`Guerrilla` actress Jaya Ahsan essays Charu`s role in `Abarto`

Kolkata: With her debut Indian film `Abarto` releasing today, well-known Bangladeshi actor Jaya Ahsan today said she hoped the audience here would not reject her as the present-day avatar of Charulata, the character from Satyajit Ray`s film with the same name.

"My character Charu is not exactly a take-off from `Charulata`, and I simply am awestruck about Madhabi Mukherjee`s portrayal of the character. But yes, like every woman of this age, my Charu also feels cooped up in the `abarto` (cycle) and wants to move beyond," Jaya told reporters. Observing that experimentation was more predominant in Bengali films on this side of the border, Jaya said, "Here the audience seems to be more receptive to multilayered films and their tastes are different." Jaya, who got rave reviews for her performance in films like `Chorabali` (2012), internationally acclaimed `Guerrilla` (2011), besides `Dubsatar` (2010) and `Bachelor` (2003), said, "I am more at ease in portraying character roles." About similarities between her character and that of Charulata in the Ray classic, Jaya said, "Both Charulata and my Charu belong to north Kolkata. Both are very traditional and yet steeped in modernity and I guess in both films the two are pivotal characters. But the direct similarities end there." About the difference in working in two places, Jaya said, "I would love to work in both industries. We talk in the same language, the surroundings are so similar in the two `Bengals`, there exists the same middle, upper middle and lower classes. "And the little tales of woe and misery of the poor on both sides of the border remain the same. So how can the film language be different!" "In fact, our audience never think or are of the belief that Kolkata is from a different country. It is your misfortune that your audience cannot see the good, acclaimed, representative works from Bangladesh," Jaya, who is an admirer of Goutam Ghosh`s films, said. "And we are as much possessive about Satyajit and Tagore as people in India," she said, expressing hope that the move by FICCI and producers of Bangladesh film industry for opening up the market was fraught with great possibilities. Happy that `Abarto` will be among the first few Bengali films lined up for release in Bangladesh territory, director-actor Arindam said, "Abarto is a metaphor signifying planetary movement in this universe." "Like planets in the solar system, we are moving in the same axis, we are playing with our emotions, our values and moral progress," he said. The movie revolves around three-four characters, one of them being Shyamalendu - the name is a take-off from Ray`s Shyamalanedu in `Protidwandi`, while Charu`s elder brother is called Prashanta, again a reference to Prashanta in the maestro`s `Shakha Proshakha`. PTI