Srijit Mukherji: Padatik is not a hagiography and Kunal Sen has been very liberal about it | Exclusive

To mark Mrinal Sen’s centenary year last year, three prominent filmmakers — Anjan Dutt, Kaushik Ganguly, and Srijit Mukherji — announced plans to make films to pay tribute to the auteur. After the release of Kaushik’s Palan and Anjan’s Chaalchitra Ekhon earlier, Srijit’s Padatik will hit the theatre on August 15.

Billed as a biopic, the film features Chanchal Chowdhury as Mrinal Sen and Monami Ghosh as Geeta Sen. Korak Samanta plays the young Mrinal Sen in the film. OTTplay first reported that Chanchal and Monami would be playing these two key characters. Soon after the release of the first look of the characters, Chanchal and Monami’s photos startled everyone for their unmistakable resemblance with the real-life Mrinal Sen and Geeta Sen. Srijit explains that besides recreating the spirit of the filmmaker, physical resemblance was important for him since his film is a classical biopic. In a candid chat with OTTplay, Srijit talks to us about the film, casting, and why he avoided making it a hagiography during his journey of Padatik. Read on…

Why did you call the film Padatik?

It was written during lockdown. I used all the filmmaking tools and techniques used by Mrinal Sen. I used fourth-wall breaking, split, nonlinear storytelling, jumpcuts, and so on… So the name also came from there. And also because it talks about the journey of a footsoldier of Indian cinema.

Also read: Chanchal Chowdhury in Srijit Mukherji’s biopic of Mrinal Sen? 

Your first film was a tribute to Satyajit Ray’s Nayak. You have worked closely with themes by Ray, especially in your web series of Feluda. Then you started researching for Padatik. What is your take on these two legends?

Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen are like chalk and cheese. The only commonality is these are the only two filmmakers who received the highest global acclaim from the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals. Apart from this, there is nothing common between these two people. The process of filmmaking was different for them. Satyajit Ray was methodical and detailed while Mrinal Sen was instinctive. He used to improvise a lot. Dhritiman Chatterjee, who worked with both of them, once said that Mrinal Sen improvised right on the spot while shooting. He further added that Mrinal Sen’s script had a flow but was not 10% as detailed as Ray’s scripts. Their approach was different.

Tell us about the casting… How much the physical resemblance of the characters was important to you while making the film?

Besides Padatik, two other films were made to pay tribute to Mrinal Sen’s centenary. Kaushik Ganguly’s Palan is a spiritual sequel that delves into the life of Anjan and Mamata 20 years after Kharij. And Anjan Dutt’s Chalchitra Ekhon is a more intimate and personal take on the relationship between a mentor and protégé. Padatik is a classical biopic and for a film like this, it is important to have physical similarities. This is something I had to keep in mind. When I am recreating a life, physical resemblance is essential. Obviously, it is not the most important factor — which is to recreate the spirit. But the character really comes to life if I can juxtapose this spirit with a person with physical resemblances. That is what a biopic really means to me — bring to life the person in flesh and blood.

There is another equally important thing — not to make it a hagiography. Kunal Sen — Mrinal Sen’s son — told me this on the first day. “I am giving you permission but please remember don’t worship him. Don’t worship him.” Biopics often sugarcoat the problem areas. Here, I did not have to do that. Kunalda has been very liberal and open about it. I could paint the real flesh and blood picture of the man. He was a genius, but a flawed genius. He had shortcomings in his personal life. In fact, he acknowledged some shortcomings in his filmmaking. He admitted, “My films are bereft of any polish. It can be on the face. My films – especially my political films – might be a pamphlet and not a leatherbound classic.” He said these things. He further added, “In search of immortality, I cannot ignore the present times. And the prevent times are making me make these films. I am respecting and chronicling my current turbulent time.” He had this unapologetic stance about this chronicling and that makes Mrinal Sen who he was.

As a filmmaker, how much do you agree or disagree with his philosophy?

I absolutely agree with this idea and that came out in Rajkahini. Many of the critiques came from the ‘on-the-face and unflinching stance of the film that shows brutality without turning away. It was not a subtle Partition film like Garam Hawa. My take is you can’t make a subtle Partition film if you went through all the horrors of the Partition in your research. That research on the Partition made me make Rajkahini. Mrinal Sen chronicled things brutally because his time was brutal.

Moreover, any person who shoots in the city with the resource crunch that we have is a student of Mrinal Sen. He used to roam around the city with his camera and used to shoot whether or not he had permission to shoot. Guerilla shoot is something that is integral to his style of shooting. And it is integral to many of our styles of shooting too. Without a percentage of guerilla shoots, you cannot make a film and every time you do that you doff your hat to Mrinal Sen.

Ever since Autograph, you largely worked with big production houses. How conducive do you think the Bengali film industry is for small and independent filmmakers?

No matter how big or small a producer is, every film has a percentage of independent film shoots. This is because of the budget constraint. It is possible to follow every sentence of the rulebook. That is the nature of the game. In our industry the resource constraint that we have vis-a-vis the kind of films that we aspire to make this contradiction will be there.

You worked outside the Bengali industry as well. Did you experience such limitations there?

Such limitations are not there outside our industry. At least, I did not face such things. The regulations we have regarding filmmaking are limited — very much limiting. I am hopeful that the review committee will do a thorough scrutiny and revision. When these rules were made, not every stakeholder was consulted. That is why it is lopsided. Hopefully, now it will involve all the stakeholders and things will be sorted in a better manner.

This is your first work with Chanchal Chowdhury. How was your experience?

First, Chanchal joined the shooting of Padatik soon after losing his father. It was not easy for him. His level of dedication was incredible. It wasn’t easy to completely surrender yourself when you were going through this personal loss. It was a grueling schedule and his involvement was incredible. Second, he came to us as malleable as a lump of clay and said, “mould me.” That’s what I did. I knew Chanchal was a great actor and I knew that. And then there was this resemblance. These two together worked amazingly.

The only challenge that I faced was his command of English. During dubbing, we were more careful. Apart from this, there wasn’t much.

The Padatik trailer starts with Anik Dutt’s Aparajito with Jeetu Kamal Playing Satyajit Ray. In your film, Jeetu plays the character he plays in another film. It seems like the same universe…

Jeetu Kamal plays Satyajit Ray and we acknowledge Anikda (Dutta). It was an incredible casting and I used that casting in my film. The way Jeetu was accepted as Ray by the audience there was no question of using anyone else.

Also read: Padatik actress Monami Ghosh: I can play Geeta Sen and dance to Vitamin M with the same finesse | Exclusive 

Those who watched Padatik in festivals praised Monami. Tell us about her casting. How did it come to your mind…

Monami’s name suggestion came from an assistant. We were looking for an actress and someone came up with her name. Her name does not strike you instantly because she is not a regular film actress. You mostly see her in music videos that are far removed from Geeta Sen. That makes it more interesting. I knew she was a good actress as I saw her in telefilms. But I had no idea that she was such a brilliant performer. After working with her I understood her prowess. She is the surprise package of Padatik.