A directors’ special
THREE FILMMAKERS GOT TOGETHER IN A CALCUTTA CLINIC FOR ONE SHORT FILM
FROM the FLOORS
Anurag Basu and Nandita Das shooting for Onir’s I Am Afia on Tuesday in a nursing home on Elgin Road.
Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha
Sometimes even one director can be quite a handful on the sets of a movie. Imagine three of them in one small room trying to shoot a scene. Onir’s I Am Afia experienced such a twist in the tale on Tuesday when besides the My Brother… Nikhil director, there were Nandita Das and Anurag Basu. And both Nandita and Anurag were acting under Onir’s directorial baton.
“When you also count Anurag Kashyap, who has played an important role in another of the I Am films, we have three directors in the cast,” laughs Onir.
I Am Afia is about a Calcutta woman named Afia, played by Nandita Das, who has just come out of a bad marriage and now wants to have a child through a sperm donor. Anurag Basu plays the doctor who guides her through the whole process.
There was a twist in the doctor’s name also. When Anurag stepped on to the sets for the first time on Tuesday morning, at the Alpha Nursing Home on Elgin Road, he saw the name “Dr Subrato Basu” on his doctor’s desk. “That’s my father’s name… what a coincidence,” exclaimed Anurag.
This is not the first time Anurag has been in front of the camera. But this is the first time he has really faced it. “I played a small role in my first film Saaya but I asked the cameraman to largely shoot me in silhouettes. In Gangster, I have played many roles… sometimes playing a member of a crowd, sometimes as a goon being beaten up. Obviously you can’t make out. And in Metro, I was of course Shiney’s friend, to whose house he brought Shilpa. There too, you just heard my voice.”
It was a chance meeting at the coffee shop of the JW Marriott hotel that sealed the deal between the two Bengali directors. “I wanted to cast someone special, someone Bengali and Anurag was a godsend,” smiles Onir.
The problem with having so many Bengalis on the sets of a Bolly film is that some cast members are left guessing. “Nandita, Anurag and I were discussing a scene in Bangla and after we were done, I suddenly realised that Purab (Kohli, playing the sperm donor) standing there hadn’t understood a single word,” laughs Onir.
No such communication problems with Nandita, who is happy mouthing Bengali dialogues for the 25-minute film. For the actress, who’s shot for films like Aamar Bhuvan, Shubho Mahurat and Podokkhep here, Bengal is always home. “There are so many things that I like about Calcutta now that it’s difficult to pinpoint one or two,” smiles she. “Nolun gurer sandesh-er season-ta shesh hoye jachhe… I am trying to make the most of it.”
Having now turned director (and how!) with Firaaq, Nandita has no problems in being directed by someone else. “It has to be one person’s vision,” she makes it clear. “I worked with very eminent actors in my film as well as a few newcomers. And I am sure that any sensible director would always be open for suggestions but the final decision will have to be taken by him or her.”
Is there no difference at all, now that she is facing the camera after three long years? “While I was always interested in other aspects of filmmaking, my observation has probably become a little keener,” she smiles. “As for being rusty, the (acting) environment is so familiar that you slip into it quite easily.”
So the shots got okayed mostly in one take. Anurag took the credit but Onir stressed on the five rehearsals preceding the shot. Difficult to say which one was the director’s cut!
Pratim D. Gupta
Source: The Telegraph
