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Moushumi Chatterjee – Falsies At Noon

Moushumi Chatterjee

Pictures accompanying this article -  Pic 1 – Pic 2 – Pic 3 – Pic 4

The first time we came face to face with Moushumi Chatterjee was in 1968, courtesy Hemanta Kumar, now her father-in-law. Moushumi was then known more as the “Balika Bodhu” girl (a pity hasn’t been able to discard that tag yet), after her much/talked about portrayal of an adolescent bride.

Moushumi hardly spoke at the press conference because she didn’t know any language other than Bengali. Most of the time she giggled, occasionally answered questions through her “interpreter” Hemantda. In between she flirted—with Jayanta (that’s Babu, alias Ritesh, now her husband) who sat next to her, pinched his sides, grimaced at him.

The pressmen seemed quite impressed by her performance.

Oh, yes, Moushumi had made two relevant points: she had not made up her mind about working in Hindi films; and she had got the impression that the higher one rose on the Hindi screen, the scantier the costumes became.

Back in Calcutta, in the next two years, Moushumi starred in half a dozen Bengali films – prominent ones being Ajoy Karr’s “Parineeta” and Sunil Banerji’s “Maa O Meye”—but won little attention.. Meanwhile she continued  her affair with Babu, decided to marry him and settle down in Bombay. She also made up her mind to work in Hindi films, even if she had to com­promise on her earlier views on the costumes.

Then suddenly Moushumi hit a winning streak. She got marri­ed to Ritesh and shifted to Bom­bay. Raj Khosla gave her her first Hindi assignment. (“Kuchche Dhaage”) and that set the ball rolling. Next came Shakti Saman­ta—his “Anuraag” was released before “Kuchche Dhaage”. Came a flood of offers; Moushumi wise­ly accepted most of them. The top leading men were enthusiastic about being teamed with Moushu­mi: Rajesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Shat­rughan Sinha, Vinod Mehra. Moushumi will never have to say: “I had to struggle to come up.”

It was not Moushumi’s talent that really established her as a star. Her entry into Hindi films was well timed. Jaya Bhaduri made an impact and producers, changing their attitude towards newcomers, were actually looking  for them. At one time it look­ed like these two Bengali girls would share the good films among themselves. However, af­ter the release of “Anuraag” and “Kuchche Dhaage” opinions about her acting were sharply divided – some saying she was good, but the roles weren’t, others that she was disappointing.

It took us three sessions-to interview Moushumi. One of our toughest assignments – sje doesn’t seem to take anything seriously. Mayb she was out of school too early. On the sets of Manoj Kumar’s “Roti, Kapda, Makaan” she didn’t seem to be in a mood for the interview. She was busy narrating fairy tales to Mrs. Manoj Kumar and her sons, Vishal and Kunal. It didn’t seem to bother her one bit that just a few feet away Manoj and the producers of “Natak” were trying to solve the problem of her muddled-up dates.

“Tomorrow is the second Sun­day,” she told us, “Come at 11 and have lunch with us.” Okay, we said, but we’d rather stick to the interview and forget about the lunch. “You must,” she insis­ted.

Leaving Moushumi to continue with her fairy tales we turned to Manoj: “How do, you find her?”

“She’s very good,” he said, almost casually. We were about to ask him how he compared her with Jaya, but dropped the idea on second thoughts. Manoj would probably have given some non‑committal reply. Incidentally, Moushumi has replaced Sharmila in the film.

Knowing Moushumi well — she isn’t such a stickler for time —we landed at Nibbana, Pali Hill, around 11.30, allowing Mou­shumi another half an hour of sleep (“I love to sleep on holidays”). Her ayah smiled and said —Memsaab was still asleep.

Moushumi came in wearing a nightie (suspiciously looking like a film costume), sat curled up on sofa; she looks far more charming without the grease-paint, we thought. Her bust looks pro­minent, in fact a little too big for her delicate frame. We decided that  all that talk about her wear­ing falsies is wrong (unless of course she wears them at home too). “I couldn’t sleep the whole night,” she remarked. “Babu was away shooting for his film and came in the morning. I don’t get sleep if he is not beside me.”

“Auntieji”, the ayah said, had sent aloo parathas for her. “Aun­tieji,” Moushumi said, is Vinod Mehra’s mother. Just then Ritesh joined us. Moushumi ate both the parathas, took a sip of tea, noticed a spot of “sindoor” on Babu’s neck—apparently from her hair—and bit her lip. She tried to tell Babu in Bengali to wipe it before we noticed, decided we had already seen it, winked and burst out laughing. Who says their marriage is on the rocks?

We ask about her marriage. Why was it such a hush-hush affair? “I knew Babu since the `Balika Bodhu’ days,” she ex­plains. “He used to visit Calcutta with Hemantda who was compos­ing for the film. When I visited Bombay he was having-an affair with another girl but gave her up and became interested in me. We got married in 1972″. Their marriage was just a formality. Actually, they had been secretly married much earlier, in June 1970.

Is it true, we ask, that she has been dissuading Vinod Mehra from marrying Rekha? “Why should I do it?” she reacts. ‘What is my interest in their affair? They are in love and are getting married soon.”

Then what’s Rekha’s quarrel with you? “I have no quarrel with anybody. Rekha appears to have said some unpleasant things about me, so naturally I was upset. Even Vinod was annoyed. Later Rekha wanted to apologies, so it’s okay now.”

Just then Vinod’s mother comes in, hugs Moushumi, asks if she liked the parathas, addressing her as Beti and Babu as Beta. “Now you know our relationship,” Moushumi turns to us. “We can’t show it to the world.” Vinod’s mother adds: “Paperwale to kya kya afwahen udate hain.” Meaning there is nothing in the rumors about her son and Moushumi.

There’s another visitor. This time it is dress designer Shalini Shah who comes with a heap of new dresses for Moushumi. (Moushumi’s dresses in our photographs were designed by Shali­ni) . Moushumi jumps up with the excitement of a six year old and pleads with us: “Can I go now?” She promises to talk to us the next day at the studio. She has forgotten about her lunch invita­tion!

Next day at the Mohan Stu­dios. It’s 12-30 and they haven’t taken a single shot. Producer Sohanlal Kanwar (“Do Jhoot”) grumbles: “She comes late and then takes two hours for her make-up.”

Moushumi finally comes to the sets around 1. They just take a solitary shot before lunch. A thousand rupees go down the drain—a half day’s studio hire.

Why should you take so many films if you cannot manage them, we ask Moushumi, “We can’t help it,” she says. “Some we accept because they are good films; many other producers come through friends and we can’t say no.” Her tone suggests that she had accepted the majo­rity of her 30 odd films out of sympathy for producers.

Moushumi has 16 films on the floors, and an equal number are waiting to be launched. In at least six, including her husband’s film “Mazaaq”, her co-star is Vinod Mehra. Every time she mentions her husband’s film, Moushumi makes it a point to add that it is being financed by Gulshan Rai. A film journal had once written that Moushumi was unhappy because her husband was making his film with her money.

Contrary to reports that Mou­shumi and Jaya carry on a sort of hate campaign against each other, Moushumi says she likes Jaya and has seen all her films. “She is a wonderful artiste.” The “Gai our Gori” role, Moushumi said, was first offered to her but she had the usual problem of dates. Incidentally, she added that Raj Kapoor had first offer­ed her the “Bobby” role, which subsequently went to Dimple.

Moushumi’s reputation among film folks ranges from “nice kid” to “likeable girl” to “Badi hara­mi hai.” This last phrase has of course undergone radical chan­ges of meaning and is no longer derogatory. It simply means shrewd, mischievous, smart. On the sets, Moushumi is always playful—pinching people’s bot­toms is still her pet pastime. No­body has tried to reciprocate, as far as we know. Sometime back Raj Khosla paid Moushumi a rare compliment—he said that she is a successor to Meena Kumari. Moushumi has talent enough to be one provided she takes her work more seriously – A.A (Filmfare Magazine, October 1973)

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