I had forgotten how seemingly easy it is for Rani Mukerji to cry on screen, but a couple of scenes of Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway—a film based on real events, directed by Ashima Chibber and produced by Zee Studios and Emmay Entertainment—did the trick. Here’s a first review of the film. Mild spoilers ahead.
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First review of Rani Mukerji’s ‘Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway’
Credit: Zee Studios, Emmay Entertainment
Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway narrates the story of a couple, and then, solely a woman whose children’s custody is taken away from her by the Norwegian Child Welfare Services, which claims the parents are unfit to raise their children. As per the foreign agency, the reasons are many—the couple is negligent, Mrs Chatterjee feeds the kids with her hands and she’s probably unfit to be a mother. And thus begins her ordeal.
The Chatterjees are assured that certain lifestyle changes aside, these are all cultural differences that a court would pay heed to. The father, Mr Chatterjee (Anirban Bhattacharya), who is not averse to bouts of anger, embarrassment (the cause of which is almost always his wife) and violence, decides early on that securing his citizenship is far more important. When he is not deriding his wife for, well, being herself or claiming how all of it wasn’t his fault and would affect his career, his life, his citizenship, he is assuring her the kids would return once, surprise, surprise, his citizenship is secured.
The cast of ‘Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway’
Credit: Zee Studios, Emmay Entertainment
Rani Mukerji plays an impatient, often hysterical and anxious mother in a foreign land where her children are deceptively taken from her. There come several moments in Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway when you feel that if only the protagonist, the mother, would comply with the rules and listen to the officials, things would probably go in her favour.
But then, one cannot overlook the many systemic issues, the racist undertones (and overtones) of a foreign country she isn’t acquainted with and you know almost immediately that she probably couldn’t win on her own.
Credit: Zee Studios, Emmay Entertainment
Jim Sarbh and Balaji Gauri are fantastic in their roles. In an ‘adopted vs biological child’ argument where I thought the former would just play to majoritarian sensibilities, Sarbh’s character’s contradictions are worth noting.
As for Balaji Gauri, the Hindi film industry needs more of her and preferably right now. There are some editing glitches when one scene jumps to the other without a moment’s notice and perhaps that could have made the narration better.
Rani Mukerji’s new film highlights gender roles and more
Credit: Zee Studios, Emmay Entertainment
The movie, co-written by Ashima Chibber, Rahul Handa and Samir Satija, also does a good job of highlighting the twisted gender roles in an Indian household; when the child welfare officials confront Mr Chatterjee about not helping his wife with household chores, he is flabbergasted, not because of what was asserted but that it came out in the open. “You have just one job,” he tells his wife with immense entitlement because, of course, in an average Indian household, raising kids and running a house are all for the woman.
Without giving away too much, I would just say that he presents the worst kind of man. More than once, I felt like shaking him up (and on occasion, a punch would qualify too), so it’s safe to say that Anirban Bhattacharya didn’t come to play as the toxic husband. He delivered.
Credit: Zee Studios, Emmay Entertainment
The movie is an example of the cliche we, as a society, love to use ever so often, that of deeming the woman “mad” and “unstable” when she goes after what she wants. It also lays bare the so-called first-world countries’ order of things and how they perceive us, and we let them. At one point Rani Mukerji’s character argues why Norwegians eating bread with their hands isn’t a problem but her feeding her kids using her hands is. In many ways, it exposes the elitism, or perhaps the need for validation, that has entrenched us so deeply that it’s impossible to go back.
The real story behind ‘Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway’
Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway is based on real-life events that transpired in Norway in 201o when the country’s social services took away the custody of Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya’s children. At one point, the case needed intervention from the Government of India and politicians like Sushma Swaraj and Brinda Karat for the kids to be reunited with their mother.
The film is slated to release in theatres on March 17.
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