Konkona Sen Sharma\u2019s \u201cA Death In The Gunj\u201d is about secrets and whispers that hover over our lives and lies that are dormant in the family history. And one family secret that Konkona and her distinguished mother filmmaker Aparna Sen share is that the latter has made a quiet non-visible guest appearance in her daughter\u2019s directorial debut.\nAparna Sen is in Konkona\u2019s much-lauded \u201cA Death In The Gunj\u201d. Though we can\u2019t see her in the film, only hear her.
\nAparna plays the film\u2019s protagonist Shutu\u2019s (Vikrant Massey) mother. We never see the lady. We only hear her on the phone on a distressed long-distance call with her son and we also hear her voice when Tanuja (playing Vikrant\u2019s aunt) reads out a worried and anxious letter from Shutu\u2019s mother. Aparna laughs when caught out being a part of her daughter\u2019s film.
\n\u201cOf course that\u2019s my voice for Shutu\u2019s mother. But there is so much more to the film. I myself loved the film, and not because it\u2019s made by my daughter.\u201d
\nUncannily, Aparna was heard but not seen in her own directorial debut. She had dubbed for Debashree Roy in \u201c36 Chowringhee Lane\u201d. And now Aparna is just a voice in her daughter\u2019s directorial debut.
\nThough Konkona claims her main source of inspiration is Peter Weir\u2019s 1975 Australian film \u201cPicnic At Hanging Rock\u201d for the eerie and intangible feeling of dread in \u201cA Death In The Gunj\u201d, Konkona\u2019s mother\u2019s influence on her first film is quite prominent.
\nNot many have noticed the uncanny resemblance in mood between Konkona\u2019s movie and her mother\u2019s \u201c36 Chowringhee Lane\u201d. In both the films, the protagonists are lonely, persecuted, desolate and exploited individuals. If Konkona\u2019s Shutu lived to become old, he would probably lead a reclusive lonely life like Violet Stoneheim (Jennifer Kapoor) of \u201c36 Chowringhee Lane\u201d.
\nAparna says, \u201cBoth Konkona\u2019s protagonist and mine in \u201836 Chowringhee Lane\u2019 are lonely individuals. However, Violet in my film has more-or-less accepted her state of loneliness. Shutu is much more vulnerable.\u201d
\nIn \u201c36 Chowringhee Lane\u201d and in Konkona\u2019s \u201cA Death In The Gunj\u201d, the protagonist\u2019s loneliness ends in tragedy.
\nAparna said: \u201cViolet accepts her exploitation with much more grace whereas Shutu reacts violently to his condition of desolation. Their destinies are different because Konkona and I are very dissimilar as directors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"