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What keeps Mamata Shankar on her toes: ‘I always feel that my work could have been better’

The acclaimed actor and dancer’s latest film is Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Shah Jahan Regency’, which will be released on January 18. 

Mamata Shankar wears her legacy with pride and endearing deference. The Bengali actor, dancer and choreographer is the daughter of legendary dancers Uday and Amala Shankar. Her brother, Ananda Shankar, was a pioneer of fusion music, while her uncle was Ravi Shankar.

Mamata Shankar made her acting debut in Mrinal Sen’s Mrigaya in 1976. She has gathered acclaim over the years for her portrayals of sensitive and complex characters in films by some of Bengali cinema’s biggest names, including Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Gautam Ghosh. Shankar has also starred in recent movies by younger filmmakers, such as Srijit Mukherji’s Jaatishwar (2014) and Pratim D Gupta’s Macher Jhol (2017).

Her latest film, Shah Jahan Regency, revolves around the lives and loves of residents of the titular Kolkata hotel. Srijit Mukherji’s adaptation of Sankar’s 1962 novel Chowringhee will be released on January 18. Shankar plays a married woman who leads a double life – a social activist by day and a seductress by night.

In a conversation with Scroll.in at the Udayan Kalakendra in Kolkata, where she teaches dance in the tradition of her illustrious parents, 64-year-old Shankar spoke about her choices in life and before the camera.

You play an unusual character in ‘Shah Jahan Regency’. The trailer was quite a surprise.

Yes, there was one comment, “Mamata di, chee!” And I was like, after all these years, this is what I have to hear.

But I did enjoy myself during the process. Srijit is a hard taskmaster, and so am I, and I don’t mind giving take after take because I want it to be perfect. I’m never satisfied with my work, be it dance, acting, anything. I always feel that my work could have been better.

I don’t know how Srijit came to me with this role, because nobody could have imagined me as Mrs Pakrashi. It is poles apart from who I am, so I was sceptical. But my husband, sons and daughters-in-law said, why won’t you take up this challenge?

I don’t know how much justice I’ve done to the role. Every day after the shoot, I would come back home and re-shoot the whole sequence in my head. I would get depressed, thinking that I could’ve done xyz differently. Now I’ve started to tell myself to be detached, do my duty, and leave the rest to God….Click here to read the full story