The actress par excellence with a disarming smile, Pallavi Joshi has made her debut in a short film called Pressure Cooker, in which she plays a bored housewife. Pallavi tells JYOTHI VENKATESH that Pressure Cooker is about the analogy of an irritating pressure cooker of a housewife and her extremely irritating husband who depends on her for every need of his.
What do you think about MIFF 2018 held recently?
It is a very good thing that the makers of short films and documentaries are getting a good platform in the form of MIFF to showcase what they are making. They should also get their rightful place in the sun. When you make a short film or a documentary, you can work on intelligent and offbeat ideas and Indian stories without any limitations.
You have acted in the short film ‘Pressure Cooker’ directed by Heena D’ Souza, which was showcased by MIFF this year. Can you tell us something about what the film is all about?
In the India of 1990s, which hadn’t yet opened up to the glitter of the free market and unimaginable choices, like today, monotony had a flavour attached to it, which was crafted with utmost care and attention over the years. What happens when a lonely housewife from lower-middle-class Mumbai starts getting a taste of novelty through a metaphorical new automatic pressure cooker and also the attraction of a younger man. Whether she will be able to allow new commodities to enter the floodgates of her world, forms the crux of the film.
How was the experience as an actress?
The subject was very cute because it did not have a conclusive end. It is for the first time in my career that I have acted in a short film like Pressure Cooker. It was a fairly enjoyable experience working with a woman-oriented film directed by a woman director.
What message does the film set out to drive home?
The film is an effort by the director Heena D’souza to look at the changing modernizing worlds of commodity and sexuality in an era where a change of anything, especially a kitchen appliance was a deeply emotional issue. From the eyes of a middle-aged Mumbai woman, Pressure Cooker is about the analogy of an irritating pressure cooker of a housewife and her extremely irritating husband who depends on her for every need of his. How she settles for her old cooker though she had a choice to opt for a brand new one, forms the crux of the plot of the film.
How did you approach your role in the short film?
I play Swati, the wife of a dispirited husband. There are so many hidden layers in it, even though it is a very simple story. The director hasn’t tried to tell you which angle you should follow, and she hasn’t tried to play the intellectual card at all. It’s told so simply that you understand every little nuance in it. Like her character in the film realizes that even though caught in the rut, the old will always be gold, the times have changed and for someone belonging to that era, not everything was a throwaway fashion.
Can you elaborate on this point a bit?
Back in our time, when I was a kid, the things and appliances used to run for a long time. You had a transistor, two in one radio set, TV which lasted for 10-12 years. That doesn’t happen anymore. We’re living in an age where even Apple has confessed to slowing down their phones once the new models are out. And that mindset translates to everything else too. In today’s time, even the relationships are now ‘use and throw’ like disposable relationships.
How did you prepare to get into the skin of your character?
I have a friend who went in for a separation after several years of marriage when she realized that her husband had fallen in love with another woman. When I asked her if she had moved on in life, she frankly told me that she was not ready to go through the whole process of wooing yet another person after her traumatic split from her husband, though she was not exactly whining, because she was beyond that phase. I kept in mind my friend’s situation when I agreed to act in the short film.
Were you not sceptical about Heena D’ Souza since she is a new director?
Heena was very confident and not at all in awe of me. Girls of today’s generation are not like what we were earlier. They know exactly what they have to deliver of today. I feel that it isn’t fair that you should be suspicious or doubtful about whether a new director would be able to direct a film. I should say that Heena was indeed very wonderful. Can you believe it, but she completed the film in just three days.
Can you evaluate your growth over the years as an actress?
I may have acted in as many as 25 films as a child artist and I have to my credit as many as 65 to 70 films as an adult actress. I should confess that I have acted more in TV shows than films over the years. I had made my debut with the Marathi play Mukhavate as a child actress. It was the Marathi adaptation of the popular play Adhe Adhure by Mohan Rakesh.
How would you feel your career has shaped since the last few years?
I think your age and experience help you tremendously as an actor and make you a better artist. When you are in your 20’s, whether you like it or not, the fact is that you only imagine things, whereas when you are in your 40’s you will know things.
What is your role in The Tashkent File?
I play a bitch of a woman called Ayesha Alisha in the film. I am playing one of the members who is asked to sit on a judicial enquiry in the film.
When do you plan to turn a director?
I do not think that it is for me to turn a director, though I consider myself a good producer especially because I am little laid back. I feel that acting is also tough and I do not think that I want to increase my troubles by also setting out to direct films like my husband Vivek Agnihotri does.
Which are the five best films of yours according to you?
Andha Yudh, Making of The Mahatma, Sooraj ka Saatwa Ghoda, Buddha In A Traffic Jam and The Tashkent File, which has just been completed and being readied for release.
What are you working on next?
Right now I am working on a film called The Tashkent File which revolves around a chapter in the late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s life and times. I am glad that I have been pitted in the film with a host of talented actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Mithun Chakraborty, Shweta Basu Prasad, Pankaj Tripathi and Prakash Belawade. My husband Vivek Agnihotri is directing the film after his directorial venture Buddha In A Traffic Jam. I play Ayesha Ali Shah, a bitch of a woman in The Tashkent File. It was very difficult to play the character because I was given the strict brief by my director – husband that I should not smile at all, though it is my natural disposition to smile.
