One fine morning in 2018, I was shuffling the many daily newspapers that make it to my house when I spotted a curious piece of article. Was I reading it right? Dum Dum resident Pabitra Chitta Nandi was all set to remarry his wife, Geeta, of 50 years. Now people marry to celebrate special years and I am in the know of it. For them, these are occasions to create more memories with the partner. But here, it was a bit different. What if the partner had no memory of the marriage whatsoever? Pabitra babu, in fact, was taking the vows all over again just to bring back the memory of his wife! That is not something which happens every day. And it got me interested.
Belaseshe was conceived in 2014 after Didi (Nandita Roy) and I went to watch a play, Belaseshe Kolahol, on our friend, Sohini Sengupta’s invite. The film released in 2015, was liked by a lot of people and the journey ended right there. We did not have further plans to develop a Part II. But here was a love story of an elderly couple that truly moved us and we thought why not bring the same characters of Belaseshe back, albeit differently?
I called up Pabitra babu in a day or so after his article came out and wanted to get his wedding recorded for the sake of research. He did not allow that. Polite and humble, he said it would do a lot of damage to his plans. He wanted to recreate the wedding, just the way it was, 50 years back — no extra flair, no additional jamboree, not a man more. I left him at that as the matter was private but what I got in return was a story to tell the world, both loud and proud.
We eventually met Pabitra babu at his residence. The room where we kept waiting for him was filled with pictures of the couple, their many moments through life. I was left admiring at the beauty of Geeta ma’am and the amiable face of Pabitra babu when he walked in with many more albums of their married life. He made Geeta ma’am go through those pictures often. Yet, she couldn’t remember him. They spoke every day. Yet, she couldn’t remember him. He, in fact, fed her, changed her, put her to sleep, woke her up, washed and combed her hair. Yet, she couldn’t remember him.
There was so much love in everything that he did for her. That moved us beyond words. Didi thought this was a love story that people have not seen and we started building Belashuru, brick by brick, cemented with love.
Pabitra babu told us how Geeta ma’am would often speak about her childhood. She remembered small things like who her playmates were and random incidents like what happened when she met her friends. Since she spent her childhood in Bangladesh, Pabitra babu took her to the neighbouring country once. They travelled to many places and went to Puri 21 times. Every wall of their house spoke a thousand stories of love and our hearts melted as we heard them. They moved us, but Geeta ma’am had forgotten all of it.
Soumitra-da (Soumitra Chatterjee) and Swati-di (Swatilekha Sengupta) were hooked to this love story the moment they heard it. When we were shooting, much ahead of the worldwide lockdown, Soumitra-da was all hale and hearty. He would have great fun with the Belashuru family and joked how he had never touched Deepa boudi’s (his wife) hair when we instructed him to comb Swati-di’s manes for a scene.
On the other hand, Swati-di, always so effervescent and bubbly, transformed herself completely as she got into the role of Arati. She wouldn’t speak to anyone on our outdoor shoot in Santiniketan and kept to herself for the most part. The way they breathed life into the characters was so different yet there was something so uncannily similar — their dedication for work till the end.
When Soumitra-da walked into the hospital in winter 2020 after contracting Covid, I was certain that he would be out in a week. I hoped and prayed he did. I checked on his health very often and had sent a lot of songs after his doctor and my friend, Dr Arindam Kar, informed that he wanted to start music therapy for him. Earlier that year, Soumitra-da had wanted to see Belashuru; we organised a special screening in March 2020 that had to be cancelled because of the lockdown. When Soumitra-da left, I felt I had lost my father again.
With Swati-di, we left no stones unturned.
Didi and I organised a special screening for Sir (Rudraprasad Sengupta) and her. Like a child on her toes, she went around asking everyone that evening if she was okay in the film. Here we couldn’t stop raving about her performance and all she wanted to know was if she was okay. Swati-di was not keeping too well and had to be admitted to the hospital on her birthday on May 22, last year. She really wanted to know what the audience would say to her about her performance and now that the film will be in theatres, she too has gone to the land of no return.
The tragedy of Belashuru doesn’t end at this. On December 16, 2020, a relative of Pabitra babu informed that he had breathed his last. Sometime before that date, I was told that he too had got Covid and was put on ventilator. The news of his demise left me heartbroken and I couldn’t stop thinking about Geeta ma’am and what she did without him. Pabitra babu had once told me how he created a trust for Geeta ma’am, which would take care of her if ever there was any need for it.
In the next six months she was gone too. Pabitra babu wanted to see Soumitra-da play a character inspired by him on the big screen. That did not happen. He was excited about showing the film to his ailing wife — not the better or worser half, but truly the other half. That too didn’t happen.
Some love stories find closure in death. But the biggest challenge of all is to keep the story alive. With Belashuru, we have taken up that challenge. We are ready to go to the end of the world for love. And we will.
