Sudipa Basu and Kaushik Sen with director Anjan Dutta

Non-violent intensity

Intense. Always intense. And bedraggled as well. All over, from the sparse hair on his head to the matted stubble to the eye-bagged glance to the open-buttoned scrummy shirt. If it weren’t for all this, it wouldn’t be Anjan Dutta. It was Anjan Dutta that we know even at lunch break when we landed up on his set for the ETV Puja Special telefilm, Joy Baba Rudranath. The helpful Arindam Sil and articulate Sabyasachi Chakraborty filled us in on the details instead while Anjan concentrated on his cigarette smoke swirls. The swirls, too, looked rather intense. The long break over, Anjan summoned his artistes and sat himself before the monitor. A kind of drawing room discussion among all the artistes gathered there, in twos and threes, and twos again. “This scene is a tribute to Aranyer Din Ratri, as you can see,” Anjan broke out of his intensity. “The whole telefilm is a tribute to Satyajit Ray and his Feluda.” He was getting intense again. Even his gesticulation. And when he went back to the attentive Sudipa Basu and the no-fuss artiste Kaushik Sen ? giving cues or expressing what exactly he wanted (though hungrily accepting a nuance Kaushik suggested) or calling the shots in a booming voice ? it was Anjan Dutta again. Intense. And you’ll be seeing Joy Baba Rudranath on Gandhi Jayanti, too. Very intense.

Anil Grover

Scheduled telecast:
ETV Bangla; October 2; 9:30pm

Kushal Chakraborty, Simi Sadhukhan and director Joy Mukharji

In search of Durga

Trust Joy Mukharji to target a USP. His Jaa Debi, for the Som Theke Soni slot, will start beaming on Mahalaya and is about a renowned fashion photographer (Kushal Chakraborty) who, for his latest major assignment, is in search of a face that could launch a thousand Durga idols. His search becomes an obsession, and he even ignores his fiancee’s (Maitreyee Mitra) warning signals. One of the ‘faces’ that goes through his ‘frame test’, so to say, is Simi Sadhukhan, a real-life model who lent her glamorous presence to the ‘studio’ set the day we visited the shoot. Gargi Roy Chowdhury, who else, turns out to be the face that ends his search. And one look at her in the dressing room, resplendent in red sari and gold jewellery, and you would hardly be surprised.

Anil Grover

Scheduled telecast:
Aakaash Bangla; October 3-8; 9:00pm