|
Passage to India >> Roshan Seth takes the lead in Such a Long Journey by MATTHEW HAYS
As Seth, one of India's best-known actors, sits down to talk about Such a Long Journey in a swank downtown hotel, he marvels at the Canadian Academy's "openness. To be given this award, from an entirely different culture--that they felt the performance was worthy is immensely satisfying." Such a Long Journey is proving to be rather satisfying for audiences as well. A winner of the most popular film at the Vancouver Film Festival last summer, the adaptation of Rohinton Mistry's award-winning, spellbinding novel is a first: a Canadian film with no Canadian characters in it, as the film is set entirely in India. The film appears to be part of a trend in Canadiana; most of The Red Violin takes place overseas, as does much of the action in Robert Lepage's Nô. Seth plays Gustad Noble, Journey's protagonist, whose moral struggle encompasses the main thrust of the film. Set on the eve of the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, the plot has a dedicated bank clerk (Seth) getting caught up in money-laundering scheme after an old friend asks for his help. Seth is brilliant in the role, perfectly conveying the tense claustrophobia of his dilemma. The spirit of Nehru Oddly enough, this is the first lead role in film for Seth, who's worked with numerous famous directors, including Stephen Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette), Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) and Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). "I'd be inclined to say this is my toughest role," Seth says of his turn in Such a Long Journey. "But it's not really true. It was technically the toughest, because I had to remain focused for so long. But really, playing Nehru [in Gandhi] was the toughest; to play someone who was so admired and worshipped and so well known was really difficult. In India I'm known as Nehru, because they haven't see much of my other work. They think I've got his spirit in me." Getting the lead in Such a Long Journey didn't happen overnight; Seth worked for years in London in various capacities in the theatre (dresser, sweeping the stage) before becoming frustrated and returning to his native India in 1977. In 1980 Attenborough discovered him, casting him in the Oscar-winning Gandhi. The offers haven't stopped since. "I started right at the bottom in London. And I was happy to do it. But you get to a point where you feel you should be moving on. At that time, things were so bad, you'd go to see a director and they'd look at you and say, 'You don't sound Indian enough.' Which really meant, 'You're not sounding enough like Peter Sellers." Post Peter Sellers Seth says a key to changing attitudes in the theatre and cinema was authorship. "I knew that once Asians started writing about themselves, and once they were excepted by the literary establishment, then I knew I'd be on firmer ground. Because those characters are recognizable to me. You used to get an Englishman writing a script and he'd throw in an Indian character as a bus conductor or postman, because that's the kind of job they were doing. They were always funny little men acting just like Peter Sellers. It was a pretty narrow view." Years later, Seth took flak from some Indians for his part in Spielberg's Indiana Jones sequel, due its rather savage depiction of Indians. "I must say I was rather delighted to be working with this wiz kid director. We never really thought about it at the time, we thought it was very funny. But some really didn't like it. I'm an actor: one day I play the prime minister, the next I play a monkey, that's my job." Seth says he doesn't act in Indian cinema, despite living in Delhi. "I haven't really met many commercial Indian actors who haven't felt sullied by what they've done. The Indian film business is really very sleazy." What Seth is dying to see is how this Canadian film, based on a book written by a Canadian Indian immigrant, will play in India itself. "In the past few years, more filmmakers have been venturing to India and have made films like this one. And the films are working. I suspect this will do very well. In Canada, people will discuss the morality of the film. But in India, what Gustad had to face, every second person has to face. They'll recognize his character and situation immediately." Such a Long Journey opens Friday, March 5
|
Roshan Seth is still marvelling at the Genie he was awarded for his role in Such a Long Journey. It's been three weeks since the awards were handed out, and in typical Canadian cinematic fashion--and in reverse order from the Oscars--now Canadians will actually have a chance to see the films that won.