A Vidya Balan Friday is always a good Friday. Add Shefali Shah to the mix and you get a film that promises to be worth a watch. Jalsa, an emotional thriller that puts the two superlative actresses at two ends of a spectrum that involves lies and deceit, murder and betrayal, streams on Amazon Prime Video this Friday.
The film marks Vidya’s second outing with director Suresh Triveni, with the two collaborating on the heartwarming Tumhari Sulu a few years ago. The Telegraph caught up with the always effervescent Vidya for a chat on turning grey in Jalsa, sharing screen space with Shefali and being the torchbearer of female-forward cinema.
Suresh Triveni directing you once more after Tumhari Sulu would definitely be a reason to sign on Jalsa. What were the others?
Suresh Triveni, the story, my character Maya Menon.... The producers Abundantia (Entertainment) for sure, I think all of that. Most importantly, as an actor, it allowed me to delve into the grey, which I haven’t done before. That really attracted me to the script.
Jalsa is such a different film from Tumhari Sulu. Considering that Suresh and I were working together again, I kept wondering what he would bring to his second film. I was so thrilled when I realised he had written a film like this. This is a story that he really wants to tell. After the teaser and trailer came out, a lot of people have been messaging everyone on the team saying, ‘Oh, we want to see more’. I think that is a good space to be in.
So what was it like playing grey for the first time?
Maya Menon is the kind of person, when you see her, you will feel she is totally in control of her life.... She is a very successful journalist running her own digital news portal. She’s doing very well for herself. Suddenly, she finds all of that put to test. She’s a credible voice, someone who is self-righteous, someone who is a very dependable journalist in the public domain. And then, for someone like that to feel that their principles are being put to test... being made to feel, ‘Oh my God! This could change the course of my life. Am I going to be able to be as truthful as I have been all these years?’
As an individual, she almost feels like life as she knew it is not going to be the same again. What the threat of that can do to the choices that we go on to make in life — not just for Maya Menon, but for all of us — that’s what this film does to you. It will make you say, ‘Oh shit! This could be me. What would I do in this situation?’
And that’s true for every character in this film. You don’t know how you will behave in a situation until you are right in the middle of it. This story is all about that. It’s about the ‘what if’.
Being true to our selves and our conscience is something all of us face, more often than not. In the profession that you are in, is that a dilemma you face?
Ya, of course! It happens in the littlest of ways and also in some really big ways. Especially in the world today where we are so quick to judge. We have no idea the kind of situation a person is in and that should really make us stop being judgmental. We really need to stop playing judge, jury and executioner. All of us are doing that on social media all the time. None of us have the right to judge anyone else. We don’t have the right to sit on a high horse and say, ‘I wouldn’t do what she did’. That’s because we aren’t in that situation.
Coming back to Jalsa, what does Suresh Triveni bring to the table as writer-film-maker that is different from the directors you have worked with?
When I did Tumhari Sulu, I thought that Suresh finds humour in every situation in life. I thought that was his USP. Today, I feel that his USP is to observe human beings objectively... without judgment and without getting emotionally entangled. Which is what you will see in Jalsa, and that’s what you saw in Tumhari Sulu. Just the ability to see people as they are and how they react... the complexity of that, the nuance of that, and yet the humanity of that. That’s the beautiful ability he has. And therefore, whether it’s the storywriting or the storytelling or the way he directs his actors, there is a certain understanding of human behaviour that he brings in.
Also, the way he uses music to cue his actors emotionally is unique... I have never experienced that before or after. Even when he’s narrating the script, he does so with music pieces that he’s created specially for that story. And that becomes a cue throughout the film shoot too. Jalsa is a vortex of emotions and for every emotion, he had a track. There was guilt, retribution, fear... he had a piece of music for everything.
Vidya Balan with her Jalsa co-star Shefali Shah
Jalsa had most of us sold at the names Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah. What was it like working with Shefali?
I have not known her personally, I have only watched her work, and really admired her work. I have really enjoyed her work. And I go on set and find her to be this excited child! (Laughs the typical Vidya laugh) And that’s such a contrast to who she is on screen most of the time. I am hoping that someone also explores that side of her personality on screen.
She has the ability to touch you with whatever she does... that’s such an amazing thing about Shefali. I have seen so much of her work over the years and have admired how she manages to connect, how she manages to make you feel a connect with the character she’s playing, easily and effortlessly.
From personal experience, I can say that you are also a child on set and even otherwise. You have retained your refreshing childlike personality...
Thank God you said childlike and not juvenile! (Laughs) But ya, I think so. I don’t know any other way to be, you know. This is who I am. I love being around people, I love being on a film set the most, I enjoy my work... and that brings out the child in me.
Shakuntala Devi to Sherni, you have churned out some stellar work through the pandemic. Has the way in which you pick your parts changed after being in the business for close to two decades?
Not any differently from how it’s been in the last so many years. It is purely guided by instinct and the desire to do something different. I get bored very easily and I need to keep doing different kinds of roles. My choices are guided by the desire to tell different kinds of stories and to play different people. People who I have known, people I probably don’t identify with at all... all kinds of people.
Female-forward narrative is the buzz phrase now. But you have been doing that for the longest time now...
There has never been a strategy to do a certain kind of film or do female-forward films. It’s just that I am at the centre of my universe and I happen to be a woman (laughs). So I didn’t really make an attempt to tell female-led stories... it just stemmed from the fact that I am a woman and it happened organically. I choose stories where the woman is at the centre.
