Mother Teresa, who attained sainthood for her work for the downtrodden and the marginalized sections of the city, is the subject of a film, where the lead character takes inspiration to find real love and empathy.
Set in contemporary times, Mother Teresa & Me shows two women, Teresa and Kavita, whose lives are interwoven in two parallel stories across generations. Swiss-India writer and filmmaker Kamal Musale, said the topic of Mother Teresa was proposed to him by Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, who is playing her character.
“That is how I got involved with the project. Mother’s loss of faith made her a lot more interesting character than the iconic superhero image that is portrayed. When you see people like Mother in more human way, then you start realising her troubles, her loss of faith and the feeling of being abandoned.
You get inspired by thinking that despite all her troubles she continued,” said Musale. The Indo-Swiss filmmaker, who has been making trips to the city since 1984, said the city has changed a lot. “It is not a city for filmmakers from outside because of the unions.
They make it very difficult for producers from outside to shoot,” said the writer-director. That is the reason why he only shot only the exteriors of the film in Kolkata. “May be 10 per cent of the film is shot in Kolkata, the rest I shot in the studios in Mumbai,” he added.
Essaying the role of Mother Teresa, Jacqueline FritschiCornaz said she did not keep in mind Mother’s sainthood as “I was diving into the character of a living person. And she attained sainthood after her death. I’m privileged and honoured to play Teresa. Her journey is very inspiring.
I learnt a lot about her personality, character and accent and the human behind the saint.” The Swiss actress was also fascinated to be in the city of joy. “It was incredible to be in the city of joy. I was thrilled to hear from the people who knew her well that they are seeing the Mother again through the film,” she added.