Heaping praise on his lead actress Minissha Lamba, Shyam Benegal hopes that his new movie Well Done Abba will bring her the attention he feels she deserves. “Minnisha will be seen in something very different from what she has done till now,” he says, “I hope with Well Done Abba she gets the appreciation she deserves. She is an exceptionally fine actress and I feel that she has not got her due in the industry.” Well Done Abba was screened last weekend at the Montreal Film Festival and is also expected to be included in the London International Film Festival next month.
Also starring Boman Irani as Abba, the movie is a light-hearted satire on modern India and marriage with echoes of Benegal’s Welcome to Sajjanpur. It’s about a bus driver who takes a month off work to attend to the serious business of finding his teenage daughter a husband. “This film is a satire on our current political”system and other issues. It is set in a village,” says a source.
But Minissha is not the only talented member of her family. Her mother Manju is apparently a talented artist and Minissha has finally persuaded her to exhibit her work. “I think she needs to showcase her work,” she explains, “We are working on the formalities and plan to hold the exhibition sometime soon. I like the fact that people across all age groups love her work. My friends have labelled her work psychedelic.”
