A Rabindranath Tagore classic ‘Char Adhyay’ (Four Chapters) may be adapted for celluloid by national award winning director Raja Sen, if things go smoothly.
Right now, the film-maker is busy with the post-production dubbing work for ‘Laboratory’, another Tagore work revolving round a scientist, a sikh woman and her daughter, in Mumbai.
However, taking up ‘Char Adhyay’ which has as the backdrop the terrorist phase of the freedom movement, depends on whether Sen will be allowed to proceed considering that the title has already been registered years back.
“And I don’t know if the legal imbroglio can be solved and I am allowed to take up the film in future, Sen told PTI yesterday which was the 150th birth anniversary of the Bard of Bengal.
Eminent director Kumar Shahani had earlier directed Char Adhyay starring Nandini Goshal (Ela) and Sumant Chattopadhyay (Atin), but interpreting it in a different way.
“I don’t know if taking up Char Adhyay will be possible after all. My take will be different based on the story centering two lovers in the backdrop of the revolutionary phase in the 30s. The tale has intrigued me both as a reader and a film-maker for long,” Sen said.
Coming to Laboratory, Sen said the film is slated for release in this 150th year of Tagore’s birth.
“Laboratory, a short story written during the late phase of his life, is different in character and technique from Gurudev’s previous short stories,” Sen said.
The lead includes Ravina Tandon as the Sikh woman Sohini, Sabyasachi Chakraborty as scientist Nandakishore and young Tollywood heroine Arpita Chatterjee as Sohini’s daughter Neela.
Tandon, who is making her Bengali debut with this one, has done a commendable job grasping the subtle nuances of a strong multi-layered Tagore woman character and delivered the Hindi—Bangla mixed dialect befitting her role, Sen said.
Sen, who had previously directed Bengali telefilms on Tagore stories ‘Nishithe’ and ‘Manbhanjan’, said for him the visionary’s works were very much progressive, forward looking and modern despite the setting dating back to the last century.
“That is why he is called a visionary whose words ring true at this age,” he said.
Sen who had directed ‘Krishnakanter Will’ (Krishnakanta’s will) adapted from a classic of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, said, “When you take up classics by stalwarts like Bankim and Tagore, you are faced with a challenge to interpret the extraordinary story line keeping in tact the literary flavour.”
