Parambrata Chatterjee on his Five Favourite Films - indian film history

1. Parambrata Chatterjee on his Five Favourite Films - Indian Film History ‘Sometimes, not intellectualizing things really helps. Just flow with the moment. Either it works or it doesn’t. Most of the times, it does work.’ – Parambrata Chatterjee On the eve of the release of Dwitiyo Purush, a sequel to the celebrated Baishe Srabon (2011), the film that established him as a star, Parambrata Chatterjee, who has had an enviable run with class-acts like Chotushkone (2014), Apur Panchali (2013) and Cinemawala (2016), talks to Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri about five films that are closest to his heart. *** There’s a sequence in the film Samantaral that in many ways defines the actor in Parambrata and his approach to the craft. In the film’s most poignant scene, he tells his co-actor, played by Riddhi Sen, ‘Amar dike ekbar taka na, taka na (Look at me just once, just look at me once).’ The expression in his eyes here is likely to give the most seasoned critic goosebumps. Yet, the actor that he is, Parambrata is quick to break any attempt to mystify his approach to the film or the character. Read on to find out… Hemlock Society (2012, D: Srijit Mukherji) Hemlock came about in a funny way. I had just finished doing Baishe Srabon with Srijit. It was a stupendous success, and Srijit and I were thinking of what to do next. I knew he was writing a big film. I also knew he had interacted with someone who had moved him quite a bit. A terminal patient. He was rethinking his idea of making that big film. I didn’t know yet that I would be part of the film till he called me and asked if I had dates. I reminded him that Bumba-da (Prosenjit Chatterjee) was supposed to be doing it. He said no, they had discussed the script and Bumba-da himself felt I should do it. He read the script to me and I thought, I still do, it was one of his best ideas. Though the film was very popular, and Ananda Kar almost became a cult figure, it had its fair share of criticism. In the sense that there were certain subplots that people thought were redundant. The film was about fifteen-odd minutes too long, I feel. But for me what matters in a film is whether it makes an impact holistically, technical glitches and flaws notwithstanding, whether or not it could have been crisper, subplots could have been avoided … these are important but what’s more important is the overall vision. Hemlock was one such film – it came from a very humane idea that made it special for me, and it will remain so forever. Till then, I had always played the reclusive, the introvert, broody … Hemlock was the first time I got to explore my flamboyant side. It was there in me, but not many people knew about that before Hemlock.