Roberto Rossellini
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Robert Rossellini and India
Rossellini’s Passage To India
Reviewed By Asif Noorani
As one looks at the picture on the jacket of Dileep Padgaonkar’s meticulously researched and highly readable book, Under Her Spell, one gets the impression that the torchbearer of neo-realistic cinema, Robert Rossellini, was under the spell of the tall dusky Indian woman Sonali Dasgupta. But as one starts reading the volume under review, one discovers that the feeling is only half true. He was also under the spell of a country, whose prime minister had invited him to portray India through a feature film.
The book cannot be considered Rossellini’s biography either for it only focuses on a part of his life, though there are occasional flashbacks, none more interesting than his life with three women — his second wife Marcella De Marchis, the tempestuous Anna Magnani (with whom he didn’t tie the nuptial knot) and the ethereally beautiful Ingrid Bergman, who was his third wife.
She was one woman who made the filmmaker feel insecure for she left behind a glorious career in Hollywood to marry the man, whose charms were irresistible and talents unlimited. Rossellini tried to stop her from acting but couldn’t succeed. In one of the finest pieces from the book Padgaonkar narrates how contrary to Rossellini’s belief that ‘half the audience would walk out during the intermission of the ‘silly and stupid play’,’ the audience was swept off its feet. Writes Padgaonkar: ‘Not a single spectator walked out during the intermission.
After the last act, Ingrid noticed Rossellini standing in the wings. When the cast took the bow, the ovation was rapturous. And when Ingrid took a solo bow, the applause became even wilder. As she bent over, she turned her head and looked at her husband. And at that precise moment when their eyes met, she knew that her marriage was over even though they might stay on together.’
History repeated itself when she tried to dissuade her husband from going to India but he refused to change his mind. He had achieved enviable fame and he could have stayed behind but the invitation from Nehru, a man he admired and revered, was too tempting to be denied.
Rossellini was determined not to project what normal western tourists were enamoured of. For instance, he turned his face when he passed by the Taj Mahal. He wanted to show the real India and he wanted to show progress. For instance, he had woven a human-angle story about a man who was among the 30,000 workers engaged in the building of the massive Hirakud Dam and who felt disoriented once the work was completed.
Rossellini was determined not to project what normal western tourists were enamoured of. For instance, he turned his face when he passed by the Taj Mahal. He wanted to show the real India and he wanted to show progress. For instance, he had woven a human-angle story about a man who was among the 30,000 workers engaged in the building of the massive Hirakud Dam and who felt disoriented once the work was completed.
Rossellini was disliked by many people including the ones involved in filmmaking in his host country. If he could make friends (painter M. F. Hussain was one who stood by him) he could also annoy many, including those who worked with him. He would throw tantrums sometimes on very flimsy grounds. But never in doubt was his ability to make neo-realistic films. A magnum opus would never interest him.
Of the many photographs included in the book is the one where he is seen with K. Asif, Prithviraj and Mughal-e-Azam’s lead players Madhubala and Dilip Kumar on the movie’s highly acclaimed sheesh mahal set. Reports Padgaonkar: ‘Why did you not shoot the film in one of the fantastic palaces you have in India?’ Rossellini asked Asif. There was no answer.’ But to be fair to the director of the blockbuster, the two filmmakers were on two different ends of the filmmaking spectrum.
But this was just a passing reference, his main attraction was in a tall, ‘dusky doe-eyed’ Sonali Dasgupta who was pushed by her husband Haridas Gupta to work for Rossellini. Gupta soon became suspicious and later unusually jealous, only to regret for the rest of his life losing his wife and mother of their two children.
Rossellini’s affair with Sonali provided fodder to at least two rags. It was reminiscent of his affair with another married woman, Ingrid Bergman, who carried his illegitimate child. The American media went wild with anger when it learnt that Bergman gave birth to Rossellini’s baby.
Sonali was hounded by the press, more from the West than India. She was approached by her own people who were trying to persuade her to go back to her husband. She professed that she had fallen in love with Rossellini, who managed to smuggle her out to Paris. In Rome, where she lived with her child from her first marriage and the one by her Italian lover, she opened an Indian boutique and was economically self-supporting.
The man who uprooted her didn’t make her his wife but didn’t think twice before marrying a much younger woman when he had entered his twilight years. Predictably, the marriage didn’t last.
Rossellini’s Indian adventure failed. The documentaries he made for television were shown in France and Italy but didn’t create waves. The feature film India Matri Bhoomi (India Motherland) was disappointing and when it was screened in Moscow, much to Rossellini’s disappointment, the spectators booed and walked out. It was shown in India more than 40 years later at a film festival. In Italy it grossed a mere $24,000 in a commercial release, thus bringing a sad end to his Indian experience.
One last point: Dileep Padgaonkar’s narrative skills make his book read like a novel.
Under Her Spell
By Dileep Padgaonkar
Penguin Books, India
280pp. Indian Rs595
