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After the psychological drama Takhan Teish, director Atanu Ghosh is directing Ek Phaali Rod, also a psychological drama but “much lighter” in tone. A t2 chat about the film that starts rolling in end June...
What is Ek Phaali Rod all about?
At the core, it is about human complacency. In today’s world nobody cares about anybody at all. There are so many incidents where an accident victim lies on the road and nobody helps him. Ek Phaali Rod is about a psychologist called Somshankar (Dhritiman Chaterji), who is researching human alienation. After a round of interviews, he hires Anwesha (Aparajita Ghosh Das) and Swagato (Ritwick Chakraborty) to stage mock crisis incidents on the streets to check how people react. But Anwesha’s boyfriend Joy (Jisshu Sengupta) is completely against it. A visually-challenged author, Pratim (Tota Roy Chowdhury), joins the team. He feels he can build a plot, inspired by what they do. He suggests the team to go on a vacation. So they go to the seaside, where they actually face a crisis situation which changes each of them. There’s an element of suspense and the mystery deepens slowly.
Can you tell us what happens on the beach?
Yes. There’s another character called Rupa (casting is yet to be finalised), Swagato’s girlfriend who goes missing from there. This changes the equation between the other characters.
What does Swastika play?
She has a small but very interesting role. Swastika plays Mimi, who wants to be a singer. She comes to the beach for a vacation. During the crisis, she gets caught between Joy and Anwesha.... Swastika is a fine actress. I had directed her in two telefilms — Kata and Megh Brishti Rod. She was very good in those and obviously I wanted to work with her in a film.
Your last film Takhan Teish too was about probing the human mind. Are you fascinated by this subject?
Actually, I like to do different things. I feel such a subject has not been explored much in our cinema. The human mind is very interesting. But Ek Phaali Rod is much lighter and not as complex as Takhan Teish, which was more about human desires. Ek Phaali Rod will be simpler. There are around six songs in the film.
You always repeat your cast. Jisshu and Aparajita were there in Takhan Teish, Tota in Angshumaner Chhobi...
Well, yes, I like working with my team, with people I have worked with before because I am very comfortable with them. I liked Jisshu’s work in Takhan Teish and I have given him a completely different role in this film... unlike the introvert doctor he played in Takhan Teish. Here he is very lively, extrovert and also flamboyant.
I always wanted to work with Dhritimanda and he suits the role. Ritwick is very spontaneous and this will be Aparajita’s most complex role. She is the heroine of the film.
