Book Review | Parama Aparna: The Cine-Lover’s Journey With Rinadi

1960s. I watched Akash Kusum for Soumitra Chatterjee and came out impressed by her. Then I learn she’s playing Mallika against Uttam Kumar in Kayahiner Kahini directed by Ajay Kar from Baba’s novel. And I watch Ekhane Pinjar where she’s again with the ‘Mahanayak.’ In short? After Suchitra Sen, she’s the one lady who dazzled the Bengali screen with glamour and performance.

Was she any less because she’s a mainstream actress? Never. I’d seen her on stage against Soumitra Da, in Ibsen’s Ghosts. By then I knew that she acted with Utpal Dutt, The Man Who Was Next-to-God in theatre. That’s commercial theatre, you say! I say, Didn’t we buy tickets even for Group Theatre? One day Baba handed me a script sent to NFDC for funding. “Read this!” — he’d admiration in his voice, “see how the actress has grown!” I read the script. I also watched 36 Chowringhee Lane — and a Star Director was born. Ray-Sen-Sinha got their Gen X in the name common to Teen Kanya, Ekdin
Achanak, Sagina Mahato.

Then she was mother of Mrs Iyer. Rinadi had completed Mr and Mrs Iyer with Konkona Sen Sharma and the New Heartthrob on the Block, Rahul Bose. Mindblowing? Understatement. Yes, Rinadi had imparted her best genes to the daughter all set to supersede her in acting. But the revelation? The script where the bus is such a humane metaphor for India. What a nuanced comment on the volatile political situation we were in!

But lemme track back to my years at The Telegraph. The ABP house was suddenly abuzz that Aparna Sen was the Editor of the new magazine being launched. “Fad!” we said, “only her name will be on the masthead, she’ll never be on the scene.” Wrong, we were. The magazine she launched tackled taboo subjects, reshaped Bengali women’s idea of Housewife, mothers-in-law too had it under their pillows. And Sananda redefined motherhood as the Editor’s Desk doubled as Koko’s study table.

Boldness became a byword for Aparna Sen who taught that Feminism’s another word for Humanism. Professionalism, she personified, as Editor, Screen-Writer, Actor, Director... Her motto: “Give your best even to the lousiest script.” And her social activism? Now she’d protest Singur; now, the rape-n- murder of an RG Kar doctor. Because? “It’s important for civil society to protest regardless of which party is in power.”

So who’s Rinadi? Which is her true face? “There’s a procession of Rinas behind me,” she tells Suman Ghosh as she converses with the director who documented her in Parama: The Journey of Aparna Sen. Each one is as real as the one it merges into. Each identity is Aparna Sen at different stages in her life, with a different mindset. And even before I turn the last page of the book that grew from the interviews for the documentary, I know that different identities can exist within one person, each with a unique motivation, and an exemplary voice.

The Worlds of Aparna: Suman Ghosh in Conversation with Aparna Sen

By Suman Ghosh

Simon & Schuster

pp. 164; Rs 599