EXCLUSIVE | Pallavi Joshi on The Bengal Files: ‘Playing an old lady with dementia was tough; my character was fictitious…’

On a rainy Mumbai morning catching up with Pallavi Joshi over a cup of coffee in her home was indeed a pleasure. She has always been warm and a spontaneous conversationalist, so getting her to speak on her role in ‘The Bengal Files’ was like music to the ear.

 Edited excerpts of the first part of the interview:

 Tell us about your character Pallavi and how did you prepare yourself?  

While all the characters are real, only Maa Bharti is an imaginary character. I think we are the only country where we consider our motherland as goddess. While the younger Bharti is a real character, the older version is imaginary and that’s the one that I play.

The younger Bharti had many references. A lot of research was available on her. But when it came to the older version that is my character, there were no references because it was out of imagination. In the Hindi film industry or any film industry of the world, the characters are always imaginary. But in the space of reality to play an imaginary character is a little daunting because there isn’t any reference material available.

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When I did  _The Kashmir Files_ , there were videos and articles that I could go through and I had a lot of help to design my character. Here everything had to come out of imagination. So, it was a little scary in the beginning and I took a long time to prepare. The physicality of the character was something that I had to get right. Looking at the character was another big job because while we are not really defining her age, yes, she is a very old woman.

What were the challenges of getting into the character of an old lady with dementia?

The challenge was that both Vivek and I were against the use of prosthetics because once it sticks to your face, the expression is lost. If you look at Kamal Hassan in Chachi 420. It is such a brilliant film, you can laugh at each and every dialogue. But as for Kamal Hassan, he was so stiff throughout, he made it appear very funny because the stiffness kind of helped him. But prosthetics in India, though we have good prosthetic artists, it kind of stops you from emoting. But their expertise lies in the horror genre. I felt I would look scary.

But the character that I play is somebody like your grandmother, who will take out a besan ka ladoo from her brass box and give it to you. And not someone who looks scary. She had to be someone who is warm and caring and very motherlike. We weren’t achieving that with prosthetics, so we tried several different things by using makeup, costumes, hair and I had to walk like an older lady. I actually started behaving like an older lady at home until it became a muscle memory for me. For me speed comes naturally, but everything for my character was slow and plus she has got dementia. So, I had to bring those elements out through my craft. She cannot look fearful or unhappy. She had to just look lost and vague.

Playing an old lady with dementia was tough. One day I was sitting in my room, I couldn’t see anything and everything around me was milky white. I had to create that space. I was making so many notes. In fact, my notes were probably thicker than the script of the movie.

At home how did people react to it since you were literally living the character?

I will tell you what happened. After the shooting ended, I was having my cup of tea. And I was just getting up from my chair with a limp holding my hips. And my son started saying, “Mom now it’s over. Please be yourself!”

WATCH the trailer of the The Bengal Files here: