They are critics, they are friends, they are family. between Moon moon Sen and daughter Raima, there are no taboo words. as the two come together for a rare photoshoot, they talk about skin show, sex scenes, boyfriends and everything sen-sational. There���������s this pet monkey we know, Ramu, who wears this band round his neck and sleeps all the time,��������� Moon Moon Sen tells us, pointing at the strip of rubber on her left arm. ���������He also drinks whisky, no?��������� asks daughter Raima. Is this why she���������s dozing off every now and then, wonders senior Sen as Raima pulls her leg. ���������You are shopping all the time when you���������re not sleeping,��������� she tells mummy. Laughter fills the air as the duo gears up for an exclusive shoot for TOI. They���������re perfectly at ease ��������� with themselves and the family aura that surrounds them. Nothing is taboo at the Sen residence: from love to lies, bikini to sex scenes. Some ���������Sen��������� and insane moments:
Both of you received the Banga Bibhushan on behalf of Suchitra Sen at the first edition of the awards. What was her reaction to this? Moon Moon: I���������m not going to talk about Maa. She would have accepted the
Dadasaheb Phalke if she was really into awards. There���������s only one award that she accepted in her life. She is the first Indian actress to have received an international award. Agey jete hoto, jeto. But now, she���������s not into it anymore. She has retired from public life. This time around, she didn���������t say anything. I remember how someone in a respectable position in a university would call up for three months. Then he thought I was in charge and I wasn���������t allowing her to speak to him. He was rather abusive. I remember telling him, ���������You are very rude, old man���������. Maa has nothing to do with it anymore. I knew the people associated with this award ceremony and they were extremely courteous. Without asking Maa, I went...
Raima: It is a prestigious thing and we are happy.
Coming to the mother-daughter bonding, considering Raima���������s busy schedule, isn���������t it becoming increasingly difficult to spend time together? R: Mummy and me? I don���������t get too much time with her. Mummy is always shopping. M: Let���������s first establish this that Raima is the family liar. Earlier, in the mornings, she would have tea, read the newspapers in the drawing room, where I���������d also be present, before leaving for work. So, we at least got a chance to talk. But then, if a newspaper didn���������t have her picture, it would be thrown away. So, the rule was to read the newspapers before they got stashed in a bin. Now, there���������s no time at all. Raima will sit with her dad and have a chat, but I never get a chance to talk to her, unless she walks into my room to ask, ���������Am I looking pretty?��������� R: As I said, there���������s no time. Mummy���������s busy shopping. M: Raima���������s shooting all the time. O bhishon boro heroine hoye gechhe. I���������ll rather spend time with Koel (Mallick).
What about current Bengali films? Are you keeping an eye on all of them? M: I pick up some DVDs. I bought the DVD of ���������Bhooter Bhobishyot���������, because I heard the film is good. Recently, I went to watch a film, I don���������t remember what. It was by a renowned technician-turned-director, but it was torturous sitting through the film. So, these days, I don���������t go to the theatre unless I���������ve heard very good reviews. Of course, I will go for Anjan���������s (Dutt) films, Sandip���������s (Ray) films, but not all... R: If I���������m in Kolkata, I catch the films. M: In any case, theatres are so hot! The film to watch now is ���������Tezz���������. I love films on the underworld. There has been one in Tollywood too. But I don���������t know whether it got released or not.
Raima is part of the most-talked about films... M: I���������m very proud of her performances. But at times, I feel, o beshi pakamo kore. She doesn���������t understand that the rural audience, who shell out money to buy the tickets and who can make her a star, remember her for a film like ���������Moyna���������. I want Raima to star opposite Dev. No point in trying to be Shabana Azmi. Raima is an expensive girl, she needs her designer bags and shoes. R: I wouldn���������t mind doing commercial films too. I���������m waiting for Venkatesh Films to offer me a role. They had offered me one in the past, but things didn���������t work out then... M: The day she goes to a village with Koel, she���������ll get an understanding of the industry. When people will go ���������Koel, Koel, Koel���������, she���������ll know who is a bigger star. And Raima has to become a star.
How much does it help being in a family of actors? R: Mummy lectures me all the time. M: No, I don���������t. R: Why? Didn���������t you lecture me on ���������Mirch���������? M: That���������s different. ���������Mirch��������� is full of love scenes. Tell me, where am I wrong? ���������Mirch��������� is made by a talented director. What���������s his name? R: Vinay Shukla. M: Yes, Vinay. But the film released and ran for a week. It was not for the fault of the film. ���������Mirch��������� was picking up, but they replaced it with a big film. So, who saw those love scenes? I keep telling her that in India, you don���������t have to be so bold. Smita (Patil), Shabana, nobody did such scenes. Yes, Paoli has started a new trend, but I feel Raima doesn���������t need to go that far. R: First, mummy loved the film and then it suddenly sank in... M: Ghum theke uthe I suddenly remembered the love scenes and then I fainted.
So, little Miss Sen does get snubbed by mummy... M: Not anymore, not for her films. R: Yes, not for my films, but my selection of bad boyfriends. M: Not bad, but poor boyfriends. Poor, as in the standard, not gorib... You know, if I scold Riya, she doesn���������t speak to me for three weeks. R: Let me tell you, my parents are all scared of Riya. M: You know, Riya can���������t take criticism, so we can���������t tell her anything. Instead, we try to make Raima understand. As actors too, there is no comparison between the two. Raima, we all know, is a great actor. She has established herself, but Riya needs some more support. Maa too agrees with me on this. In ���������Noukadubi���������, she was so good. And the best part is that, she���������ll never say, ���������amake dekhiye dao���������. But Raima, even after being so good, lacks confidence. Is it alright Raima for me to be so personal?
So, how are controversies handled in the Sen household? R: My parents don���������t react. M: How can you, when you are so used to it? But when I read something really bad, I am rude to people. So, I do react. When I was young, Maa would never tell me anything. My husband is so low-key. But if I read something really nasty, something really personal, it would hurt a lot. When I see something is being written about my daughters, my heart breaks. Riya is far from wild. She cooks for her dad, sits to chat with him. Raima, on the contrary, looks at her watch all the time and can���������t stop messaging. What time she comes home, I won���������t tell you... But yes, instead of writing that you have given a bad performance, which is easy to digest, people get more personal these days. That���������s not nice. So far, they���������ve got support from their daddy and me. But I don���������t know what will happen later. I remember going to Coochbehar once, where I had organized a puja. Someone wrote a letter to the newspapers from Bolpur asking why should Moon Moon Sen organize a puja! My husband wrote back saying, she is Keshab Chandra���������s great, great granddaughter-in-law. My husband has always been very, very supportive. And he���������s in awe of his daughters. People ask me if Raima and Riya are papa���������s daughters and I would love to think they are mine, but they can be his.
No film, so far, could bring the two of you together... M: Yeah, but I don���������t do films. But I want to act... with Anjan... only with Anjan. He knows it, but I read somewhere that Raima���������s got a crush on him. So, now he���������ll forget me and take her in his films. Recently, I met Nachiketa and I said, ���������Nachi, eta amar meye���������. He told me, ���������Tumi jano, once I was a huge fan of yours���������. And my response to that was, ���������But you must be liking Raima more now?��������� To my surprise, Nachi said, ���������Yes, you are right���������. About films, there were offers, but none of the them were worth considering. R: As an actor, I���������m open to the idea and if there���������s a good director, why not? But I don���������t think the film can take off. M: The director will die of a heart attack. R: It���������s going to be very difficult handling the two of us.
While on films, who do you think is the most promising actor in Kolkata now? M: Riya and Raima. Koel is like my daughter. She���������s Ranjit���������s daughter and I adore her. The others too are so polite and nice, but just that I can���������t put a face to a name. One girl is very pretty, who has a son. But the one I really like is Paoli. I haven���������t seen her films. I���������ve only seen her in posters and she gets so much antipress all the time. I haven���������t heard a nice word about her so far. But I like her. No one knows where she has come from, what the machinations of her mind are, why she���������s doing what she���������s doing, but she���������s doing it so well and going further and further ahead. I admire her. R: Parno is a very good actor. I loved her in ���������Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona���������. M: You like her acting or do you like her personally? R: Mummy, not fair, as an actor. But the one I get along really well with is Rituparna Sengupta. M: You know who my favourite actor is? Laboni Sarkar. There���������s no such thing as age and she���������s simply superb. I���������ve worked with her and I know she���������s right on top. So much would be written about Tanusree (Shankar), Mamata (Shankar) but nothing about her...
So, who���������s the bolder of the two? M: Raima wore a bikini for a mag cover. R: Mummy... M: I wore a bikini long back. I had a great figure. I had two children but I didn���������t have a single stretch mark and I saved a man from drowning. If you are going to swim, you are supposed to be in swimwear. But in Bangladesh, I was made to wear jeans and ganjee in such a scene because of the censorship rules! These days, actors are not required to show their skin, because they are doing explicit lovemaking scenes. They titillate more than any body show. R: I don���������t have the body for it, so I won���������t wear a bikini for a film. Unless, of course, there���������s an offer from
Yash Chopra productions.
Coming to your personal space, isn���������t marriage the buzzword at every tea table discussion now? R: I am yet to find someone... I am still waiting. M: All the nice boys are taken. And what I hear from my daughters is really terrifying. Girls, these days, are no more ashamed to own up that their husbands beat them up or they are obsessed about their Turkish girlfriend. When I hear about it, it shakes me up. Unless you are financially steady and there���������s some money coming in every month, there���������s no point in getting married. I would say, live with someone and find out if he���������s good enough to marry. Today, everyone is getting married for the wrong reasons. Raima might think I am getting old, let me tie the knot. She recently went through this phase when I saw her wearing green every day. R: Mummy, please no... M: Raima told me the other day that one astrologer had advised her that if she wears green for seventeen-and-a-half months, she would get married. I asked her, ���������Did you believe him?��������� After four days, I saw her coming out of her room in a pink attire. She said, ���������Na mummy, it���������s not true���������. R: I wore green every day for a week. I even wore green nighties! But all that���������s past now.
FIVE FACTS MOON MOON ON RAIMA ��������� Raima can speak terrible lies.
��������� She comes home very late in the mornings.
��������� My daughter is incredibly shy, which is why she can���������t go for screen tests.
��������� She is a lazy housekeeper and is extremely untidy.
��������� What I like about Raima is her ability to mingle with everyone. One night, I was with her in Mumbai and the makeup man called up at 3 am. I was rather surprised, because so far no one has called me up that late. RAIMA ON MOON MOON
��������� Mummy has this ability to go off to sleep anywhere. I took her to a play, where she fell asleep. My friends kept looking at me and then she woke up in the second half and touched by the melodrama, started crying. Another time, we were on a bus in London and I had no clue about the route. We were lost and when I looked at her, there she was... sleeping!
��������� She has a very bad memory. If there���������s an appointment at 6 pm, and if people turn up at our residence, she would keep a straight face and say, ���������I have never made an appointment, who are you?���������
��������� Mummy is extremely tidy. If we leave important papers behind, we can never find them again in the mornings, because by then, she would have cleaned up everything. So, every day, my father���������s either losing his specs or his medicine box.
��������� Contrary to her liberal image, she���������s extremely conservative. When she caught my sister in a short skirt, she asked her why she was in it. Thankfully, my father pointed out what she would wear in her time!
��������� She has a great sense of humour and doesn���������t like hearing stuff about us. She���������ll fire us behind closed doors, but not spare those who���������ve written nasty things about us.
