Parma: A Journey with Aparna Sen Review
New Delhi:
Aparna Sen, film star, acclaimed filmmaker, successful magazine editor and active civil society leader, has had an incredibly eventful and varied career. A documentary chronicling his life and times was long overdue. But this is not the only reason for Suman Ghosh Parma: A Journey with Aparna Sen, Must be philosophy.
Recruiting a wide range of interviews and memoirs – from the personal and professional to the political and public – and notable contemporaries, Parma: A Journey with Aparna Sen An accomplished filmmaker, a significant body of his work sheds light on the complexities of the times in which he lives and works.
Suman Ghosh, who cast Aparna Sen along with Soumitra Chatterjee Basu family (2018), creates a masterful 81-minute cinematic document that encapsulates the diverse sides of one of India’s foremost filmmakers. The female perspective and the predominance of films that place women at the center are inevitably noted, but Ghosh, taking a cue from the subject’s position on the matter, does not unduly prioritize Sen’s gender.
Aparna Sen suggests that not only women bring the female gaze to cinema, but many male filmmakers do as well. Towards the end of the film, she says that she considers her feminism to be part of her humanism. Ghosh captures the core of Sen’s worldview in this illuminating portrait of a woman and a filmmaker who can engage with the world around her on her own terms.
Parma: A Journey with Aparna Sen It premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2024 as part of the Cinema Regained strand alongside one of Sen’s most famous films, Parma (1985), a feminist drama that was way ahead of its time.
Ghosh, who is currently particularly busy with two feature films (Scavenger of dreams And confessor) in addition to being in the middle of his next film last year (the old) starring Sharmila Tagore, connects different approaches to the practice of trying and realizing the totality – and enormity – of Aparna Sen’s individual and creative energy.
The film provides a quick overview of Aparna Sen’s career as an actor in commercial Bengali cinema in the 1970s and 1980s – she needed work because, she says, she was unlucky in her marriage and had to look after her children and rely on food. Table – who didn’t take long to establish himself before doing his great work as a film director.
Sen’s elder daughter Kamalini Chatterjee talks about a transformation she will notice in her mother when she makes a film. Acting was just work for him, but when he directed a film, he was completely absorbed, he says.
Ghosh, who conducts the interviews himself, uses a variety of voices – filmmaker Gautam Ghosh, actors Shabana Azmi, Anjan Dutt, Rituparna Sengupta, Kaushik Sen and Rahul Bose, musician Devjyoti Mishra, cinematographer Soumik Halder, film editor Rabiranjan Maitra and daughter. -director Konkana Sensharma, filmmaker and former journalist Sudeshna Roy, film scholar Samik Bandopadhyay and Sen’s husband and writer Kalyan Roy – come together to create a vivid, layered record.
The film touches on the thinking that goes into developing characters, thinking about music and ensuring a healthy, inclusive environment on set. It also hints at Sen’s upbringing in a mixed environment and composite culture, and the crises he faced on the personal front, all of which influenced his evolution as a creator.
Booked a 36 Chowrangi Lane (1981) in the sequence in which Miss Violet Stoneham (Jennifer Kapoor) gets out of a taxi and walks down the sidewalk in front of the Victoria Memorial to deliver a monologue, the documentary takes the veteran filmmaker to the house where some of his iconic films were shot.
As memories are revived, the film looks at the processes behind Sen’s craft and includes the voices of friends, family and professional associates, many of whom speak with refreshing clarity about their engagement and opinions of Sen and his work.
While there is no way Suman Ghosh could have given a comprehensive account of a remarkable voyage in less than an hour and a half, he has made a great fist of presenting a 360-degree picture of a filmmaker narrated by Shabana Azmi. in the country
The film is not a puff piece by any stretch of the imagination. It focuses on presenting a critical assessment of the choices that Sen has made. Ghosh asks some pointed questions and gets consistent answers that serve the purpose of providing a rounded view with room for edges where necessary.
Candor and casual informality inform the thoughts actors, technicians and friends share about Sen. While one actor says he doesn’t like most of the roles he plays because they don’t reflect the wit and intelligence he has in real life, another with the help of theater personality and friend Sohag Sen (who talks on camera about Sen’s role in shaping his career) The director questions the effectiveness of the workshops he conducts before each film.
At another point, a question has been raised about Sen venturing into a direct, thematically overwrought approach in his recent films. Out today (2019) and rapist (2022). While Ghosh feels that the two giants of Bengali cinema, Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray, also succumbed to the same changes in their later years, Shabana Azmi says that the latter’s Shyam Benegal also let his cinema “cause”.
Konkana Sensharma, interviewed extensively for the film, theater personality Kaushik Sen and Shabana Azmi (who played the lead in 1989) sati And then shared screen space with Sen in 2017 the sonataboth mentioned in the film) agree that he may have sacrificed the nuances of his previous films in favor of a more nuanced approach but, as they point out, not entirely without reason.
A few films find pride of place in documentaries- 36 Chowrangi Lane(1981), Sen’s directorial debut, ParmaDescribed by Ghosh as her “hardest feminist film”, A day of Parmita (2000) and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002). is also mentioned japanese wife (2010), IMrinalini (2011), Jewelery box (2013), Arshinagar (2015) and Sen’s two latest films – Out of nowhere today (2019) and rapist (2022).
While one may wonder why Yugant and 15 Park Avenue, important films by Aparna Sen, are missing from the discussion here, what the documentary has is enough to make it a worthwhile journey.
