'Jaa re bachpan tu jaa' - Moushmi Chatterjee
By:
Screen
Weekly,
IndiaFM
Monday,
October
16,
2006
Meet
Indira,
a.k.a
Moushumi
Chatterjee,
whose
affair
with
cinema
was
almost
pre-ordained,
with
one
great
Kolkata
studio
sharing
a
wall
with
her
home
and
another
next
door
to
her
school.
Today,
as
she
is
appreciated
for
her
two-sister
double-role
turn
in
Tanuja
Chandra's
Zindaggi
Rocks,
Moushumi
stirs
up
memories
from
that
huge
and
delicious
bowl
called
Life
The
Tomboy
Badhu
"I
come
from
a
conservative
family.
My
grandfather
was
a
judge,
my
father
Prantosh
Chattopadhyaya
was
in
the
Army
and
after
that
in
government
service.
We
were
two
sisters
and
a
brother
and
across
the
wall
of
our
compound,
we
would
look
down
into
Calcutta
Movietone
Studio
and
watch
all
the
stars.
Of
course,
my
parents
would
prohibit
us
from
entering
the
studio
precincts,
and
even
if
we
defied
them
and
tried,
we
would
be
stymied
by
the
watchman.
"New Studios, that great institution, was coincidentally next to my school, and the watchmen there were equally uncooperative! One day, as I was walking back from school, one of them whom I particularly detested came running after me. 'Khoki! Khoki!' he said. 'Saahab bulaata hai!' he told me. I saw a dark man with spectacles, looking like some professor , who was observing me from one of the buildings there. I was in Standard V and I haughtily replied, 'Why should I go up to meet him? Ussko neeche aane do!''
"The 'professor' was Tarun Majumdar, and later he revealed to me that this attitude clinched his decision that I should portray Balika Badhu, the girl-child, in his film of that name! He came down, told me that he was making a film, and would I like to be its heroine as I suited the role. Now I was a movie-lover, and my family would watch Bengali, Hindi and English films, and I would enact scenes and songs in front of a mirror at home, and I immediately said, 'Yes!'
"The professor-like gentleman asked me, 'But will your parents agree?' And I said, 'Why should my father disagree?', because whenever we children would fight with each other, my father would resignedly say, 'Jo marzi hai karo! Desh azaad hai!' Tarunda came home, and my father simply told him, 'No woman or girl in our family works! And in films - never!'
"The chapter would have ended there, but Tarunda's wife, actress Sandhya Roy, who also did a few Hindi films like Jaane Anjaane and Rahgir, came a few days later to my home. She spoke to my mother and convinced her, but my father was not there at home. However, my father said that since such a big star had taken the trouble to come home, we should at least go and visit Tarunda. When we went there, Sandhya managed to convince my father, saying that wolves existed in every field and so did good people. But my father warned him, 'She's a tomboy, and you are looking at her as a demure teenage bride! And she's a very naughty and temperamental girl. She will give you a terrible time!'
"And he was right! I was a tomboy, had more boys than girls as friends, and gave Tarunda a really tough time! I would run away and once they locked me in a glass room like some Cinderella. Tarunda was so angry once that he declared that he would burn the negatives and scrap the film! But Sandhya managed to be the calming force. The film was made, won all possible awards, was sent to Russia and ran in the theatres for 75 weeks, and today, Tarunda jokingly tells me, 'I can make a film on how I made Balika... with all the trouble you gave us!'
A
Star
is
Born
The
aftermath
of
Balika
Badhu
was
overwhelming.
I
got
offers
by
the
dozen
-
of
both
films
and
marriages!
Uttam
Kumar
wanted
me
for
a
daughter-in-law,
to
give
just
one
example.
The
next
two
films
that
I
did
were
Ekhuni
and
Parineeta,
all
in
the
central
roles
of
a
child-heroine.
Those
who
have
watched
Vidhu
Vinod
Chopra's
modern
adaptaion
do
not
know
that
the
real
Parineeta
was
not
as
old
as
Vidya
Balan's
character
but
an
under-14
girl,
and
so
I
was
just
the
right
age.
"It so happened then that the music for all these films was scored by Hemant Kumar, who was a big name in Bengal. My father told him that he had to be my guardian. A few months later, Hemantda told my father that he would like me to be his daughter-in-law. As I was the last girl in my family, and my paternal aunt was in the last stage of cancer, I was married off when I was in Standard X, and so I came to Mumbai.
"In Mumbai, Hemantda was like both a second father and mother for me. I was very protected, but my reputation preceded me - and I began to get offers from the best banners and filmmakers like Raj Kapoor, Hrishikesh Mukherjee (for Guddi) and Subodh Mukerji. Initially we turned down some offers, and my uncle-in-law Dilip Mukherjee was entrusted with the responsibility of handling my career, since I was too young anyway to understand anything. Hrishida was so angry that he vowed never to work with me. But things fell into place when my husband produced the TV serial Talaash and Hrishida insisted that I do the lead role. The protective environment ensured that mature, sensitive roles were chosen and no exposure was allowed, and the first film that I signed was Raj Khosla's Kucche Dhaage, in which the song 'Jaa re bachpan tu jaa...' still remains one of my personal favourites and I also had a great role.
"However it was Shakti Samanta's Anuraag that was released first, and while Kucche Dhaage did well, Anuraag became a jubilee. My performance as a blind girl got me rave reviews, and S.D.Burman's music was a rage, especially 'Woh kya hai...', a song that is still identified as some kind of a signature tune for me.
"I signed Naina, Badla, Benaam, Roti Kapada Aur Makaan and several other films, and so there I was, at 18, having a husband, my first daughter Payal who had been born when I was 17, a home, a car, a fat bank-balance, name and fame. At 18, most people only dream of these things, and the flipside was that I could not understand, cherish or value all this and could not organize my life. I never went for a honeymoon, thanks to my busy schedule, and wanted to be with my husband Jayant but could not. When I finally came back home, I would rush to him and even forget that I had an infant daughter sometimes! I was a child-woman, and my daughter and I would both play with dolls at the same time! Raj (Khosla)-ji once said, 'She's either 8-years-old or 80-years-old, because for all this, I was never childish!
"I remember shooting for Benaam in which I played a mother. We shot for the film before I became a mother and I asked my director, 'How can I play a mother when I have never been one?' He said, 'Meena Kumari was so good as a mother in so many films though she never had children.' But I did not know who or what Meenaji was then - I had been a huge fan of Nutan and I was lucky to work with her in my first film Anuraag.
"There was an amusing turn to Kucche Dhaage. The actor playing my husband did not turn up and my husband had come with me. Rajji insisted that he do the role of my co-star, and so my first signed film had my husband as my sweetheart on screen too, while Vinod Khanna and Kabir Bedi portrayed my brothers. Later I did Vinod's home production The Cheat and Hatyara as his heroine.
"I got to work with the best heroes of my time, be it Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughna Sinha, apart from Amol Palekar and Rakesh Roshan and later Raj Babbar, Sunil Dutt and of course my husband's childhood friend Vinod Mehra. I also co-starred with Farouque Shaikh and Mithun Chakraborty, but my favourite co-star was Sanjeev Kumar, who played my hero, father and brother-in-law in different films. I was also linked with a lot of my co-stars, but then I have always classified journalists as good and yellow. I think that the role of a journalist is to make fans look at stars they love in a positive way. That is why I have preserved very few write-ups about me.
The
Divine
Hand
"I
am
said
to
have
acted
well
in
most
of
my
films,
and
very
well
in
others.
But
honestly,
till
today
I
do
not
know
how
I
did
it.
I
just
followed
the
director's
instructions.
God
had
gifted
me
with
talent,
destiny
had
brought
me
to
the
right
place,
and
an
Invisible
Hand
seemed
to
be
at
work.
I
enacted
the
famous
rape
sequence
in
Roti
Kapada
Aur
Makaan
the
same
way
-
I
was
pregnant
then
and
all
that
atta
in
the
sequence
was
making
me
feel
severely
nauseated!
I
would
hear
compliments
like
'Wah!
Wah!
Kya
shot
hai!'
and
realize
that
I
had
done
something
well.
I
always
say
that
God
has
not
been
kind
but
completely
partial
to
me.
Whenever
I
took
a
small
break,
I
was
welcomed
with
open
arms
when
I
came
back,
and
for
that
I
am
grateful
to
the
industry.
"Looking back analytically today, I realize that there were also a lot of pent-up emotions within me that came forth in my performances: like how I left my parents' home too early, parted with my brothers and sisters, changed cities and was generally like a bird in a cage. Maybe that is why I could even cry without the need for glycerine - I was also influenced by Nutan's breakdown sequence in Anuraag as well. I wanted a sense of belonging, as there was a vacuum in my life because I could not even get to be as much as I wanted to with my husband, my daughter Payal and my younger daughter Megha. I would come back from a Chennai shoot in the evening and leave for Kashmir the next morning.
"Even today, in a way, I am waiting for maturity, but I do not think that it will ever come! And that's because I am always learning every day and from every one. On one day my vegetable vendor might teach me something - he is my guru for that day. There is also so much that parents can learn from children. My daughters went out in the world unlike me, and that makes them often think that I am so gullible. Payal is an executive with Sony Entertainment Television, and a sort of record has been created with my mentor Tarunda also giving my daughter Megha her first break in his Bengali film Bhalo Bashar Aunik Naam, in which I play her sister! In real life too, I am more like a sister to Payal and Megha, who has been christened Meghaa for the screen, and we three often go to the pubs together with common friends of their age!
"I think that I was good at emotional and comedy sequences, and I loved doing songs because I love music. I am a big fan of the Burmans and the Mangeshkar sisters and among my favourite songs are 'Rim jhim gire saawan...' from Manzil and 'Sun ri pawan...' from Anuraag. But my all-time favourite is not my own song, it is Nutan's 'Chhod de saari duniya...' from Saraswatichandra. The few scenes in which I had to expose skin a little bit were the only ones that I was uncomfortable doing, because even in my romantic scenes, all my heroes would be very protective towards me.
"Today, I am enjoying my work even more, because I understand things better. And I am called an international star because I did Hindi films, Bengali films as a heroine (I kept doing them even after I worked on Hindi films), the offbeat NFDC Hindi film Mahananda, and Bollywood/Hollywood. Talks are on for two more outside films, and I have signed a beautiful film by Krishnakant Pandya, whose Panaah had really impressed me. The film has Shreyas Talpade as my son, is titled Main Phir Aaoonga and tackles the issue of euthanasia through a true story. My recent double role in Zindaggi Rocks is my first in a Hindi film, but my second dual role, because I had done a mother-and-daughter role in a Bengali film whose name I do not recollect. I do not maintain a list of my films. Life is temporary. Who will remember actors when far more important people are forgotten?
Life's
fun
"Today
I
have
no
ambitions
other
than
becoming
a
grandmother
-
a
real-life
role.
I
am
too
lazy,
too
comfort-oriented
to
think
of
things
like
turning
director!
I
have
always
been
spoilt
and
I
will
keep
doing
films
in
which
my
role
has
some
substance,
a
principle
I
have
always
followed
even
in
films
that
had
me
as
a
mother,
like
Suntan
or
Ghayal.
Today's
films
have
seen
amazing
strides
in
technology
and
marketing,
but
soul
is
missing
in
most
cases
and
you
recall
very
few
films.
It
is
wrong
to
say
that
only
today's
films
are
more
daring
and
experimental.
What
has
changed
is
the
marketing
ad
people's
outlooks.
As
for
music,
the
less
said
the
better!
"On the credit side, I would like to mention the face-lift that Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) has given our films - because of him largely, our films are beginning to get international attention.
"Finally, I would like to mention that as a human being, I am a cusp Taurean and share more Arian characteristics my father was an Arian too. I was always frank, open and blunt, and was often misunderstood. I was always known for my sense of fun because for me a sense of humour and a smile can help you sail through every adversity in life.
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