Aura and mystery of the sacred feminine

IPSITASPEAK

On the controversial craft of wicca?

Wicca is a very volatile subject. It?s been buried under the sea for long and now we are diving down to find some of its treasures in the film. It is a branch of knowledge that dates back 25,000 years. It is associated with the emergence of the sacred feminine and worships the mother goddess. The original wiccan was a healer and a counsellor, a statesman. The tradition spread to other parts of the world by word of mouth; we know it as Dakini or Yogini Vidya in our country, the cult of Isis in Egypt and the Dionic tradition in Greece.

Time and again, we have seen the emergence of the sacred feminine and its suppression, which is possibly best represented in The Da Vinci Code. The persecution of wiccans began in 317 AD with emperor Constantine in Rome, and in between the 11th and 18th centuries, around eight million women were branded witches and killed. Joan of Arc was one of them.

In the film Sacred Evil, we are dealing with a subject that has been much maligned and so many canards have been spread about it. I have tried to battle with all these in my own way for a few decades. So let some of the truth be revealed now.

On Sacred Evil, the story on which the film is based?

The signature story is taken from my book Sacred Evil, which followed my autobiography Beloved Witch. In the book, I have stuck to encounters, nine of them that I have experienced or were related to me and I have investigated. The incident of Sacred Evil happened in Calcutta. It?s about a nun in a Catholic church. I got involved with it when the Mother Superior of the church called me to her office one day and said that she wanted me to treat one of her nuns who she felt was ?sick in the spirit?.

On exorcism, a part of nun Martha?s treatment?

Martha?s was a case of not only healing, but also exorcism. The Church also believes in exorcism but theirs is very different from the way I wished to treat her. In 1996, Mother Teresa was also exorcised under the order of the Archbishop, which only shows how the suppression of women continues to this day. I came to know of Mother Teresa?s exorcism as I was associated with it at a later stage. Exorcism as believed by the Church involves a lot of shouting and screaming, reprimanding the devil and instilling fear in the person for having committed a sin. In paganism, exorcism involves the removal of fear from the mind.

Sister Martha, the nun, believed that she was haunted by her own mother. She suffered from a tremendous sense of guilt; she did a few things that she would never be able to bear to think of in her conscious mind. I specialise in Jungian psychotherapy which believes that all of us have a shadow self that pulls us to the darker side and a conscious self that draws us to the light. I felt it was the shadow self which was troubling Martha. So, I had to reconcile the two aspects of her personality in her.

On Martha, the reclusive nun?

Sister Martha is alive and she lives in Calcutta. She must be around 60 years old and she has gone into total retreat. She doesn?t talk to anyone. I went to meet her when the film was being shot.

I told her about the film and she nodded and put her hand on mine. When I stepped out I saw tears rolling down her face. There?s some kind of a bond and trust between us. Confidentiality is a very big part of the healing.

On Sarika playing the wiccan in the film?

It was very brave of Sarika to take up the challenge of playing me. She stayed with me in my Delhi house and observed how I handle the implements ? the athame and crystal star ? and wear the black cape. She used the instruments very effectively and has brought the aura and mystery of wicca to the screen.

On the film sticking to her story?

This is the first time the true face of wicca has been shown in a film. It is also the first time that a genuine healing ritual has been shown with original equipment and handled by a non-wiccan (Sarika). We have changed the end to protect the identity of Sister Martha. But her character in the film has been true to life. As the creative director of the film, I saw to it that the authenticity of the story remained.

For the sake of the film, we had to bring in certain elements by fleshing out the incidents that I had recounted to the directors (Abiyaan and Abhigyan) from my memory and from what I had observed of Martha during my interactions.

SARIKASPEAK

You have been very selective about your films, ever since you returned to the big screen with Kal. What made you pick Sacred Evil?

It has always been like that? How projects come to you, you pick some, you don?t pick some. In Sacred Evil, I found the script very interesting, very close to the original story by Ipsita Ray Chakraverti. There are lots of good elements to it. It is not a horror, spooky film as such. It is a different tale, more psychological in character.

Do you actually believe what you read in the book?

I read the book much later. If you are asking me if I believe in ghosts and spirits, well I don?t. I do know there are different thoughts of belief on these matters but I really don?t believe in all this. But then again everything co-exists in the world around us and the book is based on true situations. So, we should all have our own set of beliefs.

Did you have sittings with Ipsita to get your wiccan moves right in what must have been a challenging role?

Before the shooting for Sacred Evil started, I met Ipsitaji just once in Mumbai. The second time I met her in Delhi for a day in her home. So, I met her all of two days. My intention was not to ape her but to capture her spirit, her personality and her aura. Being an actor, I did not want to resort to prosthetic support, rather get the personality right. I tried to understand why she always wears black, like a portrayal of her state of mind? calm and quiet.

Also, I didn?t have to do any major witchcraft in the film. All my scenes were basically very simple, about the person as a healer. So that is the aspect of Ipsitaji I have tried to infuse.

You shot at length in Calcutta for the film. How was the experience?

Brilliant! In fact, I feel the USP of the film is the location. Calcutta is the only city which still has a lot of old-world charm. There is a sense of intrigue and mystery. Of course, we would all like the city to be cleaner. But beyond all that, the little lanes and corners are so magical. Our French cameraman has captured all of it so beautifully.

And what about debutant director Abhigyan Jha?

See, I basically enjoy all my work experiences. It is not only about the director, even though he is important. For me, it is about relating to my character. From there on, it is a solo journey, very much between my character and me.

The kind of movies you have always done are now finding favour with smaller audiences at multiplexes. Does it bode well for the future of cinema?

It is very exciting, the kind of cinema that has emerged in the last couple of years. It may not work in the interiors of India but it is pop urban cinema. The concepts and thoughts are breaking new grounds. Movies like Being Cyrus and now Sacred Evil definitely fall in that category.

When will you be seen again on the big screen after the release of Sacred Evil?

You can never really say. Each film takes its own time to reach the theatres. The way I look at it is to move out from the film on the last day of the shooting. I have finished Parzania with Naseer long time back.


Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060501/asp/calcutta/story_6168753.asp