by Subhash K Jha

She's lovely. And she's in love with love. In her new film Banaras Urmila Matondkar plays Shwetambhari, a girl on a spiritual quest that takes her through a luminous labyrinth of love and discovery.

"I play this physics student whose father is a high-profile priest. When I read the script I was stuck by the strength of my character. But I got a full measure of my part only when I went to Banaras and saw what the city signified.

I'm always fascinated by roles that take me on a journey. Ironically there's no baggage of expectation from myself in this journey that I undertake as an actress. I plunged into Banaras with the same innocent curiosity of a traveler that took me through Pinjar or Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara."

Urmila, recovering at home from a viral infection, describes Banaras as a "simple straightforward love story. And since the setting is Banaras there's an element of mysticism about the whole experience. Going to Banaras was in itself a life-changing experience.

And I'm not just talking about the experience of standing in a city which is extraordinarily rich in religion, culture and spirituality. I'm also talking about being in the midst of people who are hardcore Hindi-film fans, not the kind who watch DVDSs but queue up in movie theatres on Fridays.

After a while the sheer spirituality of Banaras begins to sink into you. The city has people from all over the country...and when you visit you know why they like to come to this city. The place is a marvel of architecture and aestheticism.

And we got to shoot in places where no film has been shot, like the Kabir Samadhi, Sarnath....While shooting in Banaras I was completely oblivious to the rest of the world."

The character and the city have changed Urmila's perspective on life. "I realized I had to understand what the words meant. I had to undergo an aging process that took the character through the whole spectrum from the mundane to the profound.

I like the process of spiritual discovery which takes my character through doors that we don't generally walk into. It's a role that I couldn't approach from the outside. I had to enter my character's spritual world and then embrace her soul. I had to take my character to unimaginable heights of selfdiscovery. It was tough.

And though I had read my part carefully, when I started shooting I suddenly realized I knew nothing about my character ...Luckily my introduction scene in Mauritius which puts the plot into a perspective, was shot at the end. By then I had a firm grasp over my character."

Urmila knows the film's spirituality can be dismissed as fake. "We shall see about that soon. Speaking for myself, I haven't felt a single false note in Banaras. The dialogue writer Javed Siddiqui had gone to the city for a week to get a feel of the ambience. He stayed on for a month. The people making it weren't faking it.

In fact I'd say it takes tremendous courage to make a film that doesn't sell India's poverty to the world or go over-board with a fantasy treatment of Indian values. Banaras treats our religion and culture the way they are meant to be.

But if people want to see Banaras as a musical love story, they're most welcome. My co-star Ashmit Patel plays a music teacher."

She's gung-ho about the vast cast of Banaras. "It was like re-visiting my childhood. Nasseruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi (who's a dear friend) who played my parents in Masoom are in Banaras. So's Raj Babbbar who played my father in yet another childhood film Kalyug. He plays my father again. Dimple Kapadia and I had become close friends during Hum Tumpe Marte Hain.

We got a chance to spend time together. She's a wonderful humanbeing. Unfortunately Naseer-ji and I don't have too many scenes together. But the presence of an actor likes him reminds me that I didn't know anything when I worked with him years ago as a child. I still don't know much."

She's all praise for her director Pankaj Parasher. "I had seen his earlier films like Chalbaaz and Jalwa. When I met him I got to know he had done some documentaries on spiritual subjects. So he was already familiar with the theme.

Pankaj-ji gave me a book called An Autobiography Of A Yogi to read. At first I thought, 'Oh God!' But then I began reading....And suddenly the journey of the yogi became my journey. Pankaj-ji's sleek style of storytelling gave the spiritual theme a fresh approach."

She's thankful that Banaras didn't get into trouble with local radical elements, like Deepa Mehta's Water and Goldie Behl's Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai had done. "The credit for that goes to the producer Mr L.C. Singh who wrote the film.

I think he had all the answers to the questions that any radical element would've asked. He was able to showcase the entire mysticism of Varanasi in a sensitive and credible form. And I think people in the city understood our intentions. We never had one day's problem."

Urmila feels she has grown as an actress after Banaras. "It's very important to continue growing as a person. An actor could have the best bank balance in the world. But she shouldn't wake up one day to realize she hasn't got anywhere in life. Banaras has humbled me. It has made me recognize elements in life that are not discernible to the eye.

Even the language isn't about saying the words correctly. I think my command over the Hindi language is fairly good. But I had to go beyond an expression of words. My struggle was to get people interested in my character and the film within ten minutes, or not at all."

So is Banaras her best performance to date? "I'm very satisfied with what I've done. But unfortunately in this country good acting is synonymous with makeup-less looks and melodramatic emoting. In Banaras I've taken subtle acting to another level. I wasn't acting my character. I didn't want to look like a fake god-person. I was very nervous. I had to walk on really thin ice. I was nervous. But I think I finally managed to get it right."