December 19, 2009

PAOLI with PROSENJIT shooting for GAUTAM GHOSH'S MONER MANUSH

Lalan Fakir’s nest

A four-hour drive from New Jalpaiguri takes you to the heart of the dense Chilapata forests in north Bengal, where Team Goutam Ghose is shooting for Moner Manush. By the banks of Bania river, Bollywood’s ace art director Samir Chanda has created Lalan Fakir’s akhra with some thatched huts and tree houses. The cast and crew are loving it as much as some of the forest’s inhabitants. The elephants, for instance. Some jumbos had playfully flattened Chanda’s creations a few days back. But despite the forest department’s warning to pack up before sundown, Ghose and his team are sweating it out till the mist settles in the dark. And no one’s complaining — neither bearded Prosenjit who’s sitting out for hours with layers of make-up, nor bare-back Paoli whose dress code is just a cotton sari in the chilly hills.

t2 takes you around the Moner Manush sets...

“Oi dekh, sadhubaba!” cried out a woman from the crowd that had thronged the shooting site, pointing at Prosenjit. With a dark pock-marked face, shoulder-length hair and an untended beard, the Tollywood hero is roaming around incognito on the sets of Moner Manush. “Doing the make-up is the toughest part. I wake up at 4am to start the make-up. The pock marks take a long time. It’s difficult to eat with this make-up on. So I sip juices and have a slice of apple for lunch,” said Prosenjit. He doesn’t mind the commotion, he is so lost in the world of Lalan. So even when he doesn’t have any shots, Prosenjit potters around the sets, sometimes humming a song and sometimes watching his co-actors quietly from a corner.

Taking in the river breeze, Prosenjit spends his spare time strumming the ektara under the watchful gaze of his “mentor” Golam Fakir. “I have taught Bumbada how to play the ektara and dance like the bauls,” smiled the fakir from Nadia, who is playing a baul in the film.

Paoli rehearses for a song sequence in the akhra. “I am excited as I am dancing in this song. It is the only dance in the film. The famous Bangladeshi singer Farida Parveen has done the playback,” chirped Paoli.

On a cold December morning, Ghose made Paoli take a dip in the Bania and traipse along a cobbled forest track with a pitcher full of water resting on her hips. Paoli plays Kamli, a widow who takes shelter in Lalan’s akhra in Shimultala, in the film. “The water was freezing cold!” stammered a drenched Paoli after the shot. “Playing Kamli is a learning experience for me. It’s very difficult to walk with a pitcher brimming with water. The most difficult part is walking up the bamboo steps to the river.”

Bangladeshi fashion designer Bibi Russell has done the costumes for Moner Manush along with Ghose’s wife Nilanjana. “It’s my first film project. I have given Bumba (Prosenjit) khadi kurta and dhoti, which he wears like a lungi. I have also given him a tulsi mala, which was a gift for me from a baul singer. I told Bumba that it would be lucky for him,” smiled Bibi.

Bangladeshi actor Chanchal, who plays Lalan’s friend Kalua in Moner Manush, is excited about sharing screen space with Prosenjit. “I have grown up watching his films and he is so humble. Look at how he has completely transformed himself!” said Chanchal, who had impressed Ghose with his theatre act back in Bangladesh.

For the villagers of Uttar Chokwakheti, who are having their first brush with a film crew, the shoot is turning out to be as much fun as a circus. With the crowd swelling behind him, Ghose, who is also the cinematographer, used a crane to take top shots of Paoli bathing in the river. “I have done the cinematography for all my films. It’s strenuous if you are the director and cinematographer at the same time, but I am habituated. I understand the film better when I shoot myself,” smiled Ghose.