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The return of Ray

Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

Movies and more Afreen girl Lisa Ray has been busy with theatre and films abroad

Lisa Ray (of the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan music video “Afreen Afreen…”), who suddenly vanished after the high-on-controversy film “Water”, is back with a bang. Lisa Ray is the same, maybe fashionably thinner, but the same n evertheless. She has been away from India for seven years now.

Remind her of that and she laughs, “I know, but I have a long and deep connection with India. After all, a part of me belongs here.” Before she left she had done some imminently forgettable films such as “Kasoor”. She then did Deepa Mehta’s romantic-comedy “Hollywood Bollywood” followed by “Water”. And then she just vanished.

What she did was go back to drama school, to learn performing arts in London, and therefore the longish hiatus from the Indian film industry. “It was more to do with honing my skills as an actor.”

Rather diplomatically she adds that she was not cut out to do the kind of roles that were being offered to her “at the time. I did not want to be just a beautiful face in the film. But now, I do not know how the scene is. I have been getting offers.

Lisa says she wanted to do more realistic roles, than what a certain brand of Indian cinema is synonymous with. The distance was an issue too. “Constant travel back and forth was not feasible, and also somehow things did not pan out at the time.”

But by no means was Lisa away from the arc lights. “I Can’t Think Straight”, “Quarter Life Crisis”, ‘No Man’s Land’ (released in the US and slated for release in the UK), “Stella” (directed by Deepa Mehta, again) and “Black Box” (under filming), “Defendor” (under filming)…she has done so much in terms of her filmography that asking about “Water” and the controversies around the film would be tedious.

“Touch wood! I have been busy!” she says. (She even auditioned to be a Bond girl.)

Tell her that people still remember the ‘Afreen Afreen’ girl and her eyes widen disbelievingly, “My God! It is so touching that people remember the slightest things about you. It was such an honour working with an artist of his stature.” She also learnt mime. She bursts out laughing. “That was just for a lark. The whole idea of the physicality of mime, how the whole body is used for a performance appealed to me. And I just did it because at the time I felt I wanted to give that a shot. It was done purely for selfish reasons.”

So has the self-confessed global gypsy put down roots?

“I am now based in Toronto. Life has come a full circle for me. I started from Toronto, went around and then I am back. So it has been one good trip, so far!”

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