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SUMAN MUKHERJEE

A young director of promise

It is heartening to know that some original stories under the banner of Tarkash by young promising writers will come across in a TV serial in 13 episodes, produced by the Audio Visual Arts under the stewardship of Mallika Jalan. The first story and script penned by Arijit Biswas entitled Mrigaya (The Royal Hunt) is currently on the editing tables and is directed by the young and promising Suman Mukherjee.

Mrigaya has the makings of a spy thriller. When a spy-ring dealing in extremely sensitive information is unearthed, it became very clear that international terrorist Raman Srivastava is operating in India and heading the spy network the KGB left behind when it was dissolved. The threat called for an emergency, when it was discovered that Raman was searching for a fissile device lost somewhere in India by a super-power as they supplied it to a terrorist gang operating in the North-east. As the superpower comes to negotiate with the government, Raman blows the whistle on the hush-hush deals of the defence minister and the secret parley is halted.

Raman gets more time to locate the device and blackmail both countries. It becomes clear that Raman is very clear to achieving his goal. Faced with the critical situation, Laxman, the director of Cell 3, calls back Praveen Sharma from retirement. Praveen is now living in self-exile, having lost his memory after being shot in the head in his last operation. His sole obsession now is to regain his lost memory and his only aid is a tune that continues to haunt him. Along with the time he also sees strange scenes from his life which he cannot relate to or remember. However, Cell 3 has in its archive some documentary evidence that once he was close to the gang which controlled the KGB network and might have been close to Raman Srivastava himself.

Praveen agrees to coming back, assuming it to be an opportunity to come to terms with his past and know more about it. He is given the identity of a mercenary and he dives deep in the underground waiting for the elusive contact by Raman.

However, things start going wrong from the first moment. Murders take place around him and the police officer starts hunting for him.

Trapped from all sides Praveen, now more intensely tortured by glimpses of his past, decides to hit back.

Praveen starts pursuing the leads, leads that takes him through the alleyways of Calcutta to the rocky crags of Arunachal where Raman’s men have all but retrieved the missile. He foils their plan and comes to know a deadly truth - Raman Srivastava was none other than himself.

Agonised, he rushes back to Calcutta to clear the puzzle and during the climactic sequence at a resort he comes to know the truth. The two Raman Srivastavas stand face to face - past and the present - Praveen Sharma and Laxman, the director of Cell 3.

The answer to this lies in the fact that as Raman Srivastava, Praveen Sharma did manage to infiltrate the network. He got all the names changed to some cipher written with musical notations and sent them to Laxman. But then, he was discovered and shot in the head. He lost his memory leaving Laxman the only person who knew about the network. Laxman runs the network after this dealing justice in his own way to the corrupt and wicked.

Things come to a head when other agencies come to know about the network and start pursuing the elusive Raman Srivastava. There was a need to create somebody who will take the blame and die leaving Laxman above suspicion and carrying on as before. Laxman knows the game is up and commits suicide — Praveen Sharma starts on a long road to recovery. This story in 13 episodes is expected to be telecast every Sunday on Zee TV at 9.00 p.m.

Suman Mukherjee, the director is young and promising, coming as he does from a theatre background. His father, a veteran actor Arun Mukherjee is linked with the group theatre Cetana and had made his debut in Mrinal Sen’s film Parashuram and bagged the National award. Suman confesses that he was interested in the theatre since the age of 2. He took up the theatre primarily as an actor then shifted to direction. “Because I felt comfortable and enjoy direction,” he admits.

As an actor he has proved his skills in his father’s theatrical productions viz Jagganath, Marich Sangbad, Roshan and subsequently, in Bibhas Chakraborty’s plays, another veteran group theatre director. Suman Mukherjee was educated at St Thomas’s School (Howrah) and graduated with comparative literature in his MA course at the Jadavpur University.

“My interest in films was from the very beginning. But, I started with theatre because I had access to the group theatre. So I begun with the theatre to establish myself and to pacify my passion for creative expression,” says Suman.

This was evident the moment he got a chance to direct films on video in 1994, when Suman joined the Audio Visual Arts Ltd managed by Mallika Jalan. “So I began here directing video films which had entered for the competitive section of the London Short Film Festival in 1996”. Subsequently, he directed a 7 episode tele-serial entitled Dheu (Waves) in 1996 based on the novel by Dibendu Palit. In 1998 Suman directed a three-part episode serial called Agomoni for DD-1.

Aside from directing a number of documentaries drama series for National and satellite channels, Sumon wrote the screenplay and directed a short film on the street children of Calcutta, We Shall Overcome for the British Commonwealth, UK. Mrigaya his latest venture which is to be telecast soon has Bollywood’s Naseeruddin Shah playing the main role of Praveen Sharma supported by Nandini Chatterjee, Ashvikha Kapoor, Akash Khurana, Kunal Padi, Raja RamYagnik, Jaqueline Bose, Kaushik Sen, Shyamanand Jalan, Sunita Sengupta, Rajesh Sharma, Tamyajeet, Dilip Kakkad and Poonam Singh, Dr Jayasri Mitra has undertaken the publicity.

According to Suman Mukherjee “I thought of casting Naseeruddin Shah when the script was being devised.” Although I was a bit sceptical initially as to whether he Naseeruddin will agree to take on the assignment. I felt only Naseeruddin would do justice to the role of Praveen Sharma. Finally he reacted positively after reading the script.” Part of the shooting of Mrigaya is in Moscow. Was it necessary? Suman feels “As because the story revolves around a spy ring notably the KGB. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the KGB was disbanded. After this the persons involved in the spy ring started operating for an International terrorist Raman Srivastava. KGB is the Moscow centre so it was necessary for the shooting.”

What was it like working with Bollywood’s Naseeruddin Shah? “Working with Naseeruddin was a fabulous experience especially, an actor of his calibre. I learnt a lot of things from him. He is very encouraging to us young directors with fresh ideas,” concludes Suman Mukherjee.