Film that relives Mother’s days starts Kolkata leg of shooting

KOLKATA: Filming of the first movie to be shot in Kolkata with international actors during the pandemic began on Banamali Sarkar Street on Saturday. Titled ‘Kavita & Teresa’, the film by Swiss-Indian director Kamal Musale and starring Banita Sandhu, Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz and Deepti Naval is about love and compassion inspired by the life of Mother Teresa.

The film traces the life of Kavita — a spoilt modern young woman of Indian origin living in Toronto. She is caught between an unsatisfying romantic relationship, her parents’ plans to get her married according to Indian tradition and an unexpected pregnancy. She decides to return to her birthplace and seek solace in the arms of her old nanny – who had taken care of her as a child. Incidentally, this nanny (played by Deepti Naval) had been adopted as a child by Mother Teresa when she started working in the slums in 1948. As she narrates the stories from her past, Kavita starts to relive Mother Teresa’s life in the slums of Kolkata.

Filming had begun at the Mumbai studios in January this year. At least 65% of the film was shot there before the pandemic-induced global lockdown changed the narrative. There are local theatre actors in the cast, including Debashree Chakraborty. “We shot in London before coming to Kolkata. We will be shooting here till the end of this year. We believe in women’s empowerment and hence, have a number of women in our crew,” line producer Nupoor Kajbaje Battin.

Shooting during the pandemic has been challenging, she said. “We are shooting in a bubble and have done Covid-19 tests for everyone in the unit. Masks are compulsory. We have shot most of the scenes, including the ones with Deepti Naval, in the Mumbai studio itself. Only those portions that can’t be filmed there are being shot in Kolkata,” Battin added. On being asked if the unit has got in touch with Missionaries of Charity, Battin said, “I can’t reveal that.”

In his note on the film’s website, Musale has mentioned that through extensive research, he has developed the character not as “Mother Teresa”, but as “Teresa”. What’s interesting is his reference to Mother Teresa’s letters that were made public years after her death in 1997. The letters had made some startling revelations about her spiritual pain. “I narrowed the timeframe from the moment Teresa hears her calling from Jesus to her initial years working in the slum. During this approximate 12-year period, Teresa goes through a complete change, from the intensity of her epiphany to the disillusionment and the realization that her connection with God is lost,” the note mentions.


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