Cast of “MAI” gets candid about food, memories and their characters
If you ask anyone, “What is something that you find comfort in?”, you might hear the answer “Food!” When we are away from home, we miss those simple home-cooked meals. Food is something which is an indispensable part of our lives.
A meal cooked by our mothers is something we keep craving and going back to whenever we seek comfort for the soul. But what happens when one loses their mother?
We see one such story and the personal transformation of an individual who lost his mother suddenly one day. “MAI” is a short film starring Kunal Roy Kapur and Shahana Goswami. The film chronicles the journey of Suman, a 35-year-old man who one day loses his mother and goes to great lengths to save up the last batch of food she had prepared.
He then meets Mona, a zesty woman who has a knack to break down any recipe she tastes down to its last ingredient. With her help, Suman attempts to keep the magic of his mother’s cooking alive.
In an exclusive chat with TheReviewGeek, the cast of “MAI” break down their characters, talk about their latest collaboration and how food is an integral part of their lives.
Each actor has to find a point of stronghold in their character to be able to showcase it well. One also needs support and great collaboration from the rest of the cast and crew.
Shahana Goswami Discusses Mona
Talking about Mona, her character in the short film and experience of working on it, Shahana begins, “I’d worked with Milind Dhaimade before. [She and Milind Dhaimade have collaborated on the film “Tu Hai Mera Sunday” before]. So there was already that comfort and love. He’s somebody who’s very dear to me. He’s a very dear friend also after the film, and so I was very happy to do something again with him. And because he has a very infectious energy not only as a director, but also in terms of the way he writes and his content that he creates.”
Calling filmmaking ‘a dance’ and ‘a collaborative art form’, she further adds, “Kunal and I had known each other, but we’d never worked together ever. So it was really nice to finally do something together. It’s such a joy. I always say this, that filmmaking is such a collaborative art form and that’s what I like about it because it’s like a team sport, like I say. Every aspect and element, it’s a dance between people. And when you have good partners in that dance, then it’s a fun choreography.”
A Team Effort
Like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a whole team to make a film. When it comes to making a short film, there are challenges and restrains that one can face.
The main challenge is to show your story in an acute time span, with limited resources to support you. Echoing on that sentiment, Shahana goes to say, “That’s what this short film for me was in terms of having Kunal to play off, in terms of having really good writing, having a really great director, a great technical team, a crew, having wonderful producers in Colosseum and MacGuffin who were really backing an idea and trying to make a good [short film], because short films, you’ll always have a small budget.”
“There are constraints, but [there is a desire] to get it made in a way which makes it fun, but meaningful. So I think that was really a very beautiful and essential part of this film and it was done with a lot of love, with a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun doing it and I think from the intention of what the film was from the point of creation at the writing stage to what I think we’ve managed to achieve by the end of it in terms of the final product. It maintains that essence and it hopefully enhances it.”
Shahana’s character in the short film, Mona, is quite the zesty woman. She is independent, free-spirited but at the same time quite grounded in her morals and approach towards life and towards those around her. When asked how Shahana, as a person, related to her on-screen character, she had quite the delightful answer:
“I think we’re very similar in many ways. It’s just that, there’s a part of Mona in me and I’m like her, but I’m not like her all the time, maybe. When you’re playing for camera, then [you need to] keep that energy level at all times to that level, but I am like her, I’m a lot like her. Mona is a lot like Milind actually, and Milind and I are very similar. We always joke about how we’re twins. And so in that sense, Mona and I are very similar in being very straightforward, to being full of life. Taste buds also! I have a very, very keen sense of taste. I love food. I really love food more than eating [it]. I just think it’s one of the greatest joys of life. The dance of flavors. So that part is very much similar to Mona.”
Coming to Kunal Roy Kapur and his character Suman, Kunal and Shahana had an interesting revelation to make. In the film, Suman is a very private person. He is happy in his own world and has quite the closed-off sense of being.
Kunal Roy Kapur takes the baton and speaks about his character, “I think it was a little bit different for me because, think this character is someone who was very stuck in a place. He’s not very outgoing, he’s quite insular. He’s got a one-track mind on what his next meal is going to be. He isn’t very sociable. He isn’t really likable. He’s someone who also works pretty much in isolation. So, he’s not a very lovable, likable kind of guy. Generally, a lot of people cast me in roles where even if the character is gray, he has some sort of redeemable quality. I didn’t know exactly where to put the fact that the audience needs to want to know more about this, but I think that the trust in Milind was that because of his [Suman’s] obsession because of his single track mind, I think the audience might find that interesting and engaging.”
Adding further on how Suman’s character has a one-track mind and how Mona’s introduction highlights his flaw, Kunal says, “And then of course, when this element of this character, Shahana’s character comes in, and his inability to see what is in front of him because of his obsession he’s unable to see the other things in his life and that’s what’s holding him back. So, it was a very interesting sort of journey to take within a short span of a film, but it was so lovely and so well written. We had great fun playing off each other So, that was great fun.”
Since food is an integral part of the short film “MAI”, we also spoke about how food is a vital part of our personal lives. All of us have interesting memories involving food. Shahana is a self-confessed foodie. For her, food transcends the materialistic value and is no less than spiritual nourishment for her.
She has a balanced and controlled approach towards food and foodie indulgence. Explaining how the place of food has evolved in her life, Shahana adds, “Food is very, very, very, essential to my mood, my being. Both my parents are Bengali and both my parents are also foodies. And we’ve eaten food from all over the world, all our lives. It’s a very essential part of who I am. Like I used to always say people eat to live, I live to eat. And yet I can also do without it.
I mean, I’m at a stage in my life where I fast. I don’t fast for intermittent fasting but more for spiritual reasons and that also makes me feel good. So now food is truly almost spiritual because food is for the pleasure of it. It’s not for the greed of it. So now I enjoy it even more. I eat everything. I think that was one deal I made with myself that I refuse to live a life where I’m told that I cannot have something I can compromise on quantity, but I need to have access to the taste of something if I choose to have it.”
Work and a busy schedule can lead to one forgetting about eating. It is tricky controlling one’s desire, there’s always a threat that it might spiral out of control, but Shahana has a handle over that as well.
She explains, “And I need to give my mind and body the flexibility to know that there are days when I might want sugar. There are days when I will not want to touch it. Both are fine. As I value abstaining from it, so will I value indulging it and binging in it sometimes. So that’s my thing. And I love food. The more the variety, the better.
Whenever I order food for myself, most people think I’m ordering for two-three people because I need two, three things. And then I’ll eat it slowly, slowly over the next few days, but I can’t have one thing. I love food. And like you said, food is like moods for me and I do get hangry unless I’m busy, like working or busy doing something where my mind is totally occupied or I’ve chosen not to eat because of fasting or something, but otherwise I need food.”
When Kunal was asked the same question, he had an interesting observation to make. We often associate food with memories. It invokes a sense of nostalgia, a sense of belonging. Kunal mentions how that works in his life and how he associates food with memory, “I mean all of what Shahana said, and I also think we have such an interesting relationship with memory and with food. And how we perceive a place, a person, our childhood or our memories.
So I think it’s so interlinked and so intertwined with who we are as people, our memories, our likes, our dislikes. It really molds us, it shapes us, not only physically, but in every way. And I think that this film actually gets into that. It gets into food and memory, food and who you are as a person.
I think that’s what’s interesting about it. That’s how I relate to food as well. When I think of my grandparents, I can’t only think of them as human beings. I think of the food that I ate in their house. And how I think of them is because of that food also.
Then the smell that I get when I think of my grandparents is not their smell but it’s the smell of the food as well. Even my parents or anyone else’s house like my neighbor’s house. My neighbors were all Gujarati. I remember going into their house at lunchtime and eating rotlis with the ghee, dal and watana nu shaak.”
A deep connection with people, with places is often forged on the basis of food. Echoing this sentiment, Kunal adds, “And it’s not just my relationship with my neighbors, but it’s also those smells that I’m remembering. So I think food, memory, personality, it’s so intertwined. It’s like so much a part of us that there’s no escaping it. How you explore a place or country or people, it’s generally through food. It’s a deep, deep connection that we all have, even some people who claim not to be foodies, we’ll find that somewhere deep down there’s a foodie within them.”
Mona and Suman are foils to each other. While one is open and lively, the other is closed off and grumpy. But despite these differences, these two characters found a common ground to bond over – food. Suman, with all his reservations and prejudices and Mona, with the goodness of her heart to help Suman.
Adding about the peculiarities of the characters, Shahana adds, “I feel like there’s a certain kind of openness that Mona has to the world around her while still being herself in a sense. I mean, there’s no angst towards anything that’s not like her or dissimilar, but at the same time, she’s always herself. I think I like that, but I think there’s always a little bit more, I think we still do react and get affected by people and things around us.
Which I think she has, at least in this small frame that we see her in, is quite determined to enjoy life and make it fun for herself in whichever way, you know, even in the conflicts of it or whatever. That’s something that I think would be a nice takeaway from her character.”
Kunal chimed in to Shahana’s answer and added what he also felt was special about the character, Mona. He says, “She was also quite accepting of flaws and she’s quite resilient in that sense, like quite accepting of another person’s quirks. She would just soldier on and she had this kind of energy that she would bring into a room. I remember in all the scenes, it was something that she always brought into the room, the character of Mona.
I think with my character, for me, it’s stubbornness. I find that the character Suman is quite stubborn, and it’s his sort of overcoming his own obsession is something that I take away from this character. When you find you are your own obstacle and you are your own block, that’s what I kind of take away from.”
When asked if there was a possibility that Mona and Suman would be friends in real life, Shahana and Kunal confidently answered that they would be. If a sequel to the short film was to be made, it would be “MY 2” where the characters explore themselves, their relationships and the dynamic between their characters.
As our chat came to a conclusion, Shahana added something very interesting to add about Kunal’s preparation for his character in this short film. For an actor, playing a character which is so different from one’s real self can be quite the challenge. Sure, one can learn to emote in different ways, but it takes a true actor to be able to easily get into the skin of any character.
Shahana gave a sneak peek into what went into making Suman come to life, “I’m not just saying it because he’s here, but I really do think I watched the film again recently. And Kunal is, like, it’s unbelievably good how well he’s done the whole Marathi part, because it’s not easy. The accent that he’s used and all that is very specific. Milind guided him through it, but still for him to, as when you watch it, you’re not thinking of somebody’s direction and all that.
You’re seeing a character as is. On the lethargy of that character and the kind of saduness [meaning grumpiness] of him, everything, and it’s so opposite to Kunal. Now that’s the thing. It’s so difficult. So it’s really amazing what he’s done. He’s made it seem effortless. Like at least for me, Mona is not so far away from who I am, but for him, it’s a real jump and he’s done it really casually and I know that he’s put in a lot of work and consciousness in doing it, but made it seem very effortless.”
“MAI” is a short film starring Kunal Roy Kapur and Shahana Goswami. It premiered at the JIO MAMI festival in Mumbai. This short film is directed by Milind Dhaimade who is known for his work in the ads and short films space.