Modern-day pressures are testing the most balanced of parents. Now debutante director Sona Jain has come up with a reality check on the subject. Called For Real , the English film is scheduled to release next Friday after doing the rounds of the festival circuit.
An Economics graduate from New Delhi's St. Stephen's College, Sona went to New York University to study Fine Arts and wrote the script way back in 2001. “It is the story of an accomplished singer, her doctor husband and her six-year-old kid, who witnesses a moment of discord within her family. The depression in her parents' behaviour causes a chain reaction in the child's mind, making her withdraw into a fantasy world.”
Sona agrees career issues leading to matrimonial discord are nothing new in cinema but it's the realistic treatment that will draw people towards the film. “During a screening in Ahmedabad, a doctor came to me and said you have told the story of every doctor.” Sona says the film softens you. “It is not that only bad people make mistakes, good people also err when they are pushed by the circumstances. To my mind, subjecting a child to an unhappy environment is abusive. It runs the risk of the child in question never reaching his/her full potential.” She hopes that if one responsible parent watching the film acknowledges the effect of his/her actions on their child, a child's life somewhere will change for the better.
It took Sona eight years to complete the film. Ultimately, she had to produce the film because wherever she went for the finances she was told that she was too young to handle the subject. “We are told that if you are on the right path, success will come to you. My faith was severely tested but ultimately I had my way. The experience strengthened my faith.”
For Sona the most complicated part was finding the child actors. “I find kids bundles of positivity. But the child actors we have do not always reflect the natural charm the kids have.” She discovered it during the audition process.
“Most kid actors give rehearsed reactions. I wanted somebody who is natural. When I saw Zoya Hassan, I immediately thought that I have found my Shruti but she had no experience in acting. When we did her audition, she couldn't say her lines. After trying a few times the crew gave up on her and she was sent home but I didn't give up on her. I called her mother, sat with her. She also said she can't do it but I wanted to give it a try. I started spending time with her and slowly we bonded and she understood what is expected of her.”
But the theme is a bit too complex for the kid to understand. “It is and we darkened the portions of the script where there was a lot of emotional turmoil, something a kid is not expected to know. But you won't believe, at times during the breaks she would discuss the same portions with her co-actor (Shriharsh Sharma). And we would be rendered speechless!”
Both Zoya and Shriharsh went on win the best acting awards at the Asian Festival of First Films in Singapore. Sona stresses that it was not the child actor category and they competed against the best in the business.
Zakir Hussain's music
Casting Sarita Choudhury and getting Zakir Hussain to compose the music of your first film is a dream for any youngster but Zoya says she didn't find any problem. “People say you have to go through the agents and managers of international stars but nothing of this sort happened with Sarita. From the moment I saw her in a theatre production in New York, I wanted her to play the role of the singer and perhaps it was the power of script that made her sign without any hitch.”
Things went equally smooth with Zakir, whom she met in a recording studio. “I asked him to have a look at the script and he walked away with it. After some days, I took his number and called him up. Surprisingly, he himself picked up the phone and asked who has written the script.” Sona later came to know that Zakir found the kid's dilemma similar to his childhood days when his father used to be away for concerts and later, he himself missed his family because of his commitments.
Sona is now on to her next project Delhi Aaha, a story of four guys.
