Interview: Director Sarah Gavron, Lead Actress Tannishtha Chatterjee Travel Down ‘Brick Lane’

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CHICAGO – The new film “Brick Lane,” which is adapted from the novel of the same name, is a challenging and intuitive film about the emerging of a traditional woman who’s forced to live in a foreign land and her transition from servant to master.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

HollywoodChicago.com recently interviewed “Brick Lane” director Sarah Gavron and “Brick Lane” lead actress Tannishtha Chatterjee.

These two incredibly insightful women talked about the essence in creating this amazing female lead, their reactions in working with that character and an overall perspective on the Muslim experience in London.

“Brick Lane” director Sarah Gavron (left) and “Brick Lane” lead actress Tannishtha Chatterjee (right) in Chicago. Photo credit: Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com on June 11, 2008

“Brick Lane” focuses on the character of Nazneen: a Bangladeshi Muslim whose mother commits suicide at an early age. Backed into a corner, her father sells her in marriage to a older, sedate man. He immediately moves her to London in the immigrant neighborhood of Brick Lane. There she has to understand her role in life and slowly unravel the person within her.

“What is unusual about the character of Nazneen [is that] she didn’t come to England to lose her past identity,” said “Brick Lane” director Sarah Gavron. “She doesn’t cut her hair short or don western clothes and just assimilate. What she does is find a way to integrate the past and the present. She can be the person she needs to be.”

Tannishtha Chatterjee, who played Nazneen, recalled how she met similar women while preparing for the role: “I met a couple people who were Nanzeen. The fear of the unknown was so dominant in their lives that they would never go out of their apartments. They had no communication with the outside world. They couldn’t even communicate with the people back home.”

Tannishtha Chatterjee (left) as Nazneen and Christopher Simpson (right) as Karim in “Brick Lane”. Photo credit: Chris Raphael, copyright Seven Seas Productions, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Nazneen’s world slowly comes into focus. She has two children and her husband, Chanu (Satish Kauskik), evolves into a boorish, know-it-all man. She takes in some sewing, which also involves a delivery man named Karim.

“In a way, what I liked about the husband character (Chanu) [is that] he’s not the stereotypic violent man we’ve seen before,” Gavron said. “In one way, he is didactic and pompous. On the other hand, he reveals himself to be wise and vulnerable.”

Gavron also speaks of the other male: “Karim is about the younger generation – which is emerging – who we really haven’t had a chance to interpret [since Sept. 11, 2001]. These confident, young men were the target of racist attacks (particularly on Brick Lane).

She added: “They were low down on the British pecking order. They organized politically and made inroads, but after Sept. 11, 2001, they unfortunately became a target again.”

“Brick Lane” lead actress Tannishtha Chatterjee in Chicago on June 11, 2008. Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

Nazneen begins an affair with Karim, and within the flow of sexuality, learns to release her inner longings. Gavron added: “It is taboo and she is breaking a lot of barriers. I wanted to convey how significant a shift it was for her. The sexual awakening was a catalyst for Nazneen’s change.”

When Sept. 11, 2001 occurs, Brick Lane is a target for scapegoating the Muslim immigrants who live there. It is then that Nazneen sees clearly the distinction between her husband and Karim and makes a decision that impacts both her and her daughters.

“When I read the script and the novel, what appealed to me is that it was not a story that was centered around Sept. 11, 2001,” Chatterjee related. “It was a personal journey about human beings, their relationships and the complexities of those relationships. How Sept. 11, 2001 affected their lives simply affected them differently much as it affected all of us.”

“Ironically, Nazneen’s husband becomes a tragic, liberal hero of the film after Sept. 11, 2001,” Gavron said. “It is his speech after the tragedy that becomes an opposing voice to the younger, more radical Muslim generation.”

RELATED IMAGE GALLERY View our full, high-resolution “Brick Lane” image gallery. RELATED READING More film reviews from critic Patrick McDonald.

It was important to Gavron to create a character from the neighborhood of Brick Lane to give a sense of empathy for the lives within.

Gavron described it with these words: “It’s such an interesting neighborhood. I often went there growing up because it is really, really vibrant. It’s a melting pot of different things. For example, a church that is now a mosque was once a synagogue and before that a Christian church.”

“There is something about the history of the area that you feel as you walk down the street,” Gavron concluded. “It is not about the bricks and mortar. It’s about a place where people quested for home.”

By PATRICK McDONALD Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com