By Tirthankar Mitra
Ever since she faced the movie cameras in a tomboy’s role in Satyajit Ray’s Teen Kanya, in 1961,AparnaSen has been a head turner. Her unconventional beauty was heightened by her sex appeal through which her little grey cells brightly shone.
No flash in the pan performer, her memorable performances opposite the leading men of the day cemented her claim to game. As she finally took up the director’s megaphone, it seemed to encapsulate her life and times.
A film on her life makes interesting viewing. And Sen has opened the closets of her life to film maker, Suman Ghosh in Parama: A journey with Aparna Sen.
This 81-minute journey on celluloid covers a wide gamut of one of the creative film makers of the country. If one wonders at the ease with which Ghosh treats his famous protagonist, it can be traced to his directing Bosu Parivar (2018) in which Sen and Soumitra Chattopadhyay had both starred.
Sen has made acclaimed films on women’s travails and triumphs if 36 Chowringhee Lane, Parama and Paramitar Ekdin are anything to go by. But Ghosh takes a cue from Sen’s stand on the matter thereby not unduly foregrounding from his subject’s gender. As if underscoring this viewpoint, Sen suggests several film makers do it too. The documentary is a pointer that her feminism is part of her humanism.
Small wonder, the film captures the core of Sen ‘s world view which engages the world around her on her own terms. And she thrives in her engagement with far and near. Premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2024, attempts to catch the entirety of Sen as an individual and her creative force which is part and parcel of her persona, comes alive in the film.
Yet knowing her voice and views when our collective conscience is silent, one feels like asking for more. Coming from an affluent background which had a liberal lacing of cinema of home and abroad, Sen had a dream launch in a Satyajit Ray film. Having held her own against Soumitra Chattopadhyay, her first hero on screen, she indeed placed herself in the limelight.
The field was wide open for Sen as yesteryear heroines like Suchitra Sen, Supriya Choudhury and Sabitri Chatterjee were almost at the fag end of their careers. She was flooded with offers and choosing judiciously from them, she worked with zest. Apart from an undistinguished stint post Emergency, she had her pick of roles.
No doubt was ever raised on her class of histrionics after her stellar performances in Joy-Jayanti, Ekhane Pinjar, Aparichito, Neelkantha, a cameo in Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri and a longer one in Piku more than proved her class. Taking up a director’s role having reached the summit of her acting career was only it’s natural conclusion.
Unwilling to keep any skeletons in her cupboard, Sen opens up in this documentary in a typical fashion as she ascribed her busy working schedule to failed marriages. If she felt that she maintained a busy shooting schedule to bring up her children and keep food on the table, her audience welcomed her on screen and in person.
One has to take note of her elder daughter Kamalini Chatterjee’s take on her mother acting and direction. Acting was just work for her while film direction fully consumed her, she said.
A plethora of interviews taken by Ghosh with film maker Goutam Ghose, actors Shabana Azmi, Anjan Dutt, Rituparna Sengupta, Rahul Bose, music director Debajyoti Mishra, daughter and actor Konkona Sen Sharma, husband and author Kalyan Ray adds to the authenticity of the woman at the centre of the film and her backdrop. It is a lively and layered record.
The documentary aptly begins with a sequence of Sen’s first directorial venture, 36 Chowringhee Lane dealing with an aspect of a long since vanished of what was then Calcutta. Centred round Violet Stoneham, a Anglo-Indian school teacher in which Jennifer Kendall put up a lifetime performance.
Parama which is arguably Sen’s most feminist film till date together with Paramitar Ekdin and Mr and Mrs Iyer find pride of place in the documentary. But it is no puff job in celluloid. In takes marked with frankness sans a trace of awe towards an eminent actor-director , an actor voices his dislike for the bulk of the films Sen acted in. His rationale being that these films do not reflect the wit and intelligence which is an integral part of her persona in real life.
Another protagonist does not conceal his being uncomfortable with the workshops Sen organised before every film with her friend and theatre personality Sohag Sen. The documentary thus focuses on Sen’s strong points as a film maker together with the disagreement of some of her crew with her film making modes.
Her daughter, Konkona Sen Sharma and theatre personality Koushik Senzeroeing in on finer points of direction point out that Aparna Sen may have sacrificed the nuances of some of her earlier films. Some unsubtle methods have crept in, the duo contend but they have their rationale.
Be it the outrage in Nandigram during Left Front regime or recent the horrific rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar hospital, Sen has drawn flak cutting across party lines when she visited the scenes of the incidents, both dark spots which will not go away. In this, Rinadi as the film industry calls her, stands head and shoulders above many of her critics, peers and friends who chose to maintain a diplomatic silence.
Decades back, Sen has professed her faith in Left ideology. Now hearing her voice which makes no secret of her views, one asks for more. (IPA Service)