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For those beautiful shades

Urmila Matondkar tells RANA SIDDIQUI how different it was to undertake a spiritual journey through "Banaras - A Mystic Love Story" released this week

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Urmila Matondkar tries different roles for creative satisfaction PHOTO: R.V.MOORTHY

For a few minutes, those on the sets did not realise they had tears in their eyes. Their reverie broke when director Pankuj Parashar, controlling his choked voice, yelled, "Cut!" And the shooting was called off for some time. It was a scene in which Urmila Matondkar frantically puts on lots of jewellery, readies herself to look like a bride, and as readily takes it all off, crying hysterically. She does it in depression caused by her parents' opposition to her love for an orphan boy, (played by Ashmit Patel) brought up by Sudras. Urmila was sent a bouquet of flowers by the whole unit for giving such a moving performance to which she laughingly responded to Parashar, "Why did you send me a bouquet. I am anyway a good actress. And every day I will perform better than the previous day, you will exhaust all your bouquets... " And as Pankuj puts it, she kept her promise all through the film.

This film Banaras - A Mystic Love Story, produced and penned by a scholar on Banaras, L.C. Chopra, is what Urmila Matondkar likes to describe as "a milestone" in her career, "as such roles are not written very often".

As one arrives in her room at InterContinental The Grand hotel in New Delhi, one notices she is aptly dressed in glimmering green, embroidered suit with a beautiful, long dupatta. As usual, she doesn't make scribes wait for an interview and is dressed according to the film she comes to promote. "We actors stay indoors in air-conditioned rooms, except when we are shooting. But you journalists are always running and you have deadlines to meet. How can actors take you for granted? How can they disrespect your profession by making you wait for hours? I have no respect for actors who make journalists wait for them," she says as she simultaneously poses for pictures, like a perfect model. She laughs at the compliment, "I was the first actress to walk the ramp in the year 2000 in a Manish Jha outfit."

No cakewalk

As for the role of a Brahmin girl called Shwetambari in Banaras, she says, "This role of an ordinary student of Physics in Benaras Hindu University who turns into a spiritual leader completely unnerved me. It wasn't a cakewalk, as before doing this film, I was as oblivious to the spiritual world as any one of us may be at this age. I had to look like a spiritually enlightened girl who after being through an unsuccessful love affair has learnt to evolve through all joys and sorrows of life. It was very difficult to keep at par both levels — one, that of a happy young girl in love, another that of a spiritually heightened one. Punkaj ji gave me several books to read to follow the role, but I read the autobiography of Yogananda to get into the skin of Shwetambari."

For quite some time we have been seeing her trying out roles other than glamorous ones. Khalid Mohamed's Tehzeeb, Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's Pinjar, Jahnu Baruah's Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara, are just a few. She responds, "It is conscious growth. We as actors have lots to give back to the society. In my limited capacity I am doing the same. I have passed through glamour-driven roles. I don't want to be a sleeping beauty and let such a beautiful world pass me by. Some actors are scared to try risky roles for they think it would adversely affect their glamorous image. It annoys me no end. See Saif, his decision to do Being Cyrus was a wise one. Why can't we also have Memoirs of a Geisha? If we actors refuse to take risks, how can producers and directors?" Films like Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara, Pinjar, etc., says Urmila, fill her with creative satisfaction, and at the end of a day, she is satisfied that she has done something worthwhile.

Risk factor

For now, while attempting diverse of roles every new film, she isn't missing any competition either. But she definitely feels hurt when such films don't succeed at the box office. "In the Hindi film industry, heroines take more risks than heroes. I face no competition, for hardly anyone is doing the roles I am trying. But we put so much effort in doing different films. When it doesn't connect with the masses, I feel low. How long will it take us to sensitise them?" she rues.

Whatever the fate of such films, Urmila continues her journey. For now she has an "edge-of-the-seat" film Speed coming up, in which she stars with Zayed Khan and Aftab Shivdasani.

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