Ritika (Rituparna Sengupta) and Rajeev (Indraneil Sengupta) visit her ancestral home in Konnagar (West Bengal’s Hooghly district) to attend Ritika’s mother’s (Sharmila Tagore) 80th birthday celebration, only to discover her mother’s deteriorating mental state. Many truths come to the foray along the way. They steadily grapple with these realities and the current situation as they unravel the truths of their lives.
This is the story of Puratawn (The Ancient), written and directed by Suman Ghosh. The film premiered at the recently concluded MAMI Film Festival, after winning accolades at the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival, where it got the Best Film award and Sharmila Tagore got the award for Best Actress. What makes the film special is that it marks Tagore’s return to Bengali cinema after 14 years.
National Award-winner Rituparna, who is also the producer of the film, admits that it was her decision to cast the original Bengali Tigress.
Rituparna says Sharmila Tagore has always loved and adored her. Tagore had once during a phone conversation told her, ‘You know what? I’ve not done a Bengali film for a while, and if you come across a good subject, then maybe we can do a film together.’
That conversation set the ball rolling, which ultimately resulted in the both of them being part of this project.
Excerpts from the interview:
Working with Sharmila Tagore, did you realize anything new about her as a person?
Working with Shamila Tagore was a delight. I found her very sorted, disciplined and dedicated to her craft. After doing so much, I mean, after being such a huge star, both in Bengal and Bombay, still she has got those little emotions and a wonderful demeanour. She would even ask us after the shot that if it is okay or not. I mean, she didn’t have to do that. I’ve learned a lot from her- for example how she carries herself so elegantly. She’s had such a great journey, raising such a beautiful family and being a superstar. I used to just admire and look at her and be swayed away to a different world.
As a producer and actor, what does Puratawn mean to you?
Puratawn is something very special to me as an actor and by chance, as producer, because I don’t consider myself a big time producer. As an actor I’m always hungry and always sort of geared up and very tempted to do great roles. So when Sharmila Ji said, yes, she will do a Bengali film, and she wanted me to scout out and do something about the subject, I was really thrilled. There was a big chance for me to act with the legend. And I opted for a great script, which came through Suman. It was a great thing for us because we got an iconic actor actor in it, who has not done a Bengali film for 14 years.
You were going to become a teacher. How did films happen?
From my childhood I always aspired to become a teacher because I felt that they have a lot of power and can give a lot of guidance to a student. Teachers have that sort of emotion- strictness combined with a lot of interesting qualities. Teaching actually makes me very happy because I can impart from myself to others. Even my children always said, ‘Mom, you are a better teacher than dad’. When I was a kid, I used to write all the blackboard stuff on my wall, and my mom used to just scream at me. Obviously I had a lot of affinity to become a teacher, but as destiny would have it, acting just happened to me.
Like others, even you’ve had films which couldn’t release for different reasons. With OTT, or even your own production house, do you think any of them may see the light of day?
There is a lot of crisis about a film’s release and getting it on the right platform. With OTTs what happens is that they have their own set of rules, sometimes the film qualifies while at other times they don’t. But I think whatever movies we are making, they are all very productive, sensitive and good films which has got a lot of value. My recent film is also on verge of release, Deepak Tijori and me are doing a very mature love story directed by Veena Bakshi. And then my next film, Kaal Trighori, a horror thriller with Arbaaz Khan, Mahesh Manjrekar and Aditya Srivastav.
