Rituparno Ghosh and Sanjoy Nag on the sets of Memories in March

Filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh’s second stint as actor happens with debutant director Sanjoy Nag’s Memories in March. Also starring Deepti Naval and Raima Sen, the film releases on April 1. A t2 chat...

How was Memories in March born?

Rituparno: It was while working on Aarekti Premer Galpo that I thought of exploring the subject of the film further. After an overdose of cross-dressing in Aarekti Premer Galpo, I wanted to focus on the closeted gay, who is non-flamboyant, quiet and unassuming. Aarekti started off on the assumption that Roop (Rituparno) and Basu (Indraneil Sengupta) were a couple. So a surrogate femininity had already been established. In both my roles in Aarekti, as Roop and as Chapal (Bhaduri), it was a performance of femininity.

There was a time when people who were effeminate were not considered gay, but now the two words are synonymous. People who have come out of the closet and unabashedly flaunt their sexuality deal with a certain set of problems. But people who have not been able to come out of the closet do have some behavioural signs that give it away. I thought of dwelling on this issue and started writing the script of Parapaar… I had thought of it in Bengali back then. (Prosenjit’s) Ideas and AB Corp were supposed to do the film. I had offered the role of Arnab, which I am now playing, to Bumba (Prosenjit) but he turned it down. Jayadi (Bachchan) was to play Arnab’s mother. It didn’t work out finally.

How did Sanjoy come on board?

Sanjoy: I was working on a story on the politics of border between two countries but I wasn’t getting a writer to do the script. Then I met Rituda, after a long time, and we started working on the script…

Rituparno: At the same time, Shrikant (Mohta, of Shree Venkatesh Films) had come to me to listen to the script of Parapaar. Shrikant suggested that since I had already made a few indoor dramas, we let someone new direct the film and I play the part of Arnab. I immediately thought of Bunty (Sanjoy).... Shrikant and I are co-presenting Memories in March. We had planned to present many new directors in this way.

So how did Parapaar become Memories in March?

Sanjoy: Just three days before we went to the floors. Deepti Naval couldn’t speak Bengali and we had to rewrite her lines in Hindi.

Rituparno: That’s a long story. Chandrabindoo was supposed to compose the music and during a script-reading, Upal mentioned that Deepti Naval would be a great fit as Arnab’s mother. Before that Raima too had told me that her mother (Moon Moon Sen) thought Deepti would be great... I called Deepti and she agreed!... We had already talked to Tanusree Shankar for the role. I have rarely seen an actor accepting rejection as gracefully as her.... Deepti had told us that she knew Bengali but when she came down we found out she couldn’t speak a word. So giving her Hindi lines were the only option. We realised that it was comparatively easier for Raima and me to speak in Hindi than Deepti speak in Bengali.

Sanjoy: But most of the dialogues in the film are in English.

Rituparno: Oh and then Chandrabindoo got dropped too because it was in Hindi and Debu (Debojyoti Mishra) composed music in Maithili and Hindi.

What is the crux of the story?

Rituparno: The subject is ‘who does memory belong to?’ Here a mother, who is based in Delhi, comes to Calcutta after the accidental death of her son. The boy, who is never shown in the film, was in a gay relationship with his boss, which I am playing. But throughout the film it seems as if he was in a relationship with Raima, who is a colleague. So here the mother is confronted with the loss of her son and also the discovery that he was gay. Do the memories of the boy belong exclusively to her or do other people have a share in it too?

Sanjoy, what excited you about Memories in March since you abandoned your own story to work on this?

Sanjoy: Well, it was Rituparno Ghosh’s script! Besides, I loved the story. There’s a very intriguing interplay of relationships. I was also interested in the idea of ownership. The mother thinks that no one knows her son better than her. This exploration was interesting.

How did you approach the script? Were there any instructions from Rituparno?

Sanjoy: No, there were no dos and don’ts from Rituparno. I had the freedom to interpret the script my way and we did have difference of opinion at times.

Rituparno: I had no directorial approach in this film.

Sanjoy: In fact, there are a few major departures from the script he wrote. For instance, in the script, a dog played an important role in the bonding between Aarti Mishra (Deepti) and Arnab. But we couldn’t find a suitable dog to shoot with and so I changed it to an aquarium, and that changed a lot of things in the film.

Rituparno: After bringing in the aquarium, it became more philosophical.

Sanjoy: Then the look.... Rituda was supposed to wear a wig but I wanted a shaved head as that is how I saw the character.

Rituparno: And I never felt that Bunty was handling a veteran actress like Deepti for the first time. He was very precise about what he wanted and what he didn’t want from all of us.... Since the story is set in March, I had mentioned the krishnachura flower in the script... I would have used it as a motif but Bunty did away with it. Aesthetically, there’s a lot of Tagorean influences on my approach to films, which is not so with Bunty. He is inspired by makers like (Yasujiro) Ozu, isn’t it Bunty?

Sanjoy: Well... yes Ozu to a certain extent. Also a bit of Bergman. I had lots of reference points but it isn’t as if I had them at the back of my mind all the time. I was clear that I didn’t want any frills. I didn’t want it to be like Aarekti Premer Galpo. Memories in March is very austere.

Rituparno: Yes he would tone it down... even the art direction. Sometimes he felt there was too much around on the set. One very important thing that I have noticed about Bunty is that as a debutant filmmaker he is surprisingly not self-indulgent at all. Most first-time directors are prone to being self-indulgent.

Rituparno, how much were you conscious of your acting strengths and weaknesses this time around?

Rituparno: Well, Arnab had to be different from Roop and both Bunty and I were cautious that Arnab didn’t become either Roop or Chapal. Arnab is very quiet and unassuming. Bunty wanted me to look the way I did when I was in advertising. A head of curly hair.... My costume was very regular clothes, nothing fashionable, and the moment I slipped on those clothes I knew what kind of acting was required of me.

Earlier you had said that your directorial eye is always present when you are acting...

Rituparno: Here it came in only one scene. There was a shot involving me and Deepti in the boy’s house where I am fetching food from the kitchen, laying the table and then serving it. Directorially, I knew that was the only place where I had to prove (to the mother and also the audience) that I was more familiar with her son’s house than she.

And how did the film get its name? Is it because the story is set in March or because you shot it in March?

Sanjoy: (Laughs) We did shoot it in March but the title is because the story is set in March.

Rituparno: And Bunty very sweetly let us borrow his birthday, March 18, as the day when the accident happens in the film! (Laughs)