By Radhika Bhirani, IANS,
New Delhi : She has played various roles in her three-decade-long career, but never a Muslim woman. Now Reema Lagoo has got a chance to do it in her yet-to-be-titled film and says she is excited about it.
“I’m playing a Muslim character for the first time in my career in a film being directed by Rahul Kapoor. The movie is based in Lucknow and Dubai. It is about a boy and his mother,” Reema, who is making her small screen comeback with NDTV Imagine’s “Do Hanson Ka Jodaa”, told IANS in an interview.
“The film shows how the son goes to Dubai, gets into wrong company and with what difficulty his mother brings him back. I’ve never played a Muslim character even in my theatre career. The entire get-up of my character is different; I had to wear Punjabi style salwar kurta and I even had to speak in Urdu,” she added.
According to the 51-year-old actress, the movie also features Aftab Shivdasani, Gauri Karnik and Rituparna Sengupta.
Asked if she had any difficulty in delivering dialogues in Urdu, Reema said: “As a theatre person, I am familiar with the language and I am quite fond of it as well. But I try improving myself because it’s nice to be extra-focussed towards playing a character you’ve never essayed before.
“I’ve never ever got a chance to play a Muslim in my theatre career also – so it’s been exciting.”
This apart, Reema, who gave memorable performances in films like “Maine Pyar Kiya”, “Hum Saath Saath Hain” and “Hum Aapke Hain Koun”, has also finished working on an untitled Hindi suspense-comedy, produced by a south-based company.
But right now she is busy with “Do Hanson Ka Jodaa”, which has brought her to TV after two years.
The show, by Sooraj Barjatya’s Rajshri Productions, is about a young girl who always dreams of marrying a hero-like man but ends up in wedlock with an ordinary looking, middle-class man.
How she struggles to adjust and gradually falls in love with him forms the rest of the story. Reema plays the girl’s mother in the show.
“I liked the subject of this serial. The content is meaningful, the look is simple, it’s not typical and the script is really good. My character Snehlata has been etched out very well. She suffers from severe illness, yet is so full of life,” said Reema, who is popular for comedy shows like “Shrimaan Shrimati” and “Tu Tu Main Main”.
During her two-year hiatus, Reema was involved with her first love – theatre.
“In all the years that I had been busy with TV and films, I got very isolated and really missed my live audiences. So in the last two years, I met my audience and had a dialogue with them. I always had a fascination for films, I am not so comfortable with TV yet, but I breathe theatre. So that’s what I have been doing,” she said.
Her current stage performance includes a one-woman play called “Tula Mi Mala Mi”, the Marathi adaptation of a play by Girish Karnad.