Movie profile: Aparna Sen

A Class Apart

Aparna Sen has proved her critics wrong several times over by showing that a woman can be a very, very successful director. Think 36 Chowringhee Lane in which she made her debut as director in 1981 and also wrote the screenplay for. She went on to win the National Award for Best Director for her debut feature. Other successful films included Paroma, Yugant, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer and now, 15 Park Avenue.

15 Park Avenue is the second film in which Aparna Sen is directing her daughter, Konkona Sen. The first time was in Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. The taskmaster in her is very clear that her daughter will not get any preferential treatment. Konkona was treated like any other person in the unit, she emphasizes. The story is rather complex when compared to many other Indian films.

Mithi (Konkona Sen), a schizophrenic, lives with her elder sister Anju (Shabana Azmi) and their mother Rewa (Waheeda Rehman). The movie explores a range of relationships in an interesting manner and forces the audience to think. Mithi was earlier engaged to Joydeep (Rahul Bose) but when her dormant schizophrenia surfaces, he is unable to relate to her and breaks the engagement. Mithi proceeds to live in a delusional world with her husband Jojo (her nickname for Joydeep) and their five children in 15 Park Avenue, an address that does not exist. When the doctor recommends a holiday for Mithi, the family goes to Bhutan where, coincidentally, they meet Joydeep along with his wife. Joydeep is devastated at the change he sees in Mithi but she does not recognize him. Instead, she talks to him about her imaginary family and requests him to free her from her tyrannical sister.

This storyline is one which Aparna would choose since it gives her ample scope to explore human relationships and also give the audience food for thought. Does her career as director give her time to have fun at all? Of course. She does go to parties and makes sure that the atmosphere on the sets is fun. She admits that it can get awkward directing her daughter and confesses that she may at times be stricter with her than she is with her other actors. Like any director-actor duo, they have had their share of differences and have learned to work them out. She talks warmly of her friendship with Shabana Azmi and says that the veteran actress has been her support system for a long, long time.

She believes that 15 Park Avenue will do well at the box office because of its star cast and story. The film has great performances and the director is optimistic about her most recent film. The whole movie, she states, was a team effort and without the cooperation of her unit and cast, she would not have been able to complete the film. Critics have often mentioned that Sen’s style is elitist and most Indian audience finds it difficult to identify with her films. Still, watching the movie, one accepts that the Sen magic is at work again. The movie is not one in which you can sit through like a zombie - it forces you to travel with Mithi, Anju and Joydeep in their journey through life. This ability of Sen to make audience identify themselves with her characters is her biggest victory of all.