20 Years Of Parineeta: Sanjay Dutt made Raima Sen blush
20 Years Of Parineeta: Sanjay Dutt made Raima Sen blush
Reportedly, It’s been two decades of Parineeta – a film that gave us Vidya Balan, luminous and brimming with a talented streak waiting to explode.
20 years later, as the film is being
re-released, cinegoers are reminded of how Pradeep Sarkar’s Parineeta felt like a warm hug, tucked in vintage Calcutta in 1962. Amitabh Bachchan’s empowering narration as the frame opens up to the golden-lit lanes of the City of Joy, a Satyajit Ray-esque atmosphere that is deeply reminiscent of an era gone by, and at the cusp of it, love, loss, longing, and reunion.
Although the lead trio – Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, and Sanjay Dutt were exceptional in their characters as Shekhar Rai, Lalita, and Girish Sharma, the supporting cast was an integral part of the assemblage to add gravitas to the story.
Raima Sen played the role of Lalita’s (Vidya Balan) effervescent cousin. Full of life, peppered with a little playfulness, her character came with a touch of lightness that balanced the intensity of the main plot.
Koel’s naivety emerged as a stroke of vibrancy that she brought about whenever she came on screen; it made you miss your cousins all the more.
The plot of Parineeta centers around Lalita (Vidya Balan), who lives with her financially unstable uncle (Achyut Potdar). Since childhood, she has had feelings for her next-door neighbour, Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan). Shekhar’s father, Navinchandra (Sabyasachi Chakraborty), is a wealthy but heartless businessman. Lalita soon discovers that Navinchandra wants to seize her uncle’s home and convert it into a hotel. She decides to seek help from the affluent businessman Girish Sharma (Sanjay Dutt).
However, misunderstandings arise when Shekhar suspects romance brewing between Lalita and Girish.
In an exclusive media conversation actress Raima Sen time-travels back to 1962, and narrates how the late Pradeep Sarkar made the entire Parineeta
crew become a
tight-knit family on set.
Raima Sen’s Crush On
The central romance of Parineeta whirled around Lalita (Vidya Balan), Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan) and Girish (Sanjay Dutt), but Koel’s (Raima Sen) unrequited feelings for the rather charming businessman Girish make your hearts flutter with its innocence.
Her coquettish glances and the sequence where the lamp flickers and lights up the room, and there he is – Koel’s Prince Charming, who is disarmingly smitten by his easy presence.
Well, it wasn’t difficult at all, says Raima Sen.
The actress quips, that there’s no one scene of mine in the film that she can pick from, but the part where she opened the door for Girish and she is blushing, because she was supposed to have a crush on him. That came very naturally because she cactually did have a crush on him when I was growing up, so it was very natural.”
News Edit KV Raman
