Exclusive! Anubhav Kanjilal on Sampurna: It is very difficult to get into the dark space of a sex offender

The Sohini Sarkar, Rajnandini Paul-starrer web series deals with the issue of marital rape and Anubhav plays the perpetrator, Raktim.

Anubhav Kanjilal and Sohini Sarkar

Sohini Sarkar and Rajnandini Paul-starrer web series Sampurna will be dropped on Hoichoi on July 29. The series deals with an event of marital rape in a regular middle-class Bengali household and features Anubhav Kanjilal as the perpetrator. Directed by Sayantan Ghosal, the film also has Laboni Sarkar and Prantik Banerjee.

The trailer of the series was dropped last week. It shows that Nandini (Rajnandini) gets married to Raktim (Anubhav). Sampurna (Sohini) – Raktim’s elder brother’s wife – welcomes the bride and praises her brother-in-law. Later, it is unveiled that Raktim has little respect for his wife’s consent in case of sexual intimacy.

“It is very difficult to get into the dark space of a sex offender. More so, when the perpetrator has no idea about the wrongdoing. My character is not exactly a villain. Raktim loves his wife. He wants to save his marriage. He doesn’t want anyone to interfere in a matter that he thinks is ‘personal’. And yet he rapes his wife. He has no idea of the gravity of his action. Raktim’s mother can’t see Raktim’s faults. She is protective of him, and as a result, Raktim just doesn’t understand what is going wrong. It was not easy for me to get a grip on the character but Sayantan helped me throughout. I am indebted to him and Piadi (Anuja Chatterjee, writer) for making me understand the character,” says the actor.

Anubhav thinks it is one of the most defining characters in his career. “It is the most complicated character I’ve played in my life. No matter which generation you come from, we all have a certain amount of patriarchy hidden in our minds. That patriarchy rises at the events when our ego is hurt. Raktim is not a backdated guy from some remote village. He is modern. He lives in a city. To play this character, I had to step out of my space of morality. I tried to think like Raktim. Many of the people around us do not recognise the gravity of marital rape. They don’t even understand the concept of consent. Our law also does not treat it as a criminal offence. In this scenario, I think This will be a landmark series,” says the actor.

Talking about working in an ensemble cast and a women-centric series, Anubhav says, “This series is more important than my presence. In terms of screentime, I am there almost throughout. That aside, it is an important series. It has a strong social implication. Besides, it was a treat to be able to work with Labonidi (who plays Raktim’s mother) and Sohini. I learnt a lot,” says Anubhav.

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