'The perception of a 'muse' can often get excessively physicalised': Nandana Sen

A thinking man's actor. A committed child rights activist. A skilled screenwriter. A thoughtful children's author. Nandana Sen is all of this, and yet none of the above. In a career spanning two decades, Nandana - daughter of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and noted Bengali writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen - has striven to break free from any easy labels that tend to box an aesthete. If she has attempted to be a Jane of all trades, her efforts at being the master of all have born fruit. Sample this: as a student of literature at Harvard University, Nandana was recipient of the prestigious John Harvard Scholarship and the Elizabeth Agassiz Award, both for academic achievement of the highest distinction every year. Years later, when she forayed into Bollywood, instead of banking on the sex symbol image Indian media was keen to anoint her as, she chose an unconventional role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black and followed it up with edgier characters in films such as Rang Rasiya and Bengali film Autograph. Apart from her work in films, she has also carved a niche for herself as a children's author, having penned three books in the genre, with the latest - Talky Tumble of Jumble Farm - recently making its way to bookshelves. And yet, Nandana, who is married to former chairman of Penguin Random House John Makinson, is far from done. In a conversation with WKND from Essex, where she is currently working on a book on three generations of rule-breaking Bengali women with her mother, Nandana tells us what inspires herself to reinvent herself. Time and again!
This is your fourth children's book. What draws you towards children's fiction as a writer?
Yes, it is - and a very fun one too. Talky Tumble of Jumble Farm is full of funny, warm and fuzzy stories in rhyme, beautifully illustrated - and it's also a playful, interactive book of word puzzles, perfect for kids who have just started reading. Children's books open up such a rich world of imagination and wonder; at the same time, the influence of kids' books is enormous. In very inventive ways, they can make children more aware of the world they live in, inform their values and develop their thinking. For instance, Mambi and the Forest Fire (her previous book) is about equality and empathy, and Talky Tumble is all about solving problems and caring for your family. A single book that's fun and imaginative can go a long way in shaping the way a child looks at the world.

Do you think it's important for adult readers to be as invested in reading children's fiction?
Personally, I have a huge appetite for reading books for children - and it's no coincidence that many of my all-time favourite authors have written for both children and adults - be it Rabindranath Tagore or Roald Dahl, Maya Angelou or Margaret Atwood. But I wouldn't impose my own love of kid-lit on other adults - so many great books to read, and there's never enough time. However, I do think it's important for parents to inculcate in children, from a very young age, a love of books - not only is reading lots of fun, we also know that it helps hugely in a child's intellectual, social and emotional development. So, investing in reading books with kids is a great idea!

What are the most common mistakes writers tend to make while writing children's fiction?
Talking "down" to kids in their books, and being preachy. It's so important to connect with a child's world of limitless imagination, a world that we often, unwittingly, give up as we grow up. Children can always tell when a grown-up is "faking it", trying hard to fit into a child's world, rather than belonging to it naturally.

You have been a child rights activist, working with UNICEF and later RAHI. How does your experience as a child rights activist impact your fiction writing?
My books grew directly out of my work with children - I adore working with kids, and I've always loved to write, so children's books bring together two great loves of mine. For example, Mambi, the spunky monkey, came into my life in a room full of amazing kids, in SNEHA, a home in Kolkata, India, for women and children rescued from trafficking. The plan for the day was to encourage the kids to express themselves through theatre and dance, but this group was initially very shy. Though they were incredibly creative, the kids had little confidence in themselves, and most didn't believe they had any 'gifts' worth sharing . So, I found myself conjuring up my friend Mambi on the spot - a shy monkey who wants to be like her older, "cooler" jungle friends, but turns out to be more heroic than anyone else. By the end of the afternoon, I was playing with the most delightfully raucous bunch of kids - the transformation was incredibly moving. When I wrote the book, I wanted to find a fun way of encouraging kids to embrace their own unique identities while celebrating the differences, making them think about the fact that everyone is equally special.

Whether with UNICEF, Operation Smile, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Sanlaap, Terre des Hommes Foundation, SOS Villages, or FXB Suraksha, my work with kids (and my campaign against gender-based violence) has always been a big part of my life, and these experiences are often the inspiration for my monthly fiction series Youthquake. Taking its cue from current affairs and contemporary reality, this series focuses on young-adult issues (such as adolescence and sexual violence, domestic abuse, etc), and is published across a number of news platforms in India. Eventually, these will also be published as a book of short stories.

The NGO with whom I've had the longest relationship is RAHI, which works with survivors of child abuse. We have been working together for over 16 years; in fact, the very first acting role I played in Mumbai was that of the traumatised protagonist of 30 Days in September at Prithvi Theatre, a play based on RAHI's pioneering fieldwork. The play prompted many survivors to speak up and begin the process of healing; it even inspired an audience member to start an NGO in Mumbai. It was a very powerful experience as an actor as well as an advocate. Most recently, my work with RAHI moved me to write the screenplay of The Performer, set in Mumbai, which directly addresses the crisis of child abuse.
In India, the kind of shift you have made from an actor to a writer would be deemed unusual. Would you say writing is your comfort one? How organic was this shift?
Very organic indeed. I feel truly lucky that I am as comfortable with (and passionate about) books as I am with films - my writing has always complemented my acting. Even when I was at my busiest as an actor, I wrote quite a bit - screenplays, short fiction, Op Eds on child rights, poetry, etc.

You have had a fairly long career as an actress in Bollywood. What are the aspects of that film industry you could, or could not, relate to?
My career as an actor has been enormously fun but also quite eccentric - friends as well as well-wishers have often been equally startled by the roles I took on, as by those I turned down. If we define Bollywood as mainstream Hindi films, as a viewer, I absolutely adore this genre but, as an actor, I've actually done hardly any. I love the universality of cinema as a medium, which is why I've chosen to work mostly in "indie" films from across the world - Mumbai, Kolkata, London, New York, Rome, Los Angeles, Montreal, Cape Town, Toronto, etc. What excites me most about cinema is its transformative power - I believe films can truly change the way we view the world, and move us to take action. It's no coincidence that I'm typically drawn to films with a strong social or political consciousness (with topics such as religious intolerance, child abuse, the inhumanity of war, apartheid, censorship of art, women's equality, the rights of the disabled, domestic abuse, and so on).
Be it the play Modigliani or the Ketan Mehta film Rang Rasiya, you have often essayed roles of a muse. What are the challenges of playing someone else's ideal?
Yes, and in the Bengali blockbuster Autograph too - what an interesting question! The perception of a "muse" can often get excessively physicalised - the challenge is to humanise rather than idealise the character, and not let the audience be overwhelmed by the physicality of the role. As in playing any other part, it's important to inhabit the character in its entirety, with every emotional and psychological complexity, especially the vulnerabilities. In all three stories, the "muse" in question pays the human cost for the great art she inspired - be it through heartbreak, betrayal, ostracisation or death. With Modigliani and Rang Rasiya, there was the additional challenge of being true to a historical character in a particular social and political climate that we already knew a lot about - the kind of challenge I absolutely love.

You have said your dad is more rational while your mom is more emotional. Which aspect of their respective personalities do you personally relate to more?
I think I meant that their personal "styles" of expression, rather than their natures, are more one way than the other, but both my parents have their strongly emotional as well as clearly rational sides. And I must say I've always fought against binary definitions like these (laughs) - do I love cinema or books? As an actress, do I see myself as sexy or arty? Am I rational or emotional? There are so many aspects to all of us that co-exist and are equally true - don't you think?

True. What are some of your future projects as a writer?
Truth be told, I have taken on a few too many projects - though all wonderfully fun, and very different from each other. The adult project I'm most excited about is Mother Tongues, an ambitious book my mother and I are working on together about three generations of rule-breaking Bengali women and the fashioning of a woman-powered literary tradition. We've been wanting to write this for years - in fact, my mother is working away on her computer next to me right now, in our home in Little Beeleigh Farm in Essex, UK. Like 2016 and 2017, next year too will see the publication of several of my children's books, including Mambi and the Rain Dance (the next book in the bestselling Mambi series). I'm also collaborating with the very talented Paris-based artist Kris DiGiacomo on Earth Song, a playful book in rhyme sponsored by the Institut Francais, about taking care of our planet - Kris and I will be presenting the project together at Bookaroo, as part of the Bonjour India festival. Also in 2018, the celebrated publisher Feltrinelli will publish my children's novel in Italian, illustrated by the award-winning artist Anna Laura Cantone, based on the popular character of Mambi.
As for screenplays, I'm working with Italian filmmaker and anthropologist Franco de la Cecla on Indian Kiss. I'm also excited about my script for The Performer, which is an uplifting story about second chances and about family, set in the interconnected worlds of cinema, journalism and politics in Mumbai. I've also been asked to adapt this screenplay into a novel, represented by literary agent Andrew Wylie.

anamika@khaleejtimes.com