehearsal and then for every take, cookies were disappearing in a hurry. So much so that at one point of time Rituda snatched the jar and started breaking the couple of cookies left into smaller pieces. “Aami ki Bomkesh Bakshi shoot korchhi naa Baby’s Day Out?” he bellowed. And then laughed. And then put a little piece in his own mouth. “Can’t we get more cookies?” The answer from the production team: “This is from French Loaf and we are in Purple Movie Town. We can only get more tomorrow!”

Pictures: Rashbehari Das
Pratim D. Gupta
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