Actors Rajatava Datta and Gargee Roy Chowdhury on the film Balaram Kando
Tarangini and her husband Kishore have been divorced for many years now but get reunited for their daughter, who plans to elope. As the tagline goes, a husband and wife can get separated but not a father and mother. Saptashwa Basu’s next comedy-drama, Balaram Kando, stars ace actors Gargee Roy Chowdhury and Rajatava Datta as Tarangini and Kishore. We speak with the duo to know more.
Gargee Roy Chowdhury and Rajatava Datta on Balaram Kando
What are your characters like?
Gargee: Tarangini is a marriage counsellor and is a serious person. But she’s very motherly otherwise. Throughout the film, Tarangini tries to be a sorted woman, but because of Kishore’s faux pas, everything falls apart every time. How she wades through the problems while trying to save their daughter from getting married forms the crux of the story. We had an incredibly fun shoot, and with Rajatava as my co-actor, it was bound to be hilarious.
Rajatava: Kishore, as is mentioned in the film, is Tarangini’s durshomporker (distant) husband. He’s colourful and keeps forgetting names. He is a Maths teacher who is weak in English. The first time I read the script, I felt Tarangini was a complex character, and it is easy to read Kishore. But as the story progresses, you will find Tarangini very easy-going, easy-to-read, colourful, and flamboyant, and Kishore as rather a very layered character.
Do you have any similarities with your characters?
Gargee: Probably not.
Rajatava: Not in the same way, but even Gargee has a facade. She loves it if people get scared of her. She almost gets goosebumps out of ecstasy (laughs).
This film is also a lot about divorce and co-parenting. How important do you think co-parenting is?
Rajatava: It is definitely important, but if you consider this film as the model, it was Tarangini who was the anchor in their daughter’s upbringing. In this case, Kishore, for some reason, has been absolutely aloof from his daughter. Kishore, Tarangini and their daughter have different perspectives on this incident. We comment about relationships very easily, Unless you are part of the inner circle, you will never know the underlying currents in the relationship. So situations differ, and we can never categorise them as right or wrong. But yes, parenting is not just about loving a child or teaching them, it also means allowing them to try and let go, giving them a chance to prosper.
More nuanced characters are being created on screen. Do you think it is a good time for the Bengali industry?
Gargee: I have always taken on very limited work and tried to make sure that one is different from the other. I would say I am privileged; I can wait and choose, but it’s bread and butter for Rajatava. So I am not the right person to comment on this. But yes, as an audience, I am hopeful that more nuanced women characters and women-centric projects are being done here.
Rajatava: If you make a good film, reaching audiences worldwide has become much easier, thanks to OTT platforms. While some web content is starting to resemble television serials, which is unfortunate, I believe the rise of OTT has been a significant boost for the entertainment industry
What’s your take on re-releasing films?
Gargee: It is a celebration of films. I’m really liking it. It’s like giving another chance to the audience to go and watch a particular film in the theatres.
Rajatava: When we were young, this was a regular occurrence. While it wasn’t very common for English films, popular Hindi and Bengali films were often re-released. Now a days, I think whether a film will be a box office hit or not doesn’t depend on how good or bad the film is. It rather depends on how progressive or regressive the film is. This is where the magic of re-releasing films comes in. Audiences who have already watched a film on television or OTT may long to experience it on the big screen, and they, in turn, become the driving force behind its revival. It now becomes a win-win situation for the film— no advertisement, just reviews and an interested audience supporting the film.