‘In real life great love stories mostly end in tragedy...’

Newton and Shakespeare make for a strange match that finds expression in Ranjan Ghosh's directorial debut that is slated to release next month, writes shoma a chatterji

RANJAN Ghosh was instrumental in the script of Aparna Sen's Iti Mrinalini, his diploma project for his screenplay writing course at Whistling Woods in Mumbai, and Hrid Majharey (Live in my Heart) marks his directorial debut. A graduate with honours in physics, Ghosh was intrigued by Newton, who discovered gravity, and also took keen interest in alchemy and studied astrology. This conflict between reason and things that cannot be explained by reason or science forms the philosophy of Hrid Majharey. But Shakespeare's tragic hero also finds a place in the story. Excerpts:

Q  Your film is a strikingly original blend of the battle between logic and things logic cannot explain on the one hand and a kind of return to the tragic hero drawn from Shakespeare's plays on the other. How do you explain this?
Personally, I do not believe in things that reason and science cannot explain. This dichotomy in people of science would often make me wonder whether Newton was motivated by a drive for more knowledge, or was it something else? Later, I met many who swore by science and logic but also wore stones on their arms and fingers in the belief that this would change their lives for the better. I wished to explore a character torn by science on the one hand and chance on the other. My hero, Abhijit (Abir) Chatterjee is an example of this dichotomy that could take a man to extremes he is not aware of himself.

Q  You have said that your hero is also a creation of the impact Shakespeare's tragic heroes made on you. How do you explain this?
and resonances of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, both men and women, are around us in real life. Sometimes, the resemblance is so uncanny that they seem to pop out of his plays. As a writer, it has been a challenge for me to tackle this subject because in real life great love stories mostly end in tragedy, as they do in fiction.

Q  Do you think the parallels drawn with the Shakespearean tragic hero and the hero of your film will be understood by the audience?
Let me make myself clear. The film is not at all an adaptation of any of Shakespeare's tragedies. The characters are inspired by a few of Shakespeare's characters but are contemporary, modern and belong to the urban, Bengali upper middle class. Those familiar with Shakespeare will find the resemblance. Those who are not familiar with Shakespeare will read a different kind of love story in the film.

Q  In your film, Abhijit Chatterjee gets sucked into the vortex of destiny and loses hold of his mathematical logic. But real life is a combination of logic and destiny. How would you explain this?
Look here, cinema might reflect life but it is not life. It has the fluid means of interpreting and questioning in addition to translating and reflecting. Cinema is a state of heightened reality. Therefore, everything that happens in real life need not necessarily be there in cinema.

Q  Isn't the "failed" and "tragic" hero a great commercial risk for you to have taken in your debut film?
We often see weak characters becoming strong, fearful people becoming fearless and so on. It is always a "positive" character arc. But how often have we seen a character moving from strength to weakness, from being positive to being negative? Possibly I was trying to explore and address these dichotomies that lie within us, waiting to come out when, suddenly, a tragedy… this was also to address the dichotomies in all of us…

Q  How did you choose your handpicked cast for the film – Raima Sen, Abir, Arun Mukherjee, Sohag Sen, Indrashish, etc?
Raima's face cropped up when I was writing the script so I decided she would portray Debjani. She liked the script. I was confused about who would play Abhijit. I saw Abir as Byomkesh Bakshi in a Byomkesh Bakshi film and I at once felt that I had an actor who could portray the complex character of Abhijit. The character Indrashish plays is loosely adapted from Cassius in Othello and I gave him a look completely different from the look that Abhijit carries in the film. And Sohagdi was the perfect choice for the faith-reader who changes Abhijit's life forever. Barun Chanda's personality and diction was just perfect as the head of the maths department. Arun Mukherjee fit the Bangladeshi refugee in Port Blair like a glove.

Q  The music?
My only brief to our music director Mayookh Bhaumik was to keep it simple and minimalistic. Dipankar Chaki has done the sound design and I am honoured that two National Award-winners agreed to collaborate in my first film. My intention was to harmoniously use both music and sound design to achieve the two diametric elements of harmony and distortion of harmony that dog Abhiji t throughout the film.

Q  When is Hrid Majharey expected to hit the theatres?
11 July 2014.

Newton and Shakespeare make for a strange match that finds expression in Ranjan Ghosh's directorial debut that is slated to release next month, writes shoma a chatterji

RANJAN Ghosh was instrumental in the script of Aparna Sen's Iti Mrinalini, his diploma project for his screenplay writing course at Whistling Woods in Mumbai, and Hrid Majharey (Live in my Heart) marks his directorial debut. A graduate with honours in physics, Ghosh was intrigued by Newton, who discovered gravity, and also took keen interest in alchemy and studied astrology. This conflict between reason and things that cannot be explained by reason or science forms the philosophy of Hrid Majharey. But Shakespeare's tragic hero also finds a place in the story. Excerpts:

Q  Your film is a strikingly original blend of the battle between logic and things logic cannot explain on the one hand and a kind of return to the tragic hero drawn from Shakespeare's plays on the other. How do you explain this?
Personally, I do not believe in things that reason and science cannot explain. This dichotomy in people of science would often make me wonder whether Newton was motivated by a drive for more knowledge, or was it something else? Later, I met many who swore by science and logic but also wore stones on their arms and fingers in the belief that this would change their lives for the better. I wished to explore a character torn by science on the one hand and chance on the other. My hero, Abhijit (Abir) Chatterjee is an example of this dichotomy that could take a man to extremes he is not aware of himself.

Q  You have said that your hero is also a creation of the impact Shakespeare's tragic heroes made on you. How do you explain this?
and resonances of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, both men and women, are around us in real life. Sometimes, the resemblance is so uncanny that they seem to pop out of his plays. As a writer, it has been a challenge for me to tackle this subject because in real life great love stories mostly end in tragedy, as they do in fiction.

Q  Do you think the parallels drawn with the Shakespearean tragic hero and the hero of your film will be understood by the audience?
Let me make myself clear. The film is not at all an adaptation of any of Shakespeare's tragedies. The characters are inspired by a few of Shakespeare's characters but are contemporary, modern and belong to the urban, Bengali upper middle class. Those familiar with Shakespeare will find the resemblance. Those who are not familiar with Shakespeare will read a different kind of love story in the film.

Q  In your film, Abhijit Chatterjee gets sucked into the vortex of destiny and loses hold of his mathematical logic. But real life is a combination of logic and destiny. How would you explain this?
Look here, cinema might reflect life but it is not life. It has the fluid means of interpreting and questioning in addition to translating and reflecting. Cinema is a state of heightened reality. Therefore, everything that happens in real life need not necessarily be there in cinema.

Q  Isn't the "failed" and "tragic" hero a great commercial risk for you to have taken in your debut film?
We often see weak characters becoming strong, fearful people becoming fearless and so on. It is always a "positive" character arc. But how often have we seen a character moving from strength to weakness, from being positive to being negative? Possibly I was trying to explore and address these dichotomies that lie within us, waiting to come out when, suddenly, a tragedy… this was also to address the dichotomies in all of us…

Q  How did you choose your handpicked cast for the film – Raima Sen, Abir, Arun Mukherjee, Sohag Sen, Indrashish, etc?
Raima's face cropped up when I was writing the script so I decided she would portray Debjani. She liked the script. I was confused about who would play Abhijit. I saw Abir as Byomkesh Bakshi in a Byomkesh Bakshi film and I at once felt that I had an actor who could portray the complex character of Abhijit. The character Indrashish plays is loosely adapted from Cassius in Othello and I gave him a look completely different from the look that Abhijit carries in the film. And Sohagdi was the perfect choice for the faith-reader who changes Abhijit's life forever. Barun Chanda's personality and diction was just perfect as the head of the maths department. Arun Mukherjee fit the Bangladeshi refugee in Port Blair like a glove.

Q  The music?
My only brief to our music director Mayookh Bhaumik was to keep it simple and minimalistic. Dipankar Chaki has done the sound design and I am honoured that two National Award-winners agreed to collaborate in my first film. My intention was to harmoniously use both music and sound design to achieve the two diametric elements of harmony and distortion of harmony that dog Abhiji t throughout the film.

Q  When is Hrid Majharey expected to hit the theatres?
11 July 2014.