THE EVOLUTION OF NANDANA SEN
Not many actors who turn authors do so convincingly. Nandana Sen is an exception
Ihave bronchitis.” It’s almost the first thing Nandana Sen says, walking in for her session at Kitab Khana, the hip south Mumbai bookstore. I put it down to being a thing with Bengalis. That we consider illnesses legit social conversation. But it also tells you something about Sen. In her decade-long acting career, she gravitated towards offbeat roles. Now, at 49, having turned children’s writer, she shows no traces of having belonged in Bollywood. Mainstream actors don’t talk about bronchitis, let alone make public appearances. She parks herself on the stage floor and gets the kids to play characters from her fable, Mambi and the Forest Fire. In her geeky glasses, ringlets flying as she jumps with them, she’s more school drama teacher than that woman with a famous face, and a famous surname. Book signings and photos done, we find ourselves two chairs in a corner. She’s keen to talk books, kids, and social work.
Not Yet (her latest book) is nuanced: a mother asking her daughter to go to bed, the young one imploring, “Not yet”. Though in playful rhyme, the scenario is relatable. “There were many inspirations for it. First, having a niece I’m close to, who never wants to go to sleep. Second, I’m fascinated by the magical time between being awake and falling asleep, when the imagination runs wild...” This confluence of younger-older concerns runs through Mambi too, a fable about friendship. In the last two years, Sen has written three books. Two more are coming up. Talky Tumble of Jumble Farm, about a kid and her single mother, in nonsense rhyme. While her transition from actor to author seems abrupt, Sen says she’s always been writing. Perhaps the best testimony is her monthly fiction series, Youthquake, for The Wire. She writes evocatively on adolescence, sexual violence and childhood trauma.
Sen was also always a voracious reader. “When I went to Harvard, I had one-and-ahalf suitcases full of books,” she says. It makes you wonder if she was a misfit in movies. “I’ve always had eccentric taste in films. I picked themes I connected with.” Black, Rang Rasiya and Autograph (Bengali), yes. Marigold, Tango Charlie and Prince, not so much. But she walked away from it. Still, Sen isn’t done with films. She wants to turn one of her scripts into a children’s film. “I grew up watching children’s movies by Satyajit Ray, Ghatak. But now, there’s the perception that children’s films don’t make money.” She reckons they could. But something tells you she’s not preoccupied with profits. The creative arts need people like that.