Interview | Doing a Paramhansa Yogananda or a Rabindranath Tagore is my biggest challenge: Victor Banerjee

During his illustrious acting career, legendary actor Victor Banerjee has played several memorable characters in films such as A Passage to India, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Ghare-Baire, Bitter Moon, and Jogger’s Park, among others. But his portrayal of Nobel laureate and distinguished polymath Rabindranath Tagore in Pablo César’s Indo-Argentinian film, Thinking of Him, which is set to hit the theatres across India on the occasion of Tagore’s 161^st birth anniversary, holds a special place in his heart.

“Sometimes when you play the role of an eminent person who is very much alive in the minds and hearts of the people, it is easy to misinterpret and make a mess of the portrayal. So in a sense doing a Paramhansa Yogananda or a Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is probably my biggest challenge. I can’t rate any of the other films which are fictional with the portrayal of a personality that’s as great as Tagore,” asserts Banerjee who recently has been conferred with the prestigious Padma Bhushan award by the Government of India.

During his research while preparing for the part of Tagore, Victor Banerjee got introduced to many lesser known aspects about the Nobel Laureate. “All of us have preconceived notions of what he looked like, how he walked, how he talked, and I have discovered from the research that most of the impressions that the public have of the way he moved, the way he talked are in fact incorrect. They are actually exaggerations of what they have created in their minds from the little visuals they have picked up. But when you look at the archival footage you realise that the man had many other facets besides just being an incredible poet,” explains Banerjee.

The noted Argentinean director Pablo César travelled all the way to Mussoorie in order to meet Banjerjee and cast him for the part of Tagore in Thinking of Him. “I remember when Pablo César came to Mussoorie, he seemed to suggest that it was my eyes that he liked and he felt that I had a look that resembled the depth he needed in someone portraying Rabindranath. So that was the reason he cast me. It was pretty swift. In fact, if you compare it to A Passage to India, there was another very swift casting. I remembered I walked in and David Lean simply said, “You are it (Dr Aziz)”. Similarly, Pablo César was sure at first sight that I would be the right person to play Tagore in the film. So, if you don’t like my portrayal then you can blame him,” chuckles Banjerjee.

As part of his preparation, Banerjee listened to recordings of Tagore. He also read about Argentinian writer Victoria Ocampo who idolised Tagore, having read the French translation of Gitanjali. Ocampo is said to have taken care of Tagore during his Bueno Aires visit in 1924, when he fell ill. The two are said to have formed a deep and emotional but platonic bond. They continued to exchange letters till his death in 1941. “During my preparation, I read about the fact that the French translation of Gitanjali was far superior to the English one and that’s what Ocampo had fallen head over heels in love with. People tend to think that Thinking of Him is a story about Tagore but it’s actually about Ocampo thinking of Tagore. So it’s actually her film and all I do is play a supporting role to her love, her admiration for this man,” reveals Banerjee.

Banerjee’s research also allowed him to understand the love and appreciation that the people of Argentina have for Tagore. “I found Ocampo quite amazing and my preparation was in reading about her, her association with people like Camus. My favourite author in the world is Marquez and he is from that part of the world. So my association with that area and with that thinking has been a long one, a very intimate one. So, I was trying to understand what it was that made Argentineans so fond of Tagore, of Santiniketan, of wondering what our education system was like, and why they would try to make a film. It is what really amazed me and made me think. So, essentially, my research was researching into their lives more than Tagore’s,” recollects Banerjee.

Banerjee’s chemistry with Eleonora Wexler is a major highlight of César’s directorial, co-produced by the award-winning Indian filmmaker Suraj Kumar. “Eleonara was a lovely person to work with and so my chemistry with her was very easy. She is a soft, kind, compassionate, human being, and a superb actress. As an actor you look into the eyes of your co-actor and you can actually go very, very deep into their soul and that’s when you discover the kind of person you are working with,” explains Banerjee.

Banerjee, who has won countless national and international awards during his celebrated career, strongly feels that the Padma Bhushan holds the highest place in the long list of accolades that he has been bestowed with. “No international award you can ever win can equal recognition by your own people, your own country. The greatest thing that’s happened to me in my life is my being given this Padma Bhushan award. I accept it on behalf of my parents, my people of Bengal, and my lovely people of Assam who adore me and do a lot for me and as most of you know I am very close to the Northeast; I accept it on behalf of my co-workers, on behalf of Suraj Kumar in this instance. They are all responsible for this one award. This is an award I owe to all of you. I have decorated it on my wall on your behalf but you will be the ones that I will worship,” rejoices Banerjee.

The Ghare-Baire actor has a special recommendation to the Government of India. “The Padma Shri awardees, they are the actual blood and soul of our country. They are the ones who are fighting to make this a better country for all of us. So my recommendation to the government is that every Padma Shri awardee should have his parents, spouse, and children, at least four people, who are allowed free of charge into every Indian heritage monument, museum so that they have access to all our heritage, our past, history and traditions because they are the ones upholding those traditions and they are the ones who are going to teach our children and keep this ‘parampara’ going,” avers Banerjee.

Despite having worked with some of the most notable film directors in India as well as in the world over the last five decades including Satyajit Ray, David Lean, and Roman Polanski, the most satisfying experience of his illustrious career remains on the stage. “While I have always enjoyed acting and I continue to enjoy every moment of it, I think the most satisfying project of my life has been when I played Jesus Christ in the 1988 production of the York Mystery Plays in 1988 in York, England,” recollects Banerjee. During the production, he spent two months in York, rehearsing with 200 people, in an open air stage, working naked at subzero temperatures on the cross and without a heater.

“It was a two-and-a-half-hour performance in Old English with the people of York. And I can tell you that I have never been more loved or closer to the aspects of humanity than when playing Jesus in York. As soon as the people of York discovered that I was the one playing Jesus no restaurant would charge me for any meals or tea or coffee. The newspaper stands wouldn’t charge me for the newspapers. Even my cigarettes I was beginning to get for free and it was amazing how friendly and loving and giving the entire city of York was,” he fondly remembers.

Working on the play in the open air, in the cold, in St Mary’s Abbey, also made him realise people all across the world are superstitious at one level or the other. “The York Mystery plays used to have a half an hour interval after an almost three-hour long show. And that half an hour because of the temperature we were given hot soup to drink across the street in a school. After about one week of my performing Jesus I would walk out onto the street and be met by people, who had their children with leukemia and cancer, their parents dying of Alzheimer’s, saying, “Please bless them.”

I was once even taken away during the interval in a car to a dying child to bless him because they thought the miracle would work. Then on the Sundays the hospices would invite me. That’s the kind of belief that we in India actually nurture and the human beings living in various other parts of the world are no different,” asserts Banerjee.

The legendary actor misses being on the stage and hopes to return to it one day. “It’s really special when you are on the stage; it is the only time when you know whether you are good or bad. You can feel it. It’s a palpable thing. The audience is alive, they are not dead. You can hear their breathing, their sighs, and their every reaction. So acting on the stage is fantastic,” opines Banerjee.

The Bitter Moon actor has performed all across the globe but he has never performed at the Prithvi Theatre. “Prithivi’s greatest thing was that you could work three feet away from the audience. That’s a great feeling. So stage is something any stage actor would give his life to be on but I am getting old, my memory is beginning to fail me. But I do hope to be back on the stage one day. I am hoping that the Royal Shakespeare Company will ask me to play King Lear,” signs off Banerjee.

The author is an Indian critic and journalist who has been covering cinema, art and culture for over 10 years. Views expressed are personal.

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