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A fascination for Indian English genre
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``Why does any piece need to be categorised as art or commercial? It's either good or bad. Ultimately.
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The city thronged Music Academy to watch her `Dance Like A Man' on Monday. It was only a few months before, that she had won quite a few hearts in the city during `Monsoon Wedding', playing the Delhi housewife, Mom and the perfect foil to Naseeruddin Shah.
Sitting back in the city a day after her performance and a flurry of meetings, the multi-faceted actress-director-stage artiste is actually willing to face another interview. ``No photographs'' because she ``wasn't ready'' and ``had had a long day''. But looking at Lillete Dubey, one can't really tell and as she gets talking, Sudhish Kamath does not need questions. What's more surprising: for someone at the end of hectic day's work, she agrees for the snap, quite sportingly.
FIRST, THERE'S some great news for Lillete fans: Events is bringing her third (and the latest) play, `30 Days in September', to the city. The critically acclaimed gripping tale where she co-stars and plays Mom to her real-life daughter Neha Dubey, comes to the city next month.
However, Lillete starts off talking about `Dance Like A Man', which she admits, was her ``first baby in the genre''. ``Because it is set in the South and in Bharathnatyam style, I was sure it would be received well here. We had brought it here three years ago when we did it for a small audience for supper theatre. And ever since, people have been telling us that if we bring it to Chennai, we have to stage it at Music Academy''. ``Most of the plays staged in India were derivative. Derivative in the sense that the material was sourced out of Western plays. Not that western plays don't have universal themes. Just that universal plays with a voice of our own does make a difference. And it was the time when Vikram Seth made news with his book,'' Lillete recalls.
``It is the last few years that I believe that the Indian English voice had come age. Be it Indian English Music, Indian English Poetry, Novels, Films. In the last ten years, the original Indian English voice has come a long way,'' she adds.
`Monsoon Wedding' belonged to that genre of Indian English work. ``It was contemporary, it was urban, it presented voices and accents and had layers of identification. Each character spoke in a different accent. There's no alienation. Anything American implies distance. We all relate more to a Meera than a Martha''.
It is her fascination for the Indian English genre that keeps her going places. She is taking `30 Days in September' all around the world this summer.
It all started when Mahesh Dattani approached her when she was shooting for `Monsoon Wedding' to find out if she would be interested in making a play out of it.
``I like working with Mahesh because he is young. He has a great ear for dialogue. It's contemporary, Indian and he writes very well. He had spoken to actual survivors of the issue we were dealing with. It was serious, dark in parts, powerful and gripping,'' and that was enough to get Lillete produce and direct it.
``Why does any piece need to be categorised as art or commercial? It's either good or bad. Ultimately. I go for a Tamil film even if I don't understand what genre it is. But the guys who watch it from the front know...They know if it is a hit or `bakwaas'. And they've got it right. At the end of the day, it's whether the art works or not. If it does, you can analyse why it does and all that but you are never sure,'' she talks on classification and criticism.
30 Days in September, she says ``explores human relationships''. ``A good play should provoke you or say disturb you...It should engage you. This is so engaging that it will be difficult to leave the hall. This is about the relationship of a mother and daughter who is a survivor of child sexual abuse. The male characters are all supporting''. She goes on about `30 Days...' and we then get to talk about the other work that she's up to. And there's quite a handful there as well. Lillete plays Urmila's mother in the period piece `Pinjar' and Urmila's Mom again as the hip fitness freak Mom in Anupam Kher's `Om Jai Jagdish' in a direct contrast.
And there's Sanjeev Sivan's `Waiting for Clinton' which is socio-political satire, a fictitious account of happenings, set in a village that is waiting for the arrival of (the former US President Clinton). ``With Naseer Bhai again,'' she says.
``There's also a tale of middle-age exploration, a love story between Paresh (Rawal) and me, also by a first time director. All my current movies but one are with first time directors and they are all guys in their 20s. They are so confident and ready to do features. They are all different movies. If I like the director and if I like the project, I take it up''.
The bundle of energy rolls on.
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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