Rahul Bose’s newest film Shaurya is in theaters now and it is getting great reviews. Co-star Kay Kay Menon’s performance has been well received and it is just now that Bose’s understated performance is getting noticed. It is something that has happened before to the talented actor and he says that at first the more dynamic roles usually get all the praise, but then they take note of the more subtle characters.
Rahul explained, “Everybody after seeing Shaurya is full of praise for Kay Kay…and rightly so. But it’s only now that I’ve started getting phone calls for the credible sane element that I represent. That’s a direct reflection of the way Kay Kay and I have played out our characters. The aggressive character always wins the applause first. If we had both screamed in the courtroom, the moral equilibrium of the sequence would’ve gone for a toss.”
He added, “Unfortunately, in this country the more aggressive performance is considered ‘better’. The notion of silences on screen escapes our audience. I faced the same situation with Mr & Mrs Iyer. It took a while for people to understand my quiet performance.”
He has done several of the more in your face characters such as the ones he played in Mumbai Chaka Chak, Split Wide Open and Pyaar Ke Side Effects, however he says he likes doing the quieter roles as well. “But I enjoy subtle performances like English, August, Chameli and the forthcoming The Japanese Wife. The last is by far my quietest and most satisfying performance. After reading the reviews of my unruffled performance in Shaurya, I wonder how critics would react to that one. For now I’m happy because Shaurya would be my most successful film after Jhankaar Beats.”
Sadly during the filming of Sharuya, Rahul Bose’s father passed away. “He would visit me on location for every film. The only one he couldn’t make it for was Shaurya. For Shaurya he was supposed to join me as usual. I was shooting in Manali and he was in his home in Kasauli. I heard he had collapsed and was rushed to the army hospital where they saved his life for the time being. So you see I owe a lot to the army.”
“I remember I had two sequences to shoot with Kay Kay Menon on the day my father collapsed. One was in the morning when we share coffee and the other in the night when we share a drink. Samar Khan offered to cancel the shooting, but we all know what budget constraints the smaller filmmakers work under. I continued and it wasn’t such an ordeal. In fact, it was a blessing to slip into another world that didn’t remind me of baba (father),” he added.
His father actually appeared in a film with Rahul, “Nobody knows this. But my dad, a full-blown bhadra lok (Bengali gentleman), played a role in my first film English, August. During English, August he was there. And he just fitted into the role of Paltoo Kaku like a glove because they needed a bhadra lok.”
Rahul was very close to his father and his portrayal of the role in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Kaal Purush was a tribute to him “I modeled my character in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Kaal Purush on baba. The tactile rapport that my character shares with his daughter and son was directly echoed from what didi (sister) and I shared with baba,” he said.
