Documentary filmmaker Ananya Banerjee’s debut book The Kitty Party Sanyasins deals with midlife crisis of women. The author tells S Mallik that she was not inspired by TV sitcom Sex and the City
In a time when emotional turmoil is nothing short of an epidemic among masses, it takes a serious turn during 40s and 50s. With women, things get even worse if they have limited communication with the outside world. Not only they face bouts of depression, suicidal tendencies and loneliness (even when surrounded by family and friends), they also find it difficult to find a happy space. The pangs of midlife crisis and much more is aptly described in Ananya Banerjee’s debut book The Kitty Party Sanyasins. The book chronicles life of four women as they go through their midlife crisis. “The subject is very common but the treatment is very different from what one may expect. One of the characters suffers from bouts of acute depression while another character finds solace in meditating herself into a passionate love affair with the 30-year-old son of her best friend. A third character, inspite of having a caring husband and a daughter, always feels lonely and deserted,” said Ananya, a famed television producer who has been associated with Doordarshan for the last three decades.
The journey from a successful producer and a documentarian to a novelist was not easy for Ananya but she “loved every bit of it.” “I have been part of the television media and have directed a number of biopics and documentaries. I was looking for a change for a long time and one day I realised that nothing can be more challenging and exciting than writing a full length novel,” she pointed out.
The book, Ananya said, was cheeky and believed that the story would strike a chord with every reader, especially women. Was she at all influenced by TV show Sex and the City since there are striking similarities between the twoIJ “Not exactly,” she replied, “The prologue might show traces of similarity to the plot of the show but those traces end there. Once people read the book they will realise that the situations my characters are in, is very different from that of the show. All my women are married, except for Alison, and have kids.” The character of Alison Jordan, she said, is loosely based on her friend Alison. “When I finished the book, I realised that most of the characteristics that Alison portrayed in the book resembled my friend Ali. I guess I had her in my subconscious mind when I wrote the book,” she added.
The narrative of the book, on the other hand is on the crossroads of myth and reality. The author has very liberally brought in mythical characters like Garuda (mentioned in Ramayana) and sage Durvasa and have intertwined them with the lives of all her characters.
“To bring in mythological characters in my book was obvious. I was literally forced to read the epics and ancient scriptures by my mother. There were also times when my mother read it out and I was made to listen,” she recalled, “and that has stayed with me.” She is confident that her book will reveal some interesting facts about both the Ramayan and the Mahabharat which most people are unaware of. She said, “If I ask somebody to name a few characters that appear in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharat, many will not be able to answer. Through my book, I have aimed at revealing some fascinating yet unknown aspects of the epics.”
photos Sanjeev Kumar