Suman Ghosh on making a documentary on Aparna Sen: ‘We now have a behavior of celebrating individuals posthumously’

With Parama- A Journey with Aparna Sen, filmmaker Suman Ghosh takes the documentary strategy to try her life journey, from an actor to a screenwriter, director, and an editor. In an unique chat with Hindustan Instances, Suman Ghosh opened up concerning the journey of their friendship, how this documentary took place and extra.

How lengthy have you ever identified Aparna Sen? Inform me a bit of bit about the way you have been launched to her.

I used to be launched to her in 2015 after I was doing a movie referred to as Kadambari, starring her daughter Konkona Sen Sharma. Then I bought to know her, and after that she acted in one in all my movies, Basu Poribar. Then, I knew her a lot better. We linked at many ranges. She is a filmmaker, sure, but additionally an avid reader. I additionally love studying. We linked on books, after which I used to go to her place for a number of addas… that’s how the connection began.

When did you first consider her as a topic for a documentary?

Aside from my position as a filmmaker, I additionally write for Anadabazar Patrika, The Telegraph often. I used to be fairly annoyed by the interviews of legendary individuals in current occasions. I bear in mind having interviewed Soumitra Chatterjee just a few years in the past, and it was a distinct type of piece, not the standard banal questions which are requested which they’re additionally drained to reply. In an identical approach, I had additionally interviewed Aparna Sen three years in the past, in her dwelling in Shantiniketan. It was fairly an exhaustive interview, ranging from her childhood, with Chidananda Dasgupta, after which ending along with her filmmaking journey. For that interview, I had ready earlier than, as a result of I interacted along with her as a buddy. After I was doing the analysis, I noticed the complete gamut of her work. Not solely as a filmmaker, but additionally as an actor after which her position as an editor of the fortnightly Sananda, a Bengali girls’s journal, which modified the panorama for journalism in India for certain.

I discovered the complete breath of her work fairly superb. I believed it could be a problem to painting this, considering the archival worth additionally. That was the primary time after I considered doing a documentary on her. Additionally, we now have a behavior of celebrating individuals posthumously. Relatively than when they’re right here.

Aparna Sen’s journey is so multifaceted. There is no such thing as a approach one can see her physique of labor from a single lens. As a filmmaker, did you’ve a street map of types on navigate her journey?

What was most attention-grabbing for me, as I stated, is the gamut of her work… seize that within the movie? So I considered an attention-grabbing narrative system. What I did was I took her to completely different places the place she shot her iconic movies, like 36 Chowringhee Lane, Paromitar Ek Din and Parama. After I went there we have been discussing the movies but additionally the varied matters got here into our dialogue so that’s the reason the movie can be referred to as ‘A Journey with Aparna Sen.’

For example after we are speaking about Parama, we’re speaking about her feminism. Once we are speaking about Mr. and Mrs. Iyer we’re speaking concerning the political backdrop after which we usher in her engagement with the right-wing politics right here in India. That is how I used to be making an attempt to construction the narrative of the movie with the intention to carry the various parts collectively inside 80 minutes.

What was her response once you first dropped the prospect of constructing a documentary on her?

I wrote to her from the US. I Whatsapp-ed her and stated, ‘I’ve determined I’m going to make a documentary on you.’ She stated okay and that was it! By that point we have been such shut associates that the query of taking permission didn’t occur. She trusts me and yeah, it was so simple as that.

Earlier than making the movie, it’s essential to have had a notion of her as a filmmaker. After the movie, do you suppose any of that notion has modified?

Good query, as a result of I solely informed her that after the movie, sadly, I really feel distanced along with her. There are two causes for that! To start with in the middle of making the movie for one and a half years throughout the shoot, I didn’t work together along with her… the addas, which have been the start line of her relationship, along with her and her husband Kalyan Ray… I finished going to their place as a result of I didn’t need to color my opinion from my topic.

After the movie, I noticed wow! She has performed a lot in her life, the corpus of her work! There’s a phrase in Bengali, সম্ভ্রম (Sombhrom, which implies regard and reverence), that was by no means there. It’s unlucky additionally as a result of that shut friendship in all probability is perhaps disturbed due to this excessive awe of her and looking out again at her gamut of labor. However I feel it can get diluted very quickly and we’ll get again to our camaraderie.

Aparna Sen paved the best way for thus many feminine filmmakers along with her work. However do you additionally see the dearth of Bengali feminine administrators, and do you see a change?

I feel, within the nationwide situation, loads of feminine administrators have come up. Ranging from Payal Kapadia to Zoya Akhtar and so forth. However in Bengal there’s definitely a scarcity of excellent filmmakers and I feel it can take time. Within the nationwide stage there are such a lot of, I’m certain extra will come up quickly.

Parama- A Journey with Aparna Sen launched in theatres on January 3.