Team Kadak Singh — Pankaj Tripathi, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Jaya Ahsan and Sanjana Sanghi — were in Calcutta last Friday, the day their film, directed by Calcutta’s Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, released on Zee5. t2 caught up with the actors at JW Marriott Kolkata for a kadak chat!
It’s release day. What’s the buzz been like so far, on social media and otherwise?
Parvathy Thiruvothu: I choose to not look at social media for the first few days, at least. I enjoy it when my friends read reviews and send me stuff saying: ‘Look at this one, look at that one.’ I love to sift it through their lens because they are a little kinder (smiles). But I am looking forward to the Instagram mentions for Kadak Singh. This is not a dig at critics but the audience watching and writing in has a completely different texture to it. It has just started pouring in and so far it has been very positive.
Sanjana Sanghi: As I am going along, I am learning that my biggest review is audience reactions and so I have become a permanent presence at every screening of every film of mine. That moment when they just come out of the theatre and what you see on their faces... there are no lies there. Reviews can be contorted, social media can be spun in a particular way, but the first reaction from the audience is authentic and raw and I think it is important in the long run to just hold on to that emotion.
What we witnessed in Mumbai at our premiere and also at IFFI Goa at our first gala premiere said it all for me. What was interesting was that they were like: ‘Here were the five things we loved and here are the two things that we were confused about or wished were better.’ So it was very constructive as well.
Parvathy: Everyone is talking about the plot. That it’s a very simple story but the way that he (director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury aka Tony) has designed it is very unusual. It is a sort of homage to Rashomon (The Rashomon effect describes how parties describe an event in a different and contradictory manner). Yesterday, a viewer came out at intermission and looked at me and said: ‘There is no way you are that person (Parvathy’s character Miss Kanan)!’ I love it when they say that they can’t recognise me in a character. I have been told that not only in looks, but even the energy of the character feels so different from mine.
In some reviews, the diversity aspect of the casting has been pointed out. If you look at the plot of Kadak Singh, it looks at society as a piece of fabric and if you cut a small piece from any corner, you will find a diverse cultural presence. So in this geographical construct that Kadak Singh has created, there is everybody from all over India, including a Malayali nurse. This film has expressed that diversity very subtly and without making any kind of a loud declaration.
This is an as-good-as-it-gets cast. What was your first reaction when you heard about who your co-actors were going to be?
Parvathy: Initially, I only knew about Pankajji (Tripathi) and I immediately said ‘yes’ because all my scenes are with him and I felt that it would be a masterclass, an acting workshop for me. I met Sanjana, Jaya and Paresh (Pahuja) on set and it is unbelievable how immediate the connections were. The respect and adoration for each other went through into our performances too. Energetically, everyone came together perfectly.
Sanjana: This was actually the most any-factor-agnostic ‘yes’ I have said to any film so far. When Tonyda and Ritesh Shah (co-writer) narrated the film to me, I didn’t know the ‘when’, ‘how’ and ‘who’ of it at all. I didn’t even know for sure that Pankaj sir was in the film. I just heard Sakshi (the name of her character) and I told myself: ‘I am not going to let this go.’
Later, when I heard about who all were cast in the film, it was a cherry on the cake situation. Like Paro (Parvathy) said, it doesn’t happen every day that you just flow like butter literally, and I am talking about nice melted butter and not frozen-in-the-fridge kind of butter. That’s how well we gelled.
Pankaj, what were your main reasons to want to do Kadak Singh?
Pankaj Tripathi: The script, for sure. And then the names — Tonyda, Ritesh Shah, Viraf (Sarkari, co-producer), Parvathy, Sanjana, Jaya ... many reasons actually.
You have played a father many times on screen. But AK Srivastava, aka ‘Kadak Singh’, is a very different kind of a father, isn’t he?
Pankaj: Yes, and a very different person also. That was why I found it interesting, the chance to make something different. The chance to shoot in Calcutta was a major reason for me to sign on. The different kind of writing excited me, it told me that I had a chance to do something unique in this film. Till Kadak Singh, I had not been offered such a non-linear, complex script.
Pankaj, after Ludo and Kadak Singh, your characters landing up in hospital and striking up a friendship with the nurse-in-charge is almost a sub-genre....
Pankaj: You won’t believe what someone told me yesterday! That AK Srivastava and Kanan now have the potential for a romance (laughs). In this story, AK has forgotten Jaya’s character (Naina), but Kanan is in the present and he remembers her. He has great tuning with her.
Kadak Singh has a lot of conversation scenes since it relies on the unreliable narrator trope. But what shines through are the silences that most of your characters have at some point. How challenging was it to convey so much through so little?
Parvathy: Jaya deserves to answer this because the way she has spoken through her silences is amazing. Her silences gave me a lump in my throat. I was watching the movie with a friend and when Jaya came on screen, our mouths just fell open.
Jaya Ahsan: I didn’t know how I was going to do it. I never thought about it. I just instinctively did what I felt was right.
Parvathy: On a film set, it’s not always easy to create an environment where you get to be brave and go into uncomfortable spaces as an actor. You don’t really know whether you should take the next step. There were some scenes with Pankajji where I didn’t have it planned, but I knew that even if I fell, I would fall well. We had the freedom to envision things the way we wanted to. Tonyda would just nudge us in a different direction if he felt any of us was a bit off, but otherwise it was a free playing field for us.
Sanjana: In general, I find dialogues fairly crippling and silence liberating. As an actor, I am able to feel and convey a lot more when I am not speaking. I had to work on that aspect because Sakshi is fairly verbose and she is constantly put into different scenarios where she has to verbalise her thoughts.
What was it like being on this set?
Sanjana: Besides the fact that there would be so much talk of food, the defining factor for me was how easy it was for me as an actor, despite having so many cameras put up. Tonyda and Avikda (cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay) speak in a language that only they understand. And it spells magic. As actors, we don’t feel exhausted doing the same thing again and again.
Parvathy: The food was amazing! There was, of course, food from Tonyda’s house. Then Sanjana brought food one day. There were some amazing momos. Pankajji brought Litti Chokha one day. Tonyda’s dabbas every day would have different types of fish and mutton.
Sanjana: We shot in Calcutta just at the onset of winter and there was gur waala sweets every day. I am lucky because I don’t have a sweeth tooth...
Parvathy: But both Jaya and I do!
Sanjana: I loved the Kosha Mangsho.
Parvathy: You should have seen the speed at which we ran towards lunch every day! (Everyone laughs) On this set, the sense of nourishment was in all aspects. What I love about Tonyda is how he loves to share experiences. The joy he gets out of sharing his experiences — of food and otherwise — is something else.
What was your reaction when you heard the name of the film? It arouses a lot of curiosity....
Pankaj: Honestly, I didn’t understand it at first. When you watch the film, you understand why it’s called that... because his children refer to him, a strict father, as Kadak Singh. But I wasn’t sure how it would resonate with the audience....
The name has Sunny Deol with a handpump in the Gadar films vibe....
Pankaj: Yes, it seems like it’s an action film. Frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if, based on the title, some people thought that I am the villain who has kidnapped these three women! (Laughs)
Parvathy: Frankly, I loved it when I heard it. Kadak Singh means much more than what his children call him behind his back. It’s how we perceive people and how quickly we judge and put them in a category. I thought it was very brave to go with this name and not explain what it is. It definitely can be misleading.
Sanjana: The working title was not Kadak Singh. It was ‘Father’ but that was already taken. Kadak Singh doesn’t perhaps encapsulate the spirit of the film in the way that we as actors felt living that story. But now it seems like the audience loves it. I have been asking people very earnestly and everyone seems to love it. They find it catchy and edgy and it brings about a lot of curiosity. So I guess it did the trick.
Parvathy: I think we should go back to that time when we couldn’t guess what a film was about from its title.
Who is the ‘Kadak Singh’ in your life? Pankaj, are you a kadak dad to your daughter?
Pankaj: Not at all! I am perhaps the softest father out there. My wife is the ‘Kadak Singh’ of our house!
Parvathy: I was my own Kadak Singh... I still am.
Jaya: I found some shades of my father in Pankajji’s character and also a certain resonance in his relationship with Sanjana’s Sakshi.
Sanjana: I have had many Kadak Singhs in my life, sprouting up in different ways. My permanent one is my brother, who is only four years older than me but I have always called him the oldest young person in the world. When he was 13, he would give me gyan as if he was already 30. And he continues to do that. But it is welcome because he shows me the mirror. He calls my nonsense out. He pulls me back if I am flying even a little bit. So that’s a good Kadak Singh to have.
‘Kadak’ also means something that brings a spring to your step and livens you up. What’s that for you?
Pankaj: We often feel, especially as youngsters, that our parents are kadak, but that strictness doesn’t give us freedom. It protects us and gives us the freedom to spread our wings.
Sanjana: For me, dosti is kadak. I always think of my best friends, especially my female friends, as my kadak companions.
Jaya: Bonding with my pets... my four-legged babies. Right now I have three dogs and tons of them outside my house that I look after.
Parvathy: I don’t have a human equivalent of kadak. I like getting to wash my dishes in the morning, it makes me feel very kadak. I feel like I am in control. I wash the dishes, I take care of my house and it feels very nurturing and parental to me.
