A forceful impact

life meaningful. Force also refers to the strength of the rapport between a father and his son. It also refers to the power of love that heals.

What is so special about this father-son relationship?

In the film, my son is an autistic child, without a mother to take care of him. This strengthens the bond between father and son, placing more responsibility on the single parent, whose life is already burdened with his official engagements in the police force. The father is a professional encounter specialist, depicting the ruthlessness in his profession and the intense feelings he has for his son is the challenge I had to take on. He is torn between his hectic job, and his responsibility towards his son.

Do you think having your wife Arpita as a co-star is a risk that you have taken?

We will be seen on screen after a gap of 11 years. However, we do not have a romantic relationship in the film, she plays a character trained to take care of special children. Arpita makes her own decisions, and it was the director who suggested her for the role. I had no role in this casting game. Arpita liked the script, and agreed to do the film, I don’t consider that a commercial risk.

Did the boy undergo special training to play an autistic child?

We worked in collaboration with Dr. Bhattacharya from Speech Plus Clinic which specialises in taking care of special children. In fact, the organisation plays a vital role in this film, and we are planning exclusive screenings for special children with the help of Speech Plus Clinic. Ayan has worked really hard for three-four months with trainers from the institute. I know how difficult it is for a normal person to behave like a special person. I had to walk with a limp right through Mishawr Rohossho and sustaining the limp throughout the film was even more difficult. For Ayan, it must have been a bigger challenge, but you must watch the film to empathise with it.

What kind of audience is the movie targetting?

Force is a content-driven film—We want to address the entire population of West Bengal and thereby, break the schism that supposedly exists between single screen and multiplex audiences. We have a huge audience, but over the past decade, it has become a bit divided, between what is termed as the classy multiplex audience and the mass single-screen audience. This is not healthy for Bengali cinema. With films like Force, we are trying to break through the existing schism. Force offers wholesome family entertainment that has not been very visible in West Bengal, till recently. It is a simple story told in a straightforward manner. Neither is Force like Bikram Singha, which is a violent action film, nor does it fall under the category of films like Moner Manush. To repeat a cliché, ‘it is ‘different.’

What are your forthcoming films?

We are waiting for the release of Parambrata Chatterjee’s Lorai which focusses on football – the timing is just right. I play an angry, nagging and irritating football coach in the film. The other is Gautam Ghose’s film on about the Bengal partition. The film questions why Bengal was divided into two regions, namely, East and West Bengal. This is linked to what we are now facing, and is a nostalgic film that raises several pertinent and uneasy questions that plague every Bengali.