The invincible Shabana Azmi holds Aparna Sen’s 15 Park Avenue close to her heart for many reasons. “I loved my character Anu in 15 Park Avenue. She’s compassionate without being sentimental. She’s a typical urban woman of today, hard pressed for time, juggling several jobs. Coping with life for a working woman who’s also the care-giver in the family isn’t easy. She is not the ‘giving’ martyr like the protagonist in Anil Ganguly’s Tapasya. Anu is short-tempered, impatient. She is a giver, but not a martyr. For my character, her younger sister played by Konkona is the core of her existence. I was very moved by Anu’s relationship with her family. It was very easy for me to identify with the role.”
Shabana has high words of praise for Konkona Sen Sharma who plays her daughter in 15 Park Avenue. “I gave her the nickname Koko. She played my daughter in Aparna’s Picnic. And if you remember, she had a chhotu role with me in Sati. I knew all along she will be an artiste, nothing else. Konkona is a very intelligent artiste. She works from truth. At the moment all her work springs from honesty. She hasn’t developed any craft to play her characters. There were points in 15 Park Avenue when she took my breath away because I completely believed she was the character she was playing. I’ve tremendous respect for her because she has the courage to take on roles that are off the beaten track.But I see her making brave choices. Konkona is very intelligent, very argumentative. She and I had countless arguments on films, life and other matters.
Shabana, who is acutely self-critical, is pleased with her performance in 15 Park Avenue. “I look the closest that I do in real life. I’ve worn a lot of my own clothes. Javed said I’ve never sounded like I do in 15 Park Avenue. But that’s because I sound exactly like Aparna Sen. It also comes from the very natural lines that I had to speak. In most of our films dialogues sound like dialogues. In 15 Park Avenue, I’ve tried to make the lines sound like everyday conversation. People appreciate silent close-ups. But those are easier to do, if you’re lit and packaged correctly. That’s why a lot of non-actors appear very moving. In Shaji Karun’s Piravi a man who had never acted got the National Award because of those silent close-ups. But my mother taught me, it’s speaking dialogues that demands the most out of an actor. Even if you’ve rehearsed 15 times you’ve to make it sound like the first. Dialogues shouldn’t sound pre-meditated and laboured. Now with sync-sound I hope it will improve. In 15 Park Avenue, I worked on making the dialogues normal.”
