~KONKONA SEN SHARMA FC ~ New article p.61 - Page 48

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The Brown Daily Herald

Series of events to make 'Year of India'

By Anne Speyer

Senior Staff Writer

The University has declared the current academic year the "Year of India," which will include a series of events designed to enhance political and cultural awareness of South Asia's largest country.

"Brown wishes to deepen its relationship with India," said Ashutosh Varshney. professor of political science and a coordinator of the program, which he said would expose students to "the culture of an old civilization which is rising once again, as a polity and as an economy."

Organizers said they hope to invite political leaders, academics, artists and film stars to public events on campus.

Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P'07 said the program, which is still in the planning stages, would encompass cultural and economic policies that "don't usually get addressed."

Public figures such as N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder of international technology company Infosys Technologies, is scheduled to visit next month. The University is set to host actress Konkona Sen Sharma in the spring.

There will also be an exploration of visual, literary and performing arts from India, including a visit from a classical Indian dance troupe. Many of the events and appearances will be financed by the University and various outside funders, Varshney said.

Vasundhara Prasad '12, who is involved in organizing the program, said students can look forward to a showcase of Bollywood films.

"We feel having a Bollywood week would be fun not only for South Asian students who are already in the know, but also American students," Prasad said. "It's very appropriately timed because a lot of people are interested."

Prasad said the goal of the Year of India is "not just to increase awareness of India here on campus, but also to increase awareness of Brown in India."

"Other schools that are very well known, like Harvard and M.I.T., people strive to get into," she said. "I tell my family members I go to Brown University and they say, 'Oh, I'm sure that's a very good school,' but they haven't heard of it."

Prasad said she hoped the Year of India would increase the number of students from India who apply to Brown.

The Year of India is being coordinated by a number of groups, including the Watson Institute for International Affairs, the South Asian Students Association and faculty from different academic departments.

At a press conference in the city to promote last week's release, Wake Up Sid, the film's debutant director Ayan Mukerji quipped in jest: "Koko gave me a tough time because she is a two-time National Award winner." It's an experience most directors who have worked with Konkona Sen Sharma, or Koko as she popularly known in the industry circuit, would swear by, of course.

Come to think of it, it's Konkona's no-nonsense attitude while approaching a role that has helped her define a unique prototype in Hindi mainstream cinema. In the process, it has also helped her carve a stardom tag that was unthinkable till not long ago. In the glamour-heavy world of Bollywood heroines, Konkona isn't sexy or traditionally beautiful - nor has she pined for these attributes. She isn't a great dancer, won't fall into the nice girl image trap either, and yet the roles are pouring in.

On her part, acclaimed Bengali actor-filmmaker Aparna Sen's 29-year-old daughter is clear about her game plan. "I choose only those films that appeal to me. I have only done the best of what I have been offered. Most of the roles I have got so far happen to be somewhat serious in nature but I don't think there's anything wrong with that," Konkona puts things in perspective.

The point is that Konkona has scored by playing the real woman, amidst a galaxy of plastic, picture-perfect PYTs. And that fact seems even more impressive if you consider that-unlike what Konkona says-her success is not merely restricted to serious films and roles. Slowly and very surely, she has crossed over into the area of commercial cinema too.

The success of Wake Up Sid after all proves Konkona's very believable image perfectly blends even with a Karan Johar-produced feel-good set-up, in a production touting teenybopper star Ranbir Kapoor as its hero.

There's method in the madness. Konkona's swelling fan base-especially among male Bollywood viewers-mirrors a real-life phenomenon. According to a survey recently published in India Today, 82 per cent of urban Indian men are searching for "my kind of girl", which according to the study translates to the following: beauty in a woman is not the most coveted criterion among a significant number of men anymore, nor is fairness of skin, age, caste or background. Instead, the majority are using practical parameters to rate the ideal girl. Compatibility and maturity are attributes that matter most, and working women have an upper hand.

The trend, incidentally, is a global one. Recently, the German magazine Brigitte declared that in its attempt to stamp out the size zero fetish, it would only use women with normal physical and personality traits as models from now on. The magazine's decision comes in the wake of readers complaining that they could not connect with the plastic women depicted in the photographs.

Konkona's real woman appeal is in sync with the survey results as well as Brigitte's claim. Plastic perfection in beauty seems to be on its way out and Konkona's success in Bollywood seems to underline that fact. And the fact that Hindi filmmakers are slowly waking up to that fact is proved by her acceptance in the Hindi film industry.

Looking at her career graph, it is clear that Konkona has followed a simple logic. She started off with a string of acclaimed arthouse performances in films such as Amu, Chai Pani Etc. and Mr And Mrs Iyer-the last-mentioned film winning her a National Award as Best Actress. This phase established her as the brightest talent in Mumbai, among the younger lot of actresses.

The turning point in her career really happened with Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3. Crossover in nature, the heroine-oriented film became a box-office hit.

Suddenly, critics, trade analysts, filmmakers and the public alike were waking up to the fact that despite her realistic image, Konkona had the prowess to run a film all by herself.

The flood of offers started then.

But Konkona prudently avoided a mad signing spree. She kept mixing genres with her roles, juggling between arthouse films such as mom Aparna Sen's 15 Park Avenue and Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali film Dosar, crossover flicks such as Mixed Doubles and Luck By Chance, and commercial films such as Life In A Metro, Omkara, Aaja Nachle and Laaga Chunari Mein Daag.

"Unlike other actresses, Koko doesn't take herself too seriously. She is ready to work with all good directors. Plus, she is not very concerned about her looks and make up. That bit comes with a lot of self assurance. She trusts her instinct as well as the director's vision," says Anurag Basu, who directed Konkona in the 2007 multiplex hit, Life In A Metro.

Despite the variety in her roles, Konkona insists she isn't in a rush at this point to change the perception that she is a 'serious actress'. "Even if I am getting these (serious) roles, I'm happy because I feel you can't always play yourself in films," she said recently. "One can't control one's screen image. The only way I can control my career is by choosing my films well. I have no problems doing all kinds of film-arthouse and commercial-but they have to be something different. Take Life In A Metro for instance. It was a commercial movie yet it was something that successfully captured the modern urban landscape in a fresh way." She adds that she is looking forward to do a period film but has no intention to take up scripting or direction like her mother.

Despite the cut-throat competition all around, Konkona has no qualms in accepting that she is a laidback person and is not very calculative. "I am too laidback to make much effort in creating a well-defined style quotient for myself. An overtly made-up look is not for me," is her mantra.

Konkona calls herself "a jeans and top person" and, being is fully aware that she is not traditionally hot, she insists she'll never make any effort to score with glamour.

It's something that has worked in her favour. A section of the press loves to call her the thinking man's sex symbol for her ways.

Konkona's retort to that notion has been crisp: "It's better to be a thinking man's sex symbol than a dumb one's centre of attraction. Such tags are meant to be taken in the right spirit."

Being a 'thinking man's sex symbol' of course lets Konkona play the field and experiment with real roles. It's an image that lets her score with equal ease as a simple housewife in smalltown UP in Omkara, as a foul-mouthed street walker in Traffic Signal and as a struggling Bollywood actress in Luck By Chance.

"In her career, Koko has chosen roles that other actresses wouldn't dare touch. She has no starry airs and she respects her directors. And since the gap between serious and commercial cinema is gradually closing, Koko with her realistic appeal has an advantage," says Luck By Chance director Zoya Akhtar.

Take a closer look and you will observe that Konkona's career graph has not been tampered with even in commercial cinema.

Her simple looks, lack of image and non-starry attitude have made her the first choice of directors who want to cast a heroine in a strong character. That is the reason why even in commercial duds such as Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and Aaja Nachle, Konkona has managed to grab attention with sheer screen presence and acting prowess.

On her realistic image, Konkona says it has been a blessing in disguise.

"I can't complain if people think I am brainy. How can I say it's a bad thing? It's a great thing," she has said. There's another advantage that the serious, real woman image brings with it: " No one messes with me on the sets." Her filmmakers feel Konkona's image has become a yardstick of sorts.

"Koko started off with serious cinema, setting very high standards for herself as well as other newcomers. I feel she is only competing with herself in every film. Audiences too expect a lot from her in every new release," says Ayan Mukerji.

While on her commercial outings, although she has done the routine naach-gaana in Yash Chopra productions such as Aaja Nachle and Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Konkona admits she is not quite comfortable with the grind. "I do not think I have a mental block about it (running around trees). It's just that I feel dancing is not a part of acting. And besides I am not comfortable doing it. For me to act in a movie, the director must have some artistic sensibility and not just be money-oriented."

That doesn't however mean Konkona isn't aware of box office bonuses. So, when Karan Johar reportedly asked her whether she wants box office returns or awards for Wake Up Sid, she promptly replied: "Box office returns." Konkona has perhaps realised that she needs commercial hits such as Wake Up Sid and Life In A Metro to continue getting even crossover and arthouse assignments.

On Wake Up Sid, Konkona has no qualms in accepting that her role in the film "is not very challenging", unlike several others she has done in the past. "I did not have to carry an accent as in Mr and Mrs Iyer or mouth foul language as in Traffic Signal in Wake Up Sid ," she points out.

Still, the critics are raving. The New York Times review of Wake Up Sid for instance says: "Ms Sharma has made a speciality of characters like Aisha-independent urban women, whose dreams involve careers as well as love€ her Aisha is a nuanced creation-ambitious, sympathetic and believable."

Meanwhile, tales abound about how choosy Konkona can get, while deciding on a role. The buzz goes that a famous director approached her not long ago, with a 'womanist' film. Of course, the filmmaker meant to say a 'feminist' film. Konkona refused to do the film, reportedly because she felt that a director who wasn't aware of the term 'feminist' could never make a film on that subject.

"Konkona knows how to maintain the balance between realistic and commercial cinema. You have to learn this trick to survive in the industry. She has now created a brand image of her own in Bollywood," says Bhandarkar, who directed the actress in Page 3 and Traffic Signal. Konkona made her screen debut as a child artist in the TV film Indira in 1983 at the age of four. She returned to the screen six years later in mom Aparna Sen's film, Picnic. Till date, she has acted in several films directed by her mother.

Now, Konkona will soon be seen in a Bengali film, Iti Mrinalini, which her mother is directing. The USP of the film is that it will star both Aparna and Konkona.

"The film is about an actress whose career spans two decades, starting from the 1950s. I play the younger version of the actress and my mother will essay the older version," Konkona has revealed about her new role, adding that working with her mother is like going on a vacation.

One can understand why Konkona is in a 'vacation' mood these days. This year has been particularly good, with two of her films-Wake Up Sid and Luck By Chance-having done well. Indeed, 2009 has marked her first step at proving her commercial credentials.

Knowing Konkona, her image makeover won't stop here.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/65740/Cinema/Real+woman+rising.html