Exclusive! Arindam Sil: Despite social changes, the patriarchy of Maayakumari’s era still exists

Arindam Sil is ready with his tribute to the 100 years of Bengali cinema with his upcoming film Maayakumari. With Rituparna Sengupta, Abir Chatterjee, Arunima Ghosh, Sauraseni Maitra, and others in the lead, the film will be released on January 13. Before the release, the director talked exclusively to us about the film. 

“It has been a dream project for me,” said Arindam. “This is a tribute to the 100 years of Bengali cinema. It was incepted during 2019-20 when I saw that there was no preparation to celebrate 100 years. I thought about this story and developed it into a film. We wanted to release it in 2020 but the pandemic upset the plan,” he said. 

The film revolves around yesteryear actress Maayakumari, who suddenly walks out of the limelight at the peak of her career. Her pair with Kanan Kumar was a hit thing during that era. Today's director Soumitra Mullick, played by Indrasish Roy, plans to make a biopic on her. As he starts his work, a chain of events takes place and the reason for Maayakumari’s departure from the limelight comes to the fore. Talking about the patriarchy that existed during Maayakumari’s era, Arindam said, “A lot has been changed. However, no matter how much we talk about gender politics, the bias is still there. Despite social changes, the patriarchy of Maayakumari’s era still exists. Meanwhile, I strongly believe that it is the responsibility of the people who could overcome patriarchy to bring the rest of the society out of the darkness.”

Also read: Exclusive! Rituparna Sengupta on Maayakumari: In our industry, men still call the shots most of the time  

Arindam is also excited about the treatment of the film. “There are shots in which we did not use VFX. Instead, we recreated the old method of shooting in a studio. There are 11 songs in the film and through each song, we have captured different flavours of 100 years. There are anecdotes and stories. This is not a biopic but a fictional tribute. I am very excited about it,” said the filmmaker. 

Just before the release, Arindam confessed that he is a little nervous and very excited. “For me, every release feels like the release of the first film. A lot of emotion, love, and passion go into making a film and the release is the final culmination of everything. I eagerly look forward to the first houseful board. The same is happening not. Maayakumari has a firm advance booking. I hope to get a good number of houseful shows today,” he said.