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ENTERTAINMENT:
CINEMA
DUB
AND BE DAMNED
A Bengali
actress claims she dubbed for Kiron Kher in her award-winning film. Did
the Khers mislead the jury?
By
S. Kalidas and Labonita Ghosh
 |
| Kiron
Kher: Voice Trouble |
Did
she or did she not? That is the million dollar question. With Kiron Kher
winning the National Award for best actress for her lead role in the Bengali
feature film Bariwali (directed by Rituparno Ghosh and produced by Anupam
Kher) a shrill controversy is now raging over whether she dubbed the film
in her own voice or not.
Kiron may
not be a prolific actress but few will deny that she would like to be
remembered as an actress of substance. From Darmiyan to Sardari Begum
she has been the diva of the offbeat. So when she is not anchoring gender
and issue-based talk shows for television channels she is doing major
roles in art cinema celebrating the marginals.
But great
actors invariably get embroiled in petty controversies. Doing roles in
a language in which one is not fluent is never easy. Add to this the categorical
claim by a Bengali television and film actress, Reeta Kayral, that contrary
to Kiron's claims, she, Kayral, had dubbed the entire role for Kiron.
Here you have a full-blown fracas with accusations and clarifications
flying across the sharply polarised film world between Tollygunje and
Bollywood.
According
to Kayral, she dubbed for Kiron based on the pilot track (the "live"
sound during shooting) which had Kiron's voice, including some lines spoken
in Hindi when Kiron had her back to the camera. "Otherwise, why would
the director pay me to do it?" she asks. And moreover, why would
the producer offer her half of the award money? "Anupam Kher called
me several times. He wanted to know about the dates of the dubbing, etc.
Then he said that I deserved 50 per cent of the National Award remuneration
if I had dubbed for Kiron," says Kayral.
Kayral claims
she has dubbed every frame of the film from dialogues to weeping and breathing,
including the complicated climatic scene where Kiron is holding onto the
cupboard and crying. This scene was so difficult, says Kayral, that "I
literally did the dubbing for that scene with glycerine in my eyes".
With Kher
negotiating the release of the film in Bengal around Durga Puja, neither
Kayral nor anyone else in Calcutta has seen the final print of Bariwali
as yet. But Kayral says people on the jury, particularly the chairman,
Goutam Ghosh, have told her that they recognised the voice as hers. "Goutamda
said to me, 'I have known Kiron for a long time and I know she cannot
speak such good Bengali'," says Kayral, who played a cameo role herself
in Aparna Sen's Paromitar Ek Din, the other contender for the National
Award.
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