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Amol Palekar’s films aim to make the viewer think, says
V. Ananth
Each subject has its own requirement and need and hence I decided to make Samantar in Marathi and not Hindi, though I had earlier made Quest in English because I wanted to reach out a larger audience with a taboo subject like that of homosexuality", says Amol Palekar. Amol’s film Samantar is all about tracing lost parallel lives today. With Samantar, Amol says that he has tried to find out something new by way of looking at relationship and life. "You can see similarities at many levels in this film. The protagonists in Samantar are oblivious to the fact that they have travelled similarly though they had different streams. If the audience is interested in cliché masala films, then I am afraid Samantar is not a film which will set out to cater to them". Amol does not want to drive home any message through Samantar as a filmmaker, because his motto is to make the viewer enjoy while watching the film and set out to think while going back home from the cinema house. "In all my films, I do not believe in giving a message or for that matter telling what is right or wrong. I just try to raise a question and try to find out what the answer is. My wife Sandhya and I keep that space for the viewers to arrive at their own solutions". "When I was directing Ankahee, which was the last film in which I had also acted way back in 1985, I realised that I was paying the least attention`A0to the actor Amol, because all the time I was only worried about whether Deepti’s or Devika’s performance and whether the camera was`A0correct and the lighting`A0was okay and hence the actor got the least priority and hence I decided that the actor in Amol Palekar should take rest and continued to do just what I enjoy basically — directing". After a long time, Amol confesses that he really felt the urge to play the character when he read Sandhya’s script and felt that the hero Kishore Vaze, had several layers and could effectively display a wide range of emotions. "Kishore Vaze has a very small beginning from a very small village and goes on to become a successful industrialist. Unfortunately Kishore happens to be a very lonely person. Kishore’s complete melancholy under a superficial fa`E7ade is his way of looking at life and what he wants to do with it. I thought that since I felt that his thought needs to be conveyed strongly to the audience, there was no other alternative but to take up the challenge of enacting the character myself". Amol admits that since he had the added advantage of Sandhya being his co-director, apart from wearing so many different hats on the sets, he did not have to bother about his performance and relied entirely on her judgment when facing the camera. Apart from taking the complete burden of writing, Amol says Sandhya has the quality of multi-tasking with 10 different tracks working in her mind simultaneously, though he prefers to focus on just one thing at a time when he is working. "Sandhya has this urge to be a perfectionist so much so that she is not easily satisfied with something which is just good, because she wants it to be the next to the best, if not the best. It keeps driving me, because I look for that glint of admiration in her eyes and the broad smile of approval". Sharmila Tagore plays the role of a sculptor in Samantar. Since the character that Sharmila has played in Samantar needed intensity and authenticity, and is full of imagery, Amol taped her dialogues and sent it to her in advance to enable her to prepare for the scene. "Only Sharmila could have fitted the bill by essaying the character of Shama Sani with the poise, dignity and the grace which the character demanded. She does not speak much but her body language conveys whatever she wants to express with her reclusive existence. It is violin alone which binds both Kishore and Shama in Samantar". — MF
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