You’ve lent your voice to an album of Tagore songs in Hindi, recently.
Yes, I’ve enjoyed doing it. Indrajit Dasgupta, who has sung the verses, met me with his wife. The unique quality of the concept, the sincerity of the people involved in it and yes, of course, Tagore and Bengal, were the factors that made
me accept this proposal.Kolkata and Bengali culture is a universal phenomena and the attachments are therefore obvious. My interest is also more personal. I am after all Bengal’s jamai babu. I need to look at Bengal a little more compassionately, else there can be serious domestic repercussions
Doing voice-overs has become almost a parallel profession for you....
And it’s interesting, enjoyable and sometimes constructive too. Producers sometimes need commentary for their films. Documentaries take my voice, for they feel a celebrity is heard better and when there is a cause which is national or of universal importance, it becomes mandatory.
Public interest campaigns for health and conduct, or the recent India Poised visual comment, have all been personally and creatively rewarding episodes for me and I shall continue to do them as long as people want me to.
You finally saw Guru yesterday. Your comments?
Yes, I saw Guru last night and I’ve asked to see it again today and I shall want to see it a 100 times over. It is Mani’s best. And I speak as a viewer, not as a father. I have held myself back on many an occasion from commenting on my son’s work, but this time I shall not. To hell with niceties and restraint. Abhishek is incredible! I have been choked with emotion ever since I have emerged from the theatre and still am.
This is a role of a lifetime for him and he has given a performance of a lifetime. It’s a role any actor worth his salt would die for and it’s a performance that any actor worth his salt will envy.
This is the truth, because it comes from within. For someone so young to have performed the way he has, is a revelation. It is the culmination of his strife to prove himself in the face of continuing odds and innuendos.
And it is ironic, so ironic, that this is what Guru is all about. The determination, the will and the strength of a common man to succeed in the face of unending obstacles and his courage of conviction, to emerge victorious.
You’ve never been like this before!
My father wrote in his biography ‘When a father loses to his son, it is his greatest victory!’ I’ve lost to my son! And I’m the happiest father alive! As for working with Mani, I called him last night after the showing and told him, ‘Now that you have made my son’s life, could you make mine as well, please?’
What do you foresee 2007 for yourself?
I don’t wish to foresee anything for myself. I have already foreseen what I want to see, last night !!
Read
Comment Preview