konkona
Konkona Sen Sharma will be seen in Gour Hari Dastaan after a considerable gap
Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; July 27, 2015)

With two films Gour Hari Dastaan and Saari Raat premiering at the London Indian Film Festival, Konkona Sen Sharma is back with a bang. In fact, the actress who was missing from the screen, post motherhood, will have six films releasing this year — three Bengali and three Hindi starting with GHD. The actress had taken a break from acting and the first film she signed after that was GHD that has her playing a 60-year-old woman! “My motherhood hormones drove me mad. It’s the first film I did after my baby. I am like God, what did I do, playing a lady (Gour Hari Das’ wife) who is more than double my age,” exclaims Konkona, who nonetheless loves taking up challenges and playing a woman whose age spans from 45-65 was definitely one. “It was daunting to play someone who is living and has a certain personality and depth. It was quite tricky too because at 65 you are not bed-ridden or someone who barely speaks. She is a woman who is cooking, working, talking on the phone — in short doing everything, but just a little older. I observed her and internalised the process, but don’t know if have done it successfuly,” says the actress modestly.

Ask her what prompted her to make a comeback with this film and she says she found the story very moving. “The basic premise is about a man Gour Hari Das, who struggled to get recognition from the government, but it has been made contemporary with the issues we are facing today, the quality of life and kind of freedom we have,” elaborates Konkana who is also excited about Saari Raat, an 80-minute film directed by her mother Aparna Sen. “It is also special for another reason and that is it’s a collaboration between three Indian and three Pakistani directors that Zee has initiated as part of the process of integration,” she says.

Konkona, who has done several films including Mr & Mrs Iyer, 15 Park Avenue and Iti Mrinalini helmed by her mother says she is her favourite director. “It’s wonderful working with her again and again. I have that much trust in her artistic sense and faith in her vision. We get along well, and are friends in real life since I was a young girl. I sometimes tell her things that I can’t tell even my friends. She is very broadminded, progressive, bohemian, an icon for women everywhere. It’s a privilege growing up as the daughter of a strong and resilient woman,” elucidates Konkona. At the same time, she says it’s hazardous working with family. “We have arguments over food or hair on the sets, which goes into the next day, but the pros outweigh the cons” smiles Konkona, who even acted with her mother in Titli and Iti Mrinalini. “In both the films our reel world was closer to our real world. So I didn’t have to work on the dynamics or body language,” she quips. In Titli, she played Aparna Sen’s daughter and in Iti Mrinalini, a semi-autobiographical film of Aparna, she played a younger version of her mother.

Her line-up of films in the near future includes Talvar (based on the double murder case in Noida) directed by Meghna Gulzar and Lipstick Wale Sapne about four women helmed by Alankrita Shrivastava. Having worked with several female directors, ask her if it is different being directed by women and she says, “It is not based on genre. I don’t like to stereotype because it limits us. It depends on person to person. There are women directors who are not considerate and sensitive, and there are male directors who are sensitive and not brash or aggressive.”

Soon, Konkona herself is planning to turn director. “The script is ready and I have organised the funds too, only the details have to be sorted out,” signs off the actress.