Truffaut, Chaplin and Wong Kar-wai... the three directors rank high for actor-filmmaker Konkona Sen Sharma who says her mother would not let her watch too many Hindi films and she therefore had great exposure to world cinema.
Konkona, the daughter of filmmaker Aparna Sen and writer Mukul Sharma, has distilled her most favourite cinema experiences in a list of seven films she has curated for streaming platform MUBI.
The films - Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid" (1921), Carla Simon's "Summer 1993" (2017), Wong Kar-wai's "Happy Together" (1997), Lynne Ramsay's "We Need To Talk About Kevin" (2011), Lars von Trier’s "The Idiots"(1998) and the actor's childhood favourites, Francois Truffaut’s "Jules and Jim" (1962) and "The 400 Blows" (1959) - became available on MUBI under the 'Hand-Picked By Konkona Sen Sharma' section from Thursday.
"When we see something that touches us... if it's an experience that has moved us, we always want to share it with loved ones,” Konkona told PTI.
"I feel like that is almost the essence of any kind of art form or expression, which is really to share the feeling of what it's to be a human being, what it is to be alive and making sense of life. I love to get all these different perspectives of different directors. I grew up watching a lot of these films," she added.
The actor is known for her varied roles, including "Mr and Mrs Iyer", "Lipstick Under My Burkha", "Omkara" and "Wake Up Sid". She also earned plaudits as a director with "A Death in the Gunj" and "The Mirror" from Netflix's "Lust Stories". Discussing her selection, she said, “Some of these films are films which I've seen as a kid. I would say Truffaut's 'Jules and Jim' and 'The 400 Blows" are films which I've seen as a child. I used to watch a lot of world cinema. My mom would make sure that we watched all kinds of films from all over the world.” "My mom didn't let me watch a lot of Hindi films growing up,” she added.
Her mother also wanted Konkona to first read "Ramayana" and "Mahabharat" before watching their television adaptations.
"She (Aparna Sen) would tell us stories. My grandparents would tell us stories. Of course, I never read the epics fully till much later. And even now, I haven't read the entirety of the 'Ramayana'. But with my son, we read the 'Mahabharata' because when you're reading then it's not a passive activity," she said.
Konkona said she discovered "The Idiots" and "Happy Together" as a Delhi University student.
"These really blew up our minds because you are still at that formative age, you're still so young..." She said she included "The Kid" in her selection mainly because she wanted to have some films for children, who are watching the same superhero and animation movies and are used to "being constantly stimulated".
"The Kid", she said, is easy to watch and understand.
"It has so much humour and empathy. It's entertaining. It's also a little sad and really beautifully made." As a viewer, Konkona said she prefers "intimate and emotionally intense films".
"When you watch something, which is of a different pace, you have to have the attention span... Something which is just entertaining you continuously is not giving you a moment to pause, reflect, or think," she added.
The actor said she included "We Need to Talk about Kevin", because she loved the book by Lionel Shriver and thought Ramsay's adaptation was fantastic. "It has one of my favourite actors, Tilda Swinton, and it actually examines motherhood and the nature of evil... It was a very impactful film for me personally," she said.
The most recent film in her list is "Summer 1993", a coming-of-age story about a child who has to stay with her relatives one summer due to her mother's illness.
The actor thinks she is "partial" to coming-of-age stories.
The first ‘Hand-picked by’ selection of titles for MUBI in India was curated by Vikramaditya Motwane, which was successful and inspired them to come up with a second edition.
"Her (Konkona) film selection cuts across the divide between mainstream and arthouse cinema, offering a glimpse into her distinctive cinematic sensibilities. With her roles as an actor, director, writer, and producer, she has established herself as a trailblazing and original voice in the industry," said Svetlana Naudiyal, programming director-Asia, MUBI.
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