What is your response to the international accolades showered on your films vis-a-vis their delayed release in your home country and state, West Bengal?
I feel sad when I see that with all the international acclaim, my films fail to find a proper public release in my homeland, West Bengal. I make films that are Bengali in plot and theme and Indian in soul and spirit. My themes deal with the universality of loneliness, alienation and the average man’s increasing failure to communicate his innermost feelings to the fellow man. I use abstractions, ideas, my thoughts picked up at random and position them in the way I feel suits the ideology of the film and the characters that people it. But somehow, the films seem to get trapped. Jhamu Sugandh of Mumbai produced my last two films Swapner Din and Kaalpurush. But now that it has been released in Kolkata, I am feeling happy.

How did you feel when you heard your 14th film had won the Golden Lotus at the National Awards in 2006?
This is the sixth time that I received a National Award, and it is always gratifying. However, I don’t keep my awards - either in my mindspace or my house. Kaalpurush is a very different film. I was lucky to have talented stars like Mithun Chakraborty, Rahul Bose, and Sameera Reddy in the film.

How would you describe the film?
Kaalpurush is drawn from two published novels of mine - America America and Rahasyamoy. Since I work with a loosely structured narrative and do not believe in a linear narrative, I have no problems dealing with several strands and bringing them together. This film is about the relationship between a father and his son and how the relationship undergoes mutations over time and space, influencing in turn, their relationship with others. The father and the son are both failures in life, if one is to take ‘failure’ in the common-sense meaning of the term in an era of globalisation and material success. They choose their way of living and have no problems doing so. But is the world they live in, prepared to accept this ‘choice’? These are the questions I hoped to raise through Kaalpurush.

When you were asked to offer one of your recent films for screening at the Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival in New Delhi, what made you choose Kaalpurush?
I chose Kaalpurush firstly, because one rarely gets to see a Bengali film in the movie halls in Delhi and secondly because Rahul Bose is one of my favorite actors and rated one of the best in the industry today by many cine lovers. I was definitely not disappointed in my choice, with the film raising emotions that lingered on much after the viewing was over. Sameera Reddy’s acting skills were a welcome surprise, and showed what the right script and director can achieve. This was definitely a “role of substance” for the Bollywood item girl, who appeared in a non-glamour film for the first time.

How did Rahul approach the role of Sumanto, the withdrawn son of Ashwini played by Mithun Chakraborty?
I was aware that Rahul does not really belong to the class Sumanto belonged to. But having seen some of his films, I knew he is a hard worker. He changed his Bengali diction so that he could dub his lines. He has a fresh face and is withdrawn in personal life. So I was confident that he would be able to give credibility to Sumanto.

For every film that you make, there is a basic philosophy that sort of rationalises your form and content. What is the philosophy or ideology of Kaalpurush?
Most of us attempt to leave a deep reflection of our lives on the reality around us and unknowingly, extend this to the zone of the unreal. It is not only a question of human feelings but is also a hard struggle between tradition and modernity, past and present, where, never mind whether we are winners or losers or neither, we remain incorrigible and indefatigable dreamers.