Bhosle is all about an undefined and unlikely relationship, says Manoj Bajpayee

Manoj Bajpayee unveiled the first look of Bhosle at Cannes Film Festival and talks about the film in a candid chat.

Manoj Bajpayee recently unveiled the first look of his upcoming film, Bhonsle at the ongoing 71st Cannes Film Festival.

Manoj Bajpayee is currently attending the Cannes Film Festival.

Throughout his career, Manoj has made sure he is not typecast in a kind of role - he became a politician-educationist in Satyagraha, a gay professor who is harassed and humiliated in Aligarh, a sports coach who literally brutalises a small boy in Budhiya Singh –Born to Run and a disturbed man trapped in the cobwebs of his memory in In the Shadows.

Bajpayee is all keyed up about Bhonsle, where he plays a policeman (though with a difference) who is beaten and bashed up by the system. He says that the story unfolds during Maharashtra’s most important festival, Ganpathi Puja – in a span of 10 days. “There is festivity all around, people are in a joyous mood, but Ganpath Bhonsle pushed into retirement, is angry and unhappy. He does not want to hang up his uniform and go back to his lonely life in a slum that is his home. But into this dreariness walks a young girl (Ipsita Charavarthy). Bhosle is all about this undefined, unlikely relationship between the two”, Bajpayee said.

Bajpayee terms this as “addiction”, not passion. Interesting, but must be a rare kind of addiction which helps you evolve into a better actor, and, who knows, a better human being. He cites as an example his part in Special 26. “Everybody thinks he is a winner, till he faces loss. Ultimately, it is all about how you take the loss, grapple with it and get above it”.

Not easy, Manoj, not at all. But let us watch him as Ganpath Bhonsle, and see how he turns a defeat into a victory.

(Gautaman Bhaskaran is covering the Cannes Film Festival for the 29th year.)

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