Verbal magic
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`I became more aware of my inadequacies as an actor.' Dhritiman Chaterji tells GOWRI RAMNARAYAN about his experiences with shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Black".
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Chaterji in `a minor role' in "Black".
"SANJAY LEELA BHANSALI has cast every role interestingly, using people from outside the Bollywood circuit around Rani and Amitabh," says Dhritiman Chaterji. He plays Rani Mukherjee's father in the just released, much hyped "Black". A minor role, he explains, "maybe smaller after editing." Followers of serious cinema will recognise Dhritiman Chaterji as the brilliant protagonist of Satyajit Ray's "Pratidwandi" (1972). After that debut, he worked with Ray again in "Ganashatru" (1989) and "Agantuk" (1991). He was in Mrinal Sen's "Padatik" and "Akaler Sandhane". Remember how utterly charming and utterly selfish he was in Aparna Sen's "36, Chowringhee Lane"? Now he's shooting for her again after 25 years, in a new, untitled film, reportedly with with Shabana Azmi.
Feeling for words
Though Chaterji has had his brush with foreign productions, like "Holy Smoke", "The Perfumed Garden" and "The Badger", he cannot resist the lure of live performance, ever since his early days with the English theatre in Kolkata. On the stage, his feeling for the word makes him empower it with shades easy and reluctant, even recalcitrant. On the screen, we realise that this vocal magic is only a part of his arsenal. Expression, gesture, movement — or lack of it — says it all. He is adroit at interaction with co-actors.
Chaterji is happy to make the time in his busy life as a documentarist and social communications consultant (for the UNESCO on literacy and women's issues in India and Bangladesh), to walk the boards for productions in Chennai. He has made his home in that city with his elegant Tamil-born wife Annalakshmi.
Why is Chaterji making so late a debut in Mumbai? Multi-crore Bollywood and Bhansali after budget-squeezed auteur cinema? "I'd turned down Bombay offers in the 1970s. That is why I worked with young directors Ashoke Viswanathan ("Shunya Theke Shuru", "Sapne Sandhane"). I did accept one or two commercial projects in Kolkata, and lived to rue it." "Black" offered a chance to work with fine actors like Shernaz Patel, Amitabh Bachchan, Nandana Sen and Rani Mukherji.
Great potential
"The screenplay was exceptionally well crafted, had great potential. Not a typical Mumbai film, no song-dance stuff, a smallish cast, depending on performances to make or not make it." Chaterji hadn't cared much for "Devdas", where he felt that the lavish mounting of the visual and the narrative went in different directions. He believes that "Black" is better integrated. The production design is in good taste, not garish, with logic behind it. As a director "Sanjay expected us to know our stuff and intervened only when he didn't like something." What Chaterji found disconcerting was the time consuming preoccupation with technology. "I'm not familiar with such long hours of waiting around for every little light to be just right, a single shot taking two days to can, to sit in air-conditioned vans waiting to be called."
Bollywood experience
Starting as an English film, "Black", settled for a mixture of Hindi and English, veering towards the sentimental. "Misgivings? Yes, but hope it works well for the sake of everyone who put in such terrific effort." Chaterji developed a great regard for Amitabh Bachchan's application and performance on the sets. "His discipline and punctuality on the sets are things to be taken for granted in a professional. What impressed me were his total focus, seriousness, and the ability to respond to what the other actor is doing, which ensures flow, sparkle. I hope for his sake that with this film, he comes back as an actor, as opposed to being merely a star." Chaterji is full of praise for his `daughter' Rani. "She's intelligent, wasn't afraid to shed her star image. I have great expectations of her in this role."
What did he learn from the Bollywood experience? "I became more aware of my inadequacies as an actor. I've been used to a different, naturalistic-realistic school of acting. Here was a script that demanded emotions to be always on edge, high-pitched. Sanjay has definite views on dialogue delivery, says `go over the top'... I learnt to push myself and pull out things that had not been demanded of me so far."
You tell the actor about Bhansali's reaction to him. "At first I was overawed by Dhritiman, all these English theatrewallahs, you know! Maybe the man is on a different sur (note), but he was stunning in my film. Terrific on camera." When you remarked that Chaterji looks good in real life too, Bhansali replied, "But see him on the screen!" Dhritiman Chaterji laughs, and ends on a glad sur, "That's a relief anyhow!"
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