The exchange of letters becoming a tale of extraordinary love is the stuff of romance. The Japanese Wife, Aparna Sen?s latest film, made in three major languages, is nearly ready for distribution.
And it is a departure for the cineaste. For the first time she has adapted someone else?s story for the screen. The Japanese Wife is based on a novel by author Kunal Basu. The eponymous film tackles a ?love story? in a serene vein, conveying the thumb-line that ?life is not a tale told by an idiot?. The film moves through an ?exchange of love letters? between a Japanese girl called Miyagee and an Indian boy Snehamoy, a timid school-teacher in a village in the Sundarbans, standing on water, with dense mangroves surround-
ing it.
Sen always uses her own ideas and themes for her films, be it in English or in Bengali. ?This is a different film in a sense that for the first time I have felt like tackling a light-weight but important subject for my screen adaptation,? she says. ?Normally, I don?t repeat themes in my films. Neither do I take a cue from my previous experiments.? Seen in this light, The Japanese Wife is a lovelorn tale that shuffles between Japan and India. Much of the drama is set on the elements of alien love and shyness of the male protagonist.?
She has tried to bring in the element of fun into the sedate life of a school-teacher by introducing a Japanese girl into the plot. ?Everything is seen through the exchange of letters, including marriage, without any tangible contact at the initial stages of two characters, a man and a girl, torn apart by great distance,? she says.
But we are given to understand that finally, a space has been created to bridge the gap and how it has been done, needs ?to be understood from the progression of the film?.
Aparna Sen has so far made three films in English ? 36,Chowringhee Lane, Mr & Mrs Iyer and 15, Park Avenue, all winners of National Awards for ?Best English film?. Her fourth film, she believes, shifts away from her previous films thematically. According to her, naivete in art is always an essential ingredient and this can be found both in literature and cinema. Sen, it may be noted, has found the chummy collaboration with Basu very fruitful and rewarding. Since the novel is written in English, she has had to keep the ?tonal texture? in mind while dovetailing it into her film. Kunal Basu first acted in Mrinal Sen?s films such as Punascha (Post Script) and Abasheshe (At Last) made in the 60s.
?As a lovelorn story, a strange situation emerges and the school-teacher is faced with a dilemma when he has to share domesticity with a woman with whom he has experienced no domesticity,? says Basu.
Sen is primarily concerned with the ?human nuances and emotions? that are responsible for building bonds, sometimes with remorse.
?To deal with a love theme is much more difficult in a film because as the director, to make it look non-conformist, one has to undertake an inner journey to reach a finale with an immaculate touch. Crude emotions, employed by the stock directors, do not work with me. For me love sequences need to be handled with care, intelligence and keener sensibility so that it does not look chocolate-boxy?.