Reema Lagoo's Daughter, Mrunmayee Turns Theatre Director

Mrunmayee Lagoo

Reema Lagoo

Reema Lagoo's daughter, Mrunmayee Lagoo has turned theatre director with Jake's Women. She talks to Aastha Atray Banan about what makes her tick and how she was hardly a tough taskmaster as director "I love a feel-good film. If it has a happy ending, I'm hooked," gushes Mrunmayee Lagoo, 24, who has made a successful transition from actor to director with Jake's Women. She has the genes to prove her metal. Daughter to Bollywood's favourite mother Reema Lagoo, and screenplay writer Vivek Lagoo, Mrunmayee is confident of her natural talent. After acting in Marathi movies for two years, and spending a year on the English theatre circuit, she knew she had to strike. And when she read Neil Simon's Jake's Women, it was clear — this was going to be her baby.

"I can't shout at all"

"It's a simple play. People in Mumbai will relate to it. Though it's set in New York, it's about people and their emotions, and what better place to set it in, than Mumbai," she says straightening the crease on her ethnic blue skirt. Mrunmayee says her decision to become an actor, and then director, had nothing o do with decisions. "It just happened. I had done a BMM from KC College, and interned at an advertising agency. But my heart was never there. I am happy only when I am acting or directing," she shrugs.Jake's Women stars Hidayat Sami, and is about a man's relationships with the five women in his life. Apart from Sami, the cast includes Ratnabalee Bhattachargee, Tahira Nath, Shivani Tanksale, Prerna Chawla, Dilshad Edibam and Shruti Vyas.Did Mrunmayee find it hard to lay down the law as director? At this point, she throws back her head and laughs. "You know what, I couldn't get myself to shout at all. They are all senior actors, and so good. They know their job. So, I sat with all of them individually, and told them how I saw each character, and they just took it from there. I gave them a free hand," she smiles.

Cinema VS theatre

Ask her about her goal, and she dishes a shy smile. "Making a movie, of course. But I don't know if that will happen." A pukka film buff, she watches every Bollywood film, good or bad, world cinema, and Hollywood hits, barring the gory ones. "I love the medium of cinema. The visuals, music, colours — they are enchanting. Even while I was directing Jake's Women, I was thinking of each scene as a frame in a movie, and then wondering how I'd translate it for the stage." Will she cast her mother in the movie she makes? "I would love to," she says, smiling mischievously, "But I am way too nervous."

Source: mid-day

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