MOTHER TERESA & ME, India/Switzerland, 2022. Starring Banita Sandhu, Jacqueline Fritzie-Cornaz, Shobu Kapoor, Deepti Naval, Bryan Lawrence. Directed by Kamal Musale. 125 minutes. Rated M (Violent scenes)
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, now a canonised saint, was a significant 20th century figure in India in and, indeed, throughout the world. There have been many documentaries about her, including three feature films where she has been played by Geraldine Chaplin, Olivia Hussey and Juliet Stevenson. Now another film? But one with some significant differences.
It can be noted immediately that the film was fully funded by donation and by grants from foundations, especially the Zariya Foundation, established by the actress Fritschi-Cornaz and her husband. She was impressed on a visit to Calcutta many years earlier and they set up the foundation to help the Missionaries of Charity, and with the proceeds from the exhibition of this film. She asked the Switzerland-based Indian director Musale to both write and direct the film.
In fact, there are two films in one, so to speak. They are intercut with strong dramatic effect, with the two stories finally coming together.
The first story, of course, is that Mother Teresa herself. We see her as a Loreto sister, a migrant from Albania, teaching, but affected by the poor, especially in the streets of Calcutta in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She asks permission to work outside the convent school. When permission is eventually granted by the Archbishop of Calcutta, she begins her work with one of the local priests.
One interesting feature of this film is that it shows Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta and nothing of her fame. The focus is solely on her meeting the poor, the response, the questions, some hostility, being joined by a school pupil, more sisters joining, some government assistance, the building of the centre – and the realisation that whatever people think of Mother Teresa, for and against, she was actually there, with the poor, in the streets, for almost 50 years.
Fritschi-Cornaz plays Mother Teresa but not in a film star way at all. Her Mother Teresa is sometimes severe, certainly always determined, suffering anguish of soul and struggles with faith, and the reality of the Calcutta streets with these sequences filmed in black and white, gradually gaining colour tinting until 1991 when her story is in full colour.
Initially, audiences are left wondering about the second story. It is set in 2020s London where Kavita (Sandhu), a young woman of Indian background is a violinist. She is definite, outspoken, critical, reacting against her parents wanting to arrange a marriage for her, discovering that she is pregnant, her partner fearful and not helping. There is a lot of discussion about abortion and keeping children. So, contemporary audiences can resonate with the character and the issues. And all this is filmed in bright colour by contrast to the Calcutta black-and-white.
Kavita goes to India to stay with her aunt, discovering the work of the Missionaries of Charity, talking with a young volunteer. She gradually becomes involved, learning more about Mother Teresa until the end where there is the revelation of a connection.
So, this is not just another film about Mother Teresa, worthy though that enterprise could be. It is an invitation to a 21st-century audience to look back on her work, the commitment of the Missionaries of Charity, a discussion of issues of poverty, interfaith dialogue, pregnancy, birth, abortion . . .
And, by the end, we have a good focus on Mother Teresa and her main work, and with the performance by Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, images of her face, sometimes anguished, sometimes happy.
For screenings, see Heritage Films.