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Lunch with RosselliniThe great man is not at home," said Sonalini as we entered her home in Rome. Thegreat man' was none other than ...

Lunch with Rossellini
The great man is not at home," said Sonalini as we entered her home in Rome. Thegreat man’ was none other than legendary Italian film director Roberto Rossellini. The story of Sonalini, known throughout Rome as "Madame Sonalini" — such an Italian sounding name fleeing with babe in arms with Rossellini from Calcutta in the ’50s is a familiar one by now. My mother’s cousin, Geeta Pocha, had been in Shantiniketan with Sonalini and that was the connection that got us invited for dinner to the great man’s’ home in 1967 when I was on vacation in Rome with my parents, brother and sister.By 1967, the babe in arms was an 11-year old boy. Gil remains India’s link to the Rossellini name and legacy and he has made frequent trips to the land of his birth over the last decade.

By the time of our visit, there was an addition to the family, Gil’s half-sister Rafaella, now settled in Caracas. Gil had left India before he was a year old and he and Rafaella spoke only Italian, while the three of us — my brother, sister and I — spoke only English at the time. But we were of the same age group and even after three decades the memories of how we all got along so well despite the language barrier remain sweet and vivid.

It was wonderful meeting Gil again during the recent IFFI in the Capital and renewing a friendship that shone so brightly but briefly 33 years ago. Our abiding link with that evening were three model Ferrari cars which Gil gifted to my brother and me and which we in turn handed down to his two sons. Gil tells me they are priceless, a gift to his father from Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the Italian car company. The two shared a lifelong friendship and from that has grown Gil’s passion for Ferrari and Formula-One.

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My two abiding memories were Gil’s scaled down version of a Ferrari which he used to drive around his family estate and his collection of 33 mm Charlie Chaplin movies. Gil has known some of the all-time greats of Formula-One racing and he was delighted when I arranged a meeting with India’s lone Formula driver, Narain Karthikeyan, who was in town for the auto exhibition. It was the Chaplin classics that helped break down whatever barriers there may have been between the five of us. Chaplin after all was silent and laughter the universal language. There was a mini-zoo too to marvel at in the castle-like enclosure that was the Rossellini home. Sonalini ran a shop specialising in Indian arts and crafts. It played a major role in spreading the message of India’s traditional artistry across Europe.

Gil confessed he had forgotten about the meeting when I got in touch with him via e-mail after his previous visit to India six months ago. But his mother remembered and we promised to meet during the IFFI. Sadly, there are no photographs of our evening at the Rossellinis’. But I did have in my possession a photo of Sonalini and Geeta at Shantiniketan, possibly in 1949. Gil’s expression at seeing the yellowing print was priceless. He asked for a copy and got one.

By a strange coincidence, a couple of days later when we met for lunch one of Delhi’s papers had published a couple of photos of Isabella Rossellini. The occasion was the launch of an Italian clothing label’s showroom in New York. Isabella, long considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, is the daughter of Roberto and Swedish screen idol Ingrid Bergman.

It was their liaison that was the big scandal in Hollywood in the early ’50s and it even led to a boycott of Bergman’s movies. That was before an Indian lady entered Rossellini’s life and Bergman walked out. Strangely, Gil said he had been interviewed so many times about his Indian roots and his Italian upbringing. But no one asked him about Isabella. It turns out they are next-door neighbours in New York.

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That meeting in 1967 has led to a firm friendship after all those years. Pity though about missing the great man’.