A marvelous return to films of Begum Ayesha Sultana

By Aasma Mahendru

After over a decade, Sharmila Tagore is set to return to put the stage on fire, she was last seen in “Break ke Baad” in 2010. The veteran actress will be seen in Gulmohar which also stars Manoj Bajpayee, Amol Palekar, Simran Rishi Bagga, and Suraj Sharma.
In a press conference held in Delhi on 27th February, Sharmila said, “Of course, working with Manoj (Bajpayee) and Suraj (Sharma), actually, Suraj makes you cry. But I kind of vibe with this young lot. They make it so difficult for themselves. They can easily take their father's money and get on. But they have to punish themselves. "The veteran actress told us, “The first thing that attracted me to say yes or wanted me to say yes was the script. I didn’t write at the beginning, start finding equation with my life and consume. So, the script I just absolutely loved. And not just my but the whole thing because films are not just about one person. It’s spread out. Everyone of them has an equal role and in the making the film reflects what the script promised. It doesn’t deviate from that and for that I wanted to thank Rahul for directing it so wonderfully in the making he’s not subtracted anything from anybody’s role. If anything, it’s enhanced their role. So, that way is struck to the script. So, that is what really attracted me.”
Sharmila was mesmerized with Suraj as his presence behind the camera was so comforting to me he is so calming so I have to give my best for him. I have done this film for him somehow. this movie is a 3 generation movie. Sharmila Tagore revealed that she cried 'profusely' after watching her film Gulmohar for the third time, adding to it she said not me only, even her daughter (Saba) has watched it multiple times and she is obsessed with the dialogues of this movie .
Furthermore, talking about the similarity between her and the character that she plays in Gulmohar, Sharmila ji said, “Yes, in a way, my experiences and the stage of my life and age of where I am. I have taken hard decisions and I have decision contrary to the social expectation and I realized there is no other way to, you cannot like say you’re a single person playing a tennis match and there are lots of other so if you take them all, live accounting to other people’s perspective then your perspective uh in any case you won’t be able to please anybody. So, you might as well do what you want to do.”
She added, “Hopefully not hurting anybody. But it is your right to express yourself the way you wish to and live the life that you want to so that you have minimum regrets. Regrets there always will be but you’ll have less regrets. You can’t say because of that person I didn’t do this. So, I think I’ve lived like that and I’ve found some resonance in Kusum.”

(The writer is a Semester II student of BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) programme.)