Freeze frame: Bengal tigresses come together

thirty years after yash chopra's daag, the two bengali tigresses, raakhee and sharmila tagore, are all set to share screen space once again, this time in a bengali film to be directed by the well known kolkata director rituparno ghosh. the film is reportedly a whodunit inspired by agatha christie's novel the mirror cracked. while sharmila tagore plays the role of a retired film actress, it's raakhee who has a scenestealing role as kolkata's own version of agatha christie's detective jane marple, a role that the seasoned british actress angela lansbury immortalised in a movie version.raakhee laughs at the thought of playing such an unusual character and that too in a bengali movie. "i play the detective everyone's favourite pishi (aunt) who solves a murder mystery. though footage-wise the role isn't half as lengthy as sharmila tagore's part i'm quite content with what's been offered to me." earlier, raakhee was all but finalised for ghosh's national award winning film bariwali when he suddenly had to sign kiron kher for a role which he claims had been written with raakhee in mind. raakhee holds no grudges against kolkata's most celebrated director (whose latest release titli pulled off another casting coup by featuring mother aparna sen and daughter konkana together). "ritu had to make bariwali, and he had to make it in the most financially feasible way. we're all professionals here. i see no reason why i must hold a change in his cast against him. these things happen in the cinema all the time. when ritu called me hesitantly from kolkata for his new film, i told him to come over to mumbai. when i heard the script i immediately liked the sound of the film and specially my role. for once, i'll have an opportunity to do a fun role. though my role of the bengali detective isn't comic, i'll get to say lines which will have the audiences roaring with laughter." raakhee admits sharmila tagore has the author-backed role. but such things have never bothered this spunky actress. in her very first film reshma aur shera, though waheeda rehman was the leading lady, raakhee blew the screen apart in a 15-minute role. history repeated itself when the actress came face to face with sharmila tagore in yash chopra's first production daag. though raakhee came into the narrative only at intermission, she walked away with all the recognition -including the filmfare award for best actress in a parallel role. says the reclusive media-shy enchantress, "to me the length of a role has never been important. if it was, i wouldn't have done reshma aur shera at the beginning of my career and ek rishta: the bond of love last year. working with director suneel darshan, akshay kumar and amitabh bachchan in ek rishtaa was a wonderful experience. i felt i was part of a reallife family during the shooting." now suneel darshan wants raakhee to play a pivotal role in his under-production film talaash, once again as akshay kumar's mother. "akshay's first film saugandh had me as his mother. last year i felt nostalgic while playing his mother again in suneel's film, though we didn't have too many scenes together." this year raakhee also plays aishwarya rai's mother in a film that's being produced by aishwarya's mother. says raakhee, "they were very keen to have me, probably because they see a facial resemblance between aishwarya and me. they also seem to be very nice people. right now i'm looking for roles in films where i feel comfortable with the set-up and where i've more to do than simply playing the cine-maa."