My sasuma played my shrink: Rituparna

Rituparna Sengupta’s mother-in-law has made her acting debut with ‘Murder’
No, this isn’t a remake of “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi”. But, it is surely giving a new twist to the saas-bahu relationship. Recently, during the shoot of Jay Prakash’s double version film titled “Mad Lover” (“Murder” in Bengali) in Goa, Rituparna Sengupta’s mother-in-law, Dr Shakuntala Chakraborty, made her acting debut and shot two scenes with the actor.Perhaps, this is the first time that any Indian actor has shared the screen with her motherin-law where the latter has essayed her real-life professional self on the big screen.
Says Rituparna, “While shooting for this film in Goa, I was told that we would have to go down to Mumbai to shoot for a nursing home sequence. Besides certain date issues, I also found it extremely hectic to go down to Mumbai to shoot these scenes. My mother-in-law is a doctor and was there with me in Goa during this shooting. It was my director’s idea that she play a psychiatrist in the movie. On being asked, my motherin-law smartly asked for her lines to be sent across so that she could prepare for the same. She insisted that I be her teacher while she turned into an obedient student and asked me to confirm if she had crammed her lines properly. And guess what? Both the scenes were one-take okays. What was even more interesting is that she also shot for both the Hindi and Bengali versions of the movie.”
Shakuntala, on her part, says, “I’ve been the head of the department of anaesthesia at the Calcutta Medical College. After my retirement, I have been working as a consultant at various nursing homes. I have done plays but have never acted in films. I was both excited and nervous when this offer came to me out of the blue. After all, Ritu is a very good actor and I didn’t know if I could pull it off beside her. However, Ritu helped me a lot and I’m glad that my director has liked my performance. I am open to acting assignments in future provided they do justice to my age and capabilities.”
As for her daughter-in-law, Shakuntala is also praises for her. “I loved her in “Dahan” and “Paromitar Ekdin”. More recently, I loved her in “Chaturanga” and “Bedini”. I am happy that she is still working even though she is in an advanced stage of pregnancy now. As a doctor, I feel she should continue working as long as she can while being careful about her health.” Rituparna is expecting her second child in the second week of May.