MAINAK BHAUMIK

We were going through some of the comments on Twitter, and people are asking for a sequel. But it is already done, right?

Technically the sequel to Ghare And Bairey would be Bibaho Diaries. I went there first. What is a romcom? Boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. I always wanted to do one. And I finally got the right space and actors for this film. Everyone has a love story… they have seen one, so it is very easy to relate to a love story if it is told well, is in the right spirit and is realistic. 

Did Koel come up with any input?

The film says that it is directed by Mainak Bhaumik and Boys. It’s actually directed by Mainak Bhaumik and Boys and Koel. She was a major factor. 

This is my first romcom. I don’t consider Bibaho Diaries as a love story, it’s more a slice-of-life film. Incidents after incidents happen in that film. Here I was doing a film that was very plotted… and coming out of the success of Bibaho Diaries, everyone was saying how they loved the humour in the film… so I could have gone on and done some more humour, but that’s where Koel was acting as a thermostat and telling me to cut out things. And helping me. She has a history of doing so many romantic films, which were blockbusters. So she would tell me something like, ‘You could end it (a scene) here,’ or ‘You don’t need three-four comedy scenes after this because we can hold the chemistry.’ This was a good balancing factor for the film. 

And I am very open-minded. She was hearing the film as an audience. So she would tell me when she felt something was cutting the romance. Writing funny scenes is easy for me. I needed someone with experience to tell me to chuck things out. She had suggested one nice, fully-formed romantic scene between Amit and Labanya… and then I wrote a scene where Amit asks her about her top five songs. So that came from her. 

Filmmaking is all about collaboration. The best way to make a very good film is to hire the best people. She also took responsibility of the costume, in many places. I think Koel will make a great director if she ever makes a film.
Jisshu also came up with nice ideas… for example, when he got to know that Labanya is wearing a Benarasi at her wedding, he suggested that he wear shorts and a tee and go casual… give that contrast. It was his idea to go wacky. Also, he was telling Soumyajit (Majumdar), who plays Byomkesh Bandyopadhyay the detective, how to do Byomkesh since Jisshu had played Byomkesh. He told him to pace it down.

We see Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and Tagore posters in Labanya’s room. There’s also a poster that says — War Is Over…
Art gives you another layer for understanding the character. You know what is her taste in music. Music is a beautiful way to understand the young generation. Coming to War Is Over… Labanya, who is a music therapist, is very aggressive. She has calmed down but has a lot of issues left, and abhimaan towards Amit that hasn’t been resolved. She has an inner conflict. She teaches people how to calm down. But she has an inner war. In some ways Labanya has changed, but her war with Amit is still on, and it’s not over. So it’s an irony.

Your mom had told you a story which finds a way into the climax, which is also Koel’s fave scene…

My father was in America, he was young and in university… so to propose my father bought my mother a plastic ring as a symbol and said that he would give her a proper ring later. She found it really cute. I used that in the climax and turned the plastic ring into shakha pola, which Amit gives to Labanya, saying that he has run out of money because he has invested in a club.

The final image of the film is quite witty, since you flip a well-known image of the happily ‘Just married’ couple driving off into the sunset. Here, we see Amit and Labanya pushing a broken-down vehicle!

In romcoms they always have a drive-away shot… so I thought of doing it differently, in a funny way. Also, the image of a girl in bridalwear in sneakers pushing a car is interesting. And the scene also hints that it is going to be a bumpy ride. 

You have turned the NRI character Sam (Labanya’s fiance) that Joy Sengupta plays into a cartoon. He has no redeeming quality…

He is a cartoon yes. It is a romcom where there are many obstacles to the Amit and Labanya story. One of them is Sam. In Amit’s imagination Sam is a major enemy he has to battle. But that is not the case. Sam is based on a lot of people with no disrespect. I am born and brought up in the US. Majority of my family lives there. But I have seen people who go abroad for a year, and develop an accent, forget Bangla. It is not something to be proud of. I have seen people like this. And I don’t see this with NRIs. People who have lived there for many years are really cool. People who have just gone… maybe they try to show that they live there…. So I was sort of making fun of that. Sam is a really nice guy.

You didn’t want Sam to be sophisticated?

Not at all, if I was trying to make Sam likeable then there would have been a triangular love story, which I was not interested in. Sam was never going to be in the rat race.

We heard that Koel would memorise all her lines…

And lines of other actors as well. She has a photographic memory. Meanwhile, Jisshu is a different kind of an actor. He likes to read the scene right then. He is very impulsive. And Koel is the studious kind.

You have been a regular at a particular coffee shop for around seven years. Why is it really important for you?

It’s my space. There are only normal people, no one disturbs me. I can just daydream and eavesdrop. You get to meet very interesting people. I saw a couple when they started dating, and now she is pregnant. 

Making a film for me is always about observing other people. All kinds of people show up. And anything interesting I hear, ends up in my films.

KOEL MALLICK

Ghare And Bairey is a fun romcom driven by some great performances by you and Jisshu Sengupta… it is getting a lot of positive feedback… 

It feels awesome. Many people are saying this is my best. People are loving the film like crazy. They are being able to relate to the characters. The film is all about love and friendship and sweet beautiful moments. And people who are not in love would want to be in love after watching the film! They would want to have a partner like that. Audiences are having a blast, they are laughing out loud.

Do you feel it is your best?

It is a character I loved and enjoyed doing. And she is a character I missed on the last day of shoot. I really enjoyed the process of being Labanya. I am not at all like Labanya, I am not as gechho (tomboyish) like her. But there is a particular personality trait that I could connect with Labanya... about being sure of life. About being sure of what she wants. She knows the direction she is heading towards. And that clarity factor about life is something I completely connect with. At the same time, this girl is completely cut-throat while I am not that kind. I don’t like hurting anyone or speaking bad. But when a character is not like you, playing her is more fun.   

Would you have played this character if it had come to you 10 years ago?

I have not thought about it. I definitely would have loved to do it… so it’s also about having faith in the director. I don’t wish to sound immodest, but 90 per cent of my films have been blockbusters. When all your films have done so well, there is this thing of keeping up. Mainak gave me the liberty but I knew he would also guide me through it. I loved his Bibaho Diaries, there was a certain innocence, simplicity to it.  

You play a music therapist. What does Koel like listening to?

I am a Bryan Adams fan, Elton John… I am the soft romantic kind. I listen to everything, from Rabindrasangeet to…. The other day I was listening to The Final Countdown. At one point of time I was hooked on to Backstreet Boys and Boyzone and Enrique Iglesias.

Your fave scene…

At the end, by the ghat… a lot of abhimaan and affection comes out. There was an outburst… unspoken words came out. It’s a beautiful scene. It’s very close to my heart.

What kind of characters are you keen on doing next? 

It’s all about teamwork and the script, and how the director is thinking about the film. It’s great that the audience is interested in different sort of exciting stories revolving around women. I am definitely looking forward to nice exciting stories where the woman has a voice. That would be inspiring for many others.

Are there things that you won’t do as an actor?

I won’t do a film that won’t convince me as an actor. I won’t do something that I don’t believe in. I won’t do a film without a story.

Arindam Chatterjee