Rahul Bose on Anushka Sharma's Bulbbul: Every time a woman threatens patriarchy, she is branded a witch
For actor Rahul Bose, “Bulbbul” offered a chance to be a part of a story that was told with “a great deal of sensitivity and realism” by reinterpreting a folklore to narrate the coming-of-age story of a woman. Bose, whose varied filmography across languages as an actor-director boasts of films such as “English, August”, “Mr and Mrs Iyer”, “Antaheen”, “Pyaar Ke Side Effects”, “Jhankar Beats”, “Everybody Says I’m Fine” and “Poorna”, is playing a landlord called Bade Thakur Indranil in “Bulbbul” which is set in early 20th century Bengal.
The movie, which marks the feature directorial debut of lyricist-scriptwriter Anvita Dutt, looks at the legend of witch (chudail) through the story of a child bride.
Bose believes the old folktales have been a part of every culture and are a result of a patriarchal mindset that considers a powerful woman as a threat.
“Every time a woman threatens patriarchy, she is supposed to be a witch. Every time patriarchy and power equations are threatened, women are called witch to make them seem evil so that other women don’t feel offended and maybe we can get other women on our side to what the men might be thinking.
"It is a very common and easy way of marginalising women who threaten patriarchy,” the actor told PTI in a Zoom interview.
Produced by actor Anushka Sharma and her brother Karnesh Ssharma’s Clean Slate Filmz, "Bulbbul" starts streaming on Netflix from June 24.
One of the prominent faces of Indian independent cinema, Bose said, though it is Dutt's first film, he was impressed by her clarity of vision.
“I just loved the story, every single element. I loved the fact that it is about the coming-of-age of a woman from innocence to strength. Aside from that, the etching of the characters was done with a great deal of sensitivity and realism. Also, setting the story in the late 19th century to early 20th century Bengal was beautiful.”
The 52-year-old actor, who has worked with "11 first-time directors" in his career, said there is an element of chance but that was not the case with Dutt, who as a dialogue and lyrics writer has films such as “Heyy Babyy”, “Bachna Ae Haseeno”, “Dostana”, “Patiala House” and “Queen” to her credit.
“Reading Anvita’s script, I did not have a shadow of doubt that she was going to make a beautiful film. With some first time filmmakers, you have that doubt, you take a chance. I have worked with 11 first-time directors but with Anvita I never had a doubt,” he said.
“Bulbbul” also features Tripti Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, Parambrata Chatterjee and Paoli Dam.
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