✍️By Special Correspondent
“Mother Teresa & Me” is a powerful story of three extraordinary women whose lives are intertwined by hope, compassion, and love. The starcast Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, Deepti Naval, Debashree Chakraborty and Director Kamal Musale visited Kolkata to launch their trailer on 20th April at The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata.
This film tells the story of Mother Teresa’s early years in India (from the mid-1940s), as shown was trying to help the poor, sick, and dying. It also tells the story of Kavita, a British young girl of Indian origin who travels today to India in search of answers to some major questions.The film will be released in English and Hindi and will be seen in cinemas only. The Swiss/Indian Kamal Musale, known for films such as “Curry Western” and “Millions Can Walk”, has directed this intriguing story of entwined destinies.
Speaking about the cast, Banita Sandhu is a British actress of Punjabi descent who began her career at 11 years old. She received critical acclaim for her debut in Shoojit Sircar’s October (2018) and returned to university to complete her degree.Talking about her character ‘Kavita’ she said “We are very similar in many ways. She is a young girl still figuring out her life and identity. Trying to process and work through her relationships and her relationship with herself. However, our reactions to these things are very different, which is what drew me to her. She can get quite agitated, which I found difficult to relate to at first. We put in a lot of effort in rehearsals.”
Playing Mother Teresa, Jacqueline Fitschi-Cornaz, an actress with over 30 years of experience, started the idea of this movie. She co produced it with Kamal Musale, Richard Fritschi and Thierry Cagianut. It is particular in the sense that this film was financed only with donations, and all profit will go to poor children, providing healthcare and education.
Known to play powerful and heart-touching characters in most of her films, Deepti Naval is an American Indian actress who debuted in 1980 with Ek Baar Phir, for which she won her first Best Actor award, and has since appeared in over 90 films, the most recent of which was the acclaimed Oscar-nominated Lion. Deepti’s major contribution has been in the field of art cinema, where she has received critical acclaim for her sensitive and real-life characters that highlight the changing role of women in India.
Kamal Musale, a Swiss-Indian filmmaker, has made films since 12. After graduating in film direction and scriptwriting from the National Film and Television School in England, the filmmaker went on to create over 30 films, including features, documentaries, and art movies, which have been shown at prestigious festivals such as Cannes (The Three Soldiers) and Locarno (Aline, Raclette Curry), and have won numerous awards. He lives in India, Switzerland and the U.K.
Helmed & written by Kamal Musale. Produced under the banner of Curry Western Movies (Pvt Ltd), Les Films du Lotus (Sàrl) & Kavita Teresa Film (Ltd). Starring Banita Sandhu, Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz & Deepti Naval are there in prominent roles.
Apart from that, Vikram Kochhar, Bryan Lawrence, Heer Kaur, Kevin Mains, Lina Baishya, Shobu Kapoor, Mahi Ali Khan, Faith Knight and Jack Gordon are there in pivotal roles.The film’s heads are all female: Keiko Nakahara the DOP, Rekha Musale the Production Designer, and Nupoor Kajbaje Battin the Line Producer. The music score was composed by Peter Scherer, Annick Roddy, Walter Mair & Laurence Crevoisier. Cinepolis and PEN Marudhar are going to release the film across India.”Mother Teresa & Me” will hit the screens on 5th May 2023.