Victor Banerjee looks forward to play of an icon. By Ankita Jain
Clad in a loose polo t-shirt teamed up with a white embroidered shawl, veteran actor Victor Banerjee talks about his forthcoming full length feature film ‘Thinking of Him’ where he plays the character of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. “What fascinated me about this film is that in India everybody is familiar about Rabindranath Tagore but this 100- minute film has nothing to do with what we think about him. This is about a foreign perception of Tagore, more so by a woman from a different culture”, says Victor.
The film is the first of its kind to capture that part of Tagore’s life which involves the Argentine writer and journalist Victoria Ocampo, being played by Argentinian actress Aleonora Wexler. “It’s a Victor-Victoria film”, smiles Victor.
“It is fascinating the way Tagore was seen not as a person but as a poet. So you saw him looking at the nature and at the background the voiceover of his poetry. In a way, you are actually not looking at him but you are viewing things through his eyes”, says the overwhelmed actor, his moment of reading the script.
Though they only met twice but the letters exchanged, memoirs and the autobiography of Victoria served in a massive way to the key research material for the film. “Victoria had as many boyfriends as Tagore had girlfriends. He is almost her father’s age but this platonic relationship had certain sensualities”, adds Victor.
He who has been trying very hard to live up to the image of director Pablo Cesar of reinventing Tagore and is reading about the poet day and night. “I have to really understand how much she really felt for him as a woman and as an intellectual. There are two aspects to it, one is the sensual or physical aspect and the other is the completely mental or intellectual aspect. The girl who is playing Victoria in the film has got beautiful eyes and they speak a lot even in silence. Moreover, it’s not about a cheap sexual relationship. Rather it is about a lady whom Tagore identifies with emotionally. They were very close to each other especially after they parted.”
The shoot of the film is scheduled for the first week of September and will hit the theatres worldwide next year.
“The whole film unit is thinking of Tagore. My portrayal of Tagore is how Victoria thinks of him. And this film has the best titles I have ever got to work with. ‘Thinking of Him’ was the telegram sent by Victoria to the family of Tagore after he died”, he says.
Altogether, Tagore composed 61 peoms on his voyage to and from South America in 1924, including 26 in Argentina which are considered among the most lyrical and evocative of his collections.